Ohio State (7-0, 3-0) had a lot to play for against Penn State after largely sleepwalking through the five previous opponents not named Virginia Tech. The Nittany Lions took the Buckeyes to two overtimes a year ago in Happy Valley. There was a plethora of NFL scouts in attendance. They even had spiffy new black duds to show off.
Meanwhile, Penn State had a respectable 5-1 record, 2-0 in Big Ten play, and looked to have made great strides since that early loss to Temple. The Nitts may even have had a bit of swagger where Ohio State is concerned, considering they felt hard done by the Vonn Bell interception last year and took the eventual national champs to double overtime.
Would the Buckeyes build on last week’s win over Maryland with another week devoted to playing both quarterbacks? Could Ohio State avoid the critical mistakes that got Penn State back into last year’s game? Would the defense continue to plague Christian Hackenberg? Could Ohio State run on that stout PSU front seven?
Not really, sort of, yes, and yes. The Buckeyes started very slowly and never got their passing game going at all, eventually leaving Cardale Jones on the bench, even outside the red zone. Ohio State avoided turnovers but gave up big plays on defense and again took too many undisciplined 15-yard penalties. The defense sacked Hackenberg five times and forced him to fumble, holding him to 7/13 for 120 yards and a touchdown. Ohio State was stuffed a few times and suffered some tackles for loss, but still ran for 315 yards.
Here are your talking points from last night’s 38-10 blackout win over Penn State:
WATER COOLER PREP (EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW…IN ONE PARAGRAPH)
Jones struggled to move the offense and connect in the passing game, giving way to J.T. Barrett full time eventually. Penn State opened the scoring with a field goal and the Buckeyes couldn’t get things going until the second quarter, scoring 21 points. The Nitts hit a big pass play and scored to open the second half before the Buckeyes took control. Barrett was 4/4 for 30 yards and two touchdowns and ran for 102 yards and two more scores. Zeke went over 100 again (153), scoring once. The defense struggled to stop Saquon Barkley, who ran 26 times for 194 yards (7.5 YPA), possibly due to Josh Perry leaving the game with an ankle injury.
GIVE THAT MAN A BUCKEYE LEAF (PLAYER OF THE GAME)
While Barrett would be a good choice here, I’m going with punter Cameron Johnston. With Ohio State’s offense struggling and its defense playing well early, the Aussie kept Penn State pinned deep in its own territory by dropping four of his five punts inside the 20—most of those inside the 10. He also clobbered one for 56 yards. His average of 41.6 doesn’t look spectacular until you consider where he punted from. He kicked from the OSU 47, the Penn State 34 (yes, seriously), the Penn State 44 and the PSU 43. These were downed at the 8, 2, 8 and 4, respectively. Heck of a night for Cam.
DID YOU SEE THAT?! (PLAY OF THE GAME)
Early in the second quarter, with Ohio State winning 7-3, the Buckeyes got Braxton Miller and Barrett involved at the quarterback position and earned a first-and-goal at the 10. On the next play, Barrett handed to Elliott up the middle. Zeke took contact from the first defender and bounced right, slipped a tackle two yards in the backfield, cut to make another man miss at the boundary, and ran through two tackles to the end zone. The play put the Buckeyes up two scores and featured a key block by Jalin Marshall out on the edge, eliminating backside pursuit.
ICYMI: How impressive was this Ezekiel Elliott 10-yard @OhioStAthletics TD run? http://t.co/3HRmVSzXgs
— Big Ten Network (@BigTenNetwork) October 18, 2015
SLOBBER KNOCKER OF THE GAME
Barkley set Penn State up in the red zone with a 56-yard run early in the fourth quarter. With the Nittany Lions trailing by two touchdowns, they faced a third-and-2 from the OSU 13. Barkley got the ball again and was met hard by Joey Bosa, who powered through the right tackle and guard and knocked the PSU running back backward for the first time all night. It looked something like a Dikembe Mutombo rejection, only without the finger wag afterward. Tommy Schutt sacked Hackenberg on the next play to end the Penn State possession.
TALK IN THE AFTERMATH
The blackout was a hit (even to an old get-off-my-lawn type like me):
The blacked out Shoe was one of the cooler OSU-related things I've seen. Bravo kids.
— Buckeye Ninja (@TheBuckeyeNinja) October 18, 2015
Obviously much of the talk swirled around the quarterbacks:
It's no longer a case where "It doesn't matter who plays QB for Ohio State." It does. This Bucks team can't go undefeated with Cardale Jones
— Chris Fedor (@ChrisFedor) October 18, 2015
The more rational Penn State fans kept their perspective:
still pretty happy about not losing like michigan lost
— Matt d (@PSUMatt2005) October 18, 2015
And this is presented without further comment:
Warinner: "We'll make some assessments...but I don't anticipate there to be any changes...there was a reason Cardale was starting."
— Eric Seger (@EricSeger33) October 18, 2015
JIM TRESSEL'S LEAST FAVORITE MOMENT OF THE GAME
Sometimes Jim Tressel just enjoys studying the periodic table of elements. The man just thirsts for knowledge in all disciplines. You never know when it will come in handy to know the atomic weight of cobalt (it’s 58.933, but Tressel already knew this). With the game on the big screen, Tressel poured over the table, committing a number of interesting facts to memory. He was trying out a mnemonic device to help him remember the atomic number for tellurium (52) when Christian Hackenberg airmailed a sideline pass intended for DaeSean Hamilton, bringing up a third-and-10. When the referee announced a 15-yard unsportsmanlike conduct penalty on Vonn Bell, giving the Nitts a first down, Tressel tore the periodic table to shreds and completely forgot all about tellurium.
WHEN YOU SANK INTO YOUR CHAIR (THE MOMENT BUCKEYE FOOTBALL DISGRACED YOUR FAMILY)
Ohio State seemed completely in control at the half, after a rough first quarter. Penn State started the third quarter with the ball on its own 22. On the first play of the half, Hackenberg floated a pass downfield to Chris Godwin, who was well covered by Eli Apple. But, despite being in great position and getting a hand on the ball, Godwin caught the pass anyway for a gain of 56 yards. It was the exact wrong way to step on their throats, and Penn State scored a touchdown two plays later to get back into the game.
WHAT YOU TEXTED YOUR FRIEND AT THE END OF EACH QUARTER
First: “We are hot garbage in the first quarter.”
Second: “They looked like the Buckeyes that quarter.”
Third: “Man, I don’t know. This team is so inconsistent.”
Fourth: “J.T.’s team now, right? Or nah?”
IT WAS OVER WHEN
When J.T. Barrett hit Braxton Miller with a jump pass from five yards out, the Buckeyes went ahead 31-10 with 6:25 to play and effectively put the Nitts away. Urban Meyer said after the game they’ve been waiting a long time to run that play, which he made famous at Florida with Tim Tebow throwing it. The players obviously enjoyed it, as you could see Miller’s smile through his face mask just after the grab. Penn State was never coming back from three touchdowns down with less than half a quarter to play.
Next up is a Saturday night tilt at Rutgers on Oct. 24. The Scarlet Knights (3-3, 1-2) rode a 22-0 fourth quarter to come from behind and beat Indiana, 55-52 in Bloomington yesterday. The Knights were down 25 at one point and kicked the game-winning field goal on the final play from 26 yards out. Rutgers usually plays tougher at home and this is a night game in Piscataway. But will Cardale really start for Ohio State? We’ll see.
