Historically, Ohio State has struggled against Pennsylvania State leading up to the Urban Meyer/ Ryan Day regimes in Columbus. While Ohio State leads the all-time series 25-14, there have been numerous loses by the Buckeyes in games very similar to this years game. In several games, 1978 #5 PSU beats #6 Ohio State 19-0 and 18 years later, #1 PSU destroyed John Cooper’s #21 rank Ohio State 63-14 with a team with NFL talent throughout the roster. Joey Galloway, Terry Glenn, Eddie George, Bobby Hoying, Orlando Pace, Korey Stringer, Mike Vrabel and Shawn Springs were all on a team that as typical John Cooper teams, could not get it down in the big games.
Fast forward to 2024, a top-five match-up in Happy Valley and while Ohio State has dominated the last 12 years with only the single loss that Fox was so gracious to highlight during this game. This year’s Buckeyes are a team with high expectations, coming off a one-point controversial loss to the #1 team in the nation and then a less-than-stellar performance versus Nebraska and coming to a tough stadium to play. A record 111,030 in the crowd and the Buckeyes came in and played probably their best game of the season. Something that is safe to say, was not necessarily expected considering the poor offensive line play and the defensive play-calling being subpar, to say the least. Despite the last few weeks, the Buckeyes came out and dominated the #3 team in the country by a score of 20-13.
In all reality, the score is not as close as it appeared for someone just looking at a box score. Will Howard, playing with a chip on his shoulder, came out early and may have been a bit too hyped up to go against his home-state team that overlooked him. Howard threw a pick-six in the first quarter which accounted for the only touchdown of the day for PSU. Then towards the end of the midway point of the 2nd quarter, while running towards the endzone, he fumbled the ball off his leg and out of the end zone for a touchback for PSU. In reality, this could have easily been a 21-point victory or more if those two things had not happened.
Once the adrenaline settled down, Howard showed just how big of an addition he could be for this offense. He finished 16/24 for 182 yards through the air with two touchdowns and the pick. He also added 12 carries for 24 yards and the game-sealing first down run on third down and PSU with no timeouts to end the game.
Speaking of running the ball, there was a much improved offensive line play that leaned on the PSU defensive front seven on the final drive to secure the win as the Woody Hayes style running cemented the victory. Donovan Jackson moved from left guard to left tackle and last year’s starting center, Carson Hinzman, got the start at left guard. Those two were key, especially on the final drive as Quinshon Judkins, TreVeyon Henderson and Howard used the push the line was getting to open up gaps and allow these guys to get big gains on first and second down. The performance of that unit was an answer to a lot of questions from the media over the last week.
Against Nebraska, the Buckeye offense ran for a total of 64 yards on 31 carries, an average of 2.1 yards per carry. They also gave up two sacks and seven tackles for loss by the Cornhuskers. Despite three sacks given up early, the line gelled and gave the Buckeyes the unit they expected. Judkins, Henderson, Howard and Emeka Egbuka ran for 179 yards on 38 attempts. An average of 4.7 yards a carry. This line is coming together at the right time and Ryan Day is going to have to lean on that line if the Buckeyes want to achieve the ultimate goal.
Then there is the defense and while last week versus Nebraska there was an improvement from the Oregon game, Jim Knowles’ play-calling came into question. I, personally, like Knowles and the attitude he brings to the defense. Despite the last five big games Ohio State has lost to the team up north, Georgia, and Oregon, this game was everything we were hoping to see from a Knowles defense. It still is irritating to see the corners playing 5-10 yards off the receivers and the zone coverage getting beat, but as this game progressed, we saw a different attitude from the defense that changed the complexion of the game.
They held PSU to six offensive points and intercepted Ohio native Drew Allar in the end zone to kill a drive for PSU. Allar finished with just 146 passing and the leading rusher for the home team only had 47 yards and that was the tight end. The defense all came up huge with a monster goal line stand on PSU’s last possession of the game by stuffing three run plays and forcing Allar to throw an incomplete pass out of the back of the end zone on fourth down to cap the best defensive performance we’ve seen in a big game in quite a while.
The scoring summary for the Buckeyes started with an Emeka Egbuka 25-yard touchdown reception from Howard after Ohio State fell into a 10-0 deficit. The only score of the second quarter gave Ohio State the lead for good when Howard hooked up with Brandon Inniss for 21 yards. It was all field goals in the second half as Jayden Fielding connected on two field goals and the PSU kicker Ryan Barker hit on his second of the game in the third quarter.
Buckeyes get the Big Noon Kickoff next week as Purdue comes to Columbus the Buckeyes have a chance to sharpen the blades with the Boilermakers and a road match on the banks of Lake Michigan against Northwestern before current undefeated Indiana comes to the Shoe and then The Game against that team up north to close out the regular season.
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