The #3 Buckeyes traveled to State College, PA for an unorthodox matchup against their old foe, the #18 Penn State Nittany Lions, on Saturday night. On what would’ve been an incredible sight on a whiteout night in Happy Valley on Halloween, Beaver Stadium was at 1% capacity as the teams battled. As we do every week, let’s recap what happened in Ohio State’s 38-25 victory.
This marquee matchup would have held quite a lot more weight had both teams come into the night at 1-0. Ohio State did, but Penn State was upset by the Indiana last week in Bloomington despite outplaying the Hoosiers all game long. So, 1-0 met 0-1 at Beaver Stadium. And the teams played as reflections of their records. The Buckeyes came out absolutely scorching hot, as on the opening play of the game, WR Garrett Wilson took an end around 62 yards down the near sideline, and just two plays later, RB Master Teague III ran in a touchdown from 4 yards out. The Silver Bullets continued to set the tone as they forced a turnover on downs by the Penn State offense on a questionable decision to go for it on 4th down on their own side of the 50 by Nittany Lions HC James Franklin. Ohio State QB Justin Fields took advantage of the short field with a 5-play drive capped by an absolutely beautiful throw and catch by WR Chris Olave for a 26-yard touchdown. Olave, who was cleared to play earlier this week after leaving last week’s game early, made his presence felt all night long, and it started with that touchdown, completely mossing the Penn State DB.
The Nittany Lions would tack on a field goal on their next possession to cut the deficit to 11. The Bucks took the next possession all the way down once again, but thanks to an endzone drop by Garrett Wilson, they had to settle for a field goal attempt, which was no good. It would have been a tough catch for the true sophomore, but it resulted in Fields’ first incompletion of the night and just his second of the season. That was it for scoring until late in the 2nd quarter, as Ohio State drove downfield on a very impressive 15-play, 89 yard drive which was ended by a Fields touchdown throw to TE Jeremy Ruckert. Multiple times this season, the Buckeyes offense has shown its ability to go on long, efficient drives on offense. It’s a testament to a fantastic balance in running and passing talent, as well as great offensive line play.
The first half ended in an…. interesting way. Trying to run out the clock with just 2 seconds left in the half, Fields took a knee and both teams went into the locker room. However, the referees decided to take another look at the play, and they decided that there was 1 second left when Fields actually took the knee. It was a very odd circumstance, and it allowed a field goal attempt for Penn State with the last touch of the ball before the break. Naturally, they made it, and the new halftime score was 21-6.
Apparently, the end of half gaffe (try saying that 5 times fast) gave Penn State the momentum they needed, as they took the opening possession of the second half all the way down the field for a touchdown to make it a one score game. Fields would respond in a huge way, as he always does. On the eighth play of the subsequent drive, Fields unloaded a perfect pass down the near sideline to Chris Olave, who made an equally-incredible fingertip catch and rolled into the endzone for a huge 49-yard touchdown. That was an early dagger in the hearts of the Nittany Lions, who hung around for a while, but were never truly back in the game.
Penn State would be the next team to reach the endzone on a drive that featured some pretty impressive plays, both of which coming from WR Jahan Dotson. Dotson came down with a pseudo-helmet catch to convert a 3rd and 17, and on the next play, made an incredible back-handed, one-handed catch and took it in for a 21-yard score. They were some very nice plays from a promising young receiver who has high expectations in State College. The Bucks would respond with another long touchdown drive of their own, this one being 12 plays and 75 yards. The drive ended on a 4th and goal touchdown pass from Fields to Ruckert once again from the 1-yard line to ice the game for good. The Nittany Lions would reach the endzone again thanks to some poor play by Buckeye DBs, and after an icing-on-the-cake interception by sophomore safety Marcus Hooker, the game was over.
The game looked easy at times for Ohio State and many areas that were weak against Nebraska last week looked much improved, but there were definitely a lot of concerns as well. The biggest one was special teams, as two different kickers missed chipshot field goals from 20 and 23 yards out, respectively. Moreover, punter Drue Chrisman, one of the best punters in football, didn’t have his best game in limited action tonight. The only other big concern was the way that the defense played late. I understand that getting complacent is natural when you’re up big late in a game, but several DBs, including the star of the secondary CB Shaun Wade, were getting burnt by Penn State receivers left and right, leading to unnecessary points being given up. They did get the aforementioned interception late, but that was after the fact. It’s something that needs to be tightened up against better teams, and I have no doubt that it will be. It was just uncharacteristic of a spectacular unit that typically excels for all 60 minutes on Saturdays.
The team looked spectacular in every other facet. The defensive line was dominating all night long, winning every battle in the trenches while making life hell for Penn State QB Sean Clifford and the Nittany Lion running backs. The offense ran like a well-oiled machine all night long, highlighted once again by the amazing play of Justin Fields. The QB finished the night with 318 yards and 4 touchdowns on 28/34 passing. It was more than 1 incompletion like last week, but nobody is complaining. The Bucks’ star WR duo shined once again, with Chris Olave catching 7 passes for 120 yards and 2 awesome touchdown grabs, and with Garrett Wilson snagging 11 catches for 111 yards. Wilson also added the aforementioned 62 yards on the ground to get the game started with a bang. The Ohio State run game, which struggled against the Cornhuskers, was on fire on Saturday night 208 yards. Lead back Master Teague III racked up 110 yards and a touchdown on 23 carries. The offense thankfully didn’t need to rely on Fields as a runner, allowing for the game to be opened up, and for Justin to pick apart the defense with his arm. It was everything we wanted to see from one of the most talented offensive units in America.
This was likely the toughest challenge (on paper) that the Buckeyes will face this regular season, and they passed the test quite handily. The win pushes them to 2-0 and firmly in the driver’s seat in the Big Ten East. They’ll stay home next Saturday as the Scarlet Knights of Rutgers come into town. It’s a game that should and will be very ugly for Rutgers, as they are one of the worst programs in the Power 5, and Ohio State is a top 3 team in the country. However, Rutgers has not had a bad start to the season. The return of HC Greg Schiano has seemingly fired them up, and they are off to a 1-1 start. That’s more than Penn State can say about themselves. As always, I’ll be here giving you a quick recap after that game goes final from Columbus.
All stats taken from ESPN. Cover photo taken from Ohio State Athletics.
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