Ohio State starting left guard Billy Price was having deja vu Saturday night.
With a first-person view of his team running for 315 yards against the vaunted Penn State defense, it was kind of hard not to.
“There was a great amount of energy that came back,” Price said Monday. “You kind of saw where we picked up last year, see the explosive run plays. Then you get the crowd behind you and a lot of energy in the stadium.
“It was just flashbacks to old times.”
Buckeyes running back Ezekiel Elliott and quarterback J.T. Barrett combined to run for 255 of those 315 yards with three rushing touchdowns as the tandem carved up the Nittany Lions' defense with a bevy of running plays, in particular the zone-read.
It was Price and the rest of the offensive line, though, that created those running lanes. Tight ends Nick Vannett and Marcus Baugh also played a key part in the success of the ground game.
“Offensive line was — they were really the player of the game,” head coach Urban Meyer said Monday. “They did an excellent job. ... Two tight ends again. Marcus Baugh played very well. Nick Vannett played well also.”
It was a game in which Ohio State sort of got back to its old ways. The Buckeyes didn’t seem to run laterally as much, but instead ran right at the Penn State defense and used some deception with it.
“When we started going north and south and getting the good double-teams that our guys do and all those things,” tight ends coach Tim Hinton said. “It just — they gained confidence and all of a sudden you could see right toward the end of the first quarter, beginning of the second quarter, uh-oh, the fire got lit and here we go.”
The best word used to describe the play of Ohio State’s offensive line through the first seven games of the season might be inconsistent. Up front, at times, the Buckeyes have looked like the group many thought they’d be at the beginning of the season.
There have been other instances, though, where Ohio State has struggled to block its opponent and it’s one of the big reasons why things haven’t always gone swimmingly for a team which was widely-thought to be the best in the country prior to the season.
On Saturday night against Penn State, however, that wasn’t the case. The Buckeyes looked the part up front and got back to their old ways.
It’s just one performance, of course, but it’s one against a more-than-formidable defense. If Ohio State is able to build from this performance by its offensive line, the Buckeyes could very well return to their old offensive ways.
“There’s always going to be a ton of questions and everything, especially when people are gaging us off those last three games. I think we are further along than where we were [last year],” left tackle Taylor Decker said. “I think there’s more chemistry [on the offensive line] because we’ve had a continuity of guys at the same positions, but I think we’re in a good position right now going into the last stretch of our season.”
