Ohio State’s predictable victory over Penn State on ‘Crossroads’ sets up a crucial step

The largest crowd in Beaver Stadium history had seen enough before all hope was extinguished. Rivers of white shirts flowed towards the exits as the vast majority of the 111,030 fans felt the familiar sting of scarlet gray defeat. The Ohio State Buckeyes hit the ball downfield, ran out the clock and did what they always do. do against the Penn State Nittany Lions.

Win.

The state of Ohio 20–13 win Saturday marked the eighth straight win in this non-rivalry, and the twelfth victory in the last thirteen meetings. The games play out differently from year to year, but the end result is numbing similarity. Penn State is good — maybe still College Football Playoff-level good — but never good enough to beat the Buckeyes.

This winding, turbulent race revolved for the last time over a piece of grass 300 cm wide. The three yards that separated the Nittany Lions offense from the end zone late in the fourth quarter could not be exceeded. The Buckeyes’ defense stood firm, their goal-line stand buoyed by another staple of this series: suspect play-calling from James Franklin’s Nittany Lions.

With a first-and-goal on the 3-yard line, trailing by seven, Penn State threw running back Kaytron Allen back to the middle of the line three straight times, the last two with 348-pound guard Olaivavega Ioane got moving and tried to pound back the Ohio State line. Allen gained two yards on those three runs, leaving a fourth-and-goal at the 1.

Penn State finally tried Plan B at that point. They moved Ioane again after splitting wide, but called a play-action pass in which quarterback Drew Allar appeared to be looking for superstar Tyler Warren in the left flat. The Buckeyes had that covered, so he had to redirect and shoot into traffic in the direction of backup tight end Khalil Dinkins. The ball landed incomplete, Ohio State took over and the slow dwindling of the crowd began.

“We have to thrive in those moments,” Buckeyes defensive end JT Tuimoloau said. “If you avoid those moments, you’re not here to play Big Ten football. We were tough today.”

This was new Penn State offensive coordinator Andy Kotelnicki’s welcome to the Big Ten moment, and he came up empty on the most important possession. Despite all the praise for his creativity, nothing worked well enough to cover those 108 inches. Penn State didn’t score an offensive touchdown and scored just one late, cosmetic TD in its last two games against Ohio State.

At no point in those final four plays did Warren touch the ball. He had been used as a wildcat quarterback several times earlier in the game, and the 6-foot-4, 261-pound behemoth had been effective. He produced 47 yards on three carries, including a 33-yarder that set up the goal. Nor did Penn State add its more athletic quarterback, Beau Pribula, whose mobility could put extra emphasis on a defense with a three-play pass from Allen in blanket coverage.

While this result loads another bag of rocks on Franklin’s back, it had a rising effect on Ryan Day. He has an issue at Michigan that will remain unresolved for at least a few more weeks, but no such issue exists at Penn State. He is now 6-0 against the Nittany Lions.

He is also 63-9 overall and 42-4 in the Big Ten. But the pressure has increased on Day in a season of crushing expectations. Ohio State lost by one point to No. 1 Oregon — hardly an unforgivable result, but still — and then fell to the ground in an uninspiring win over mediocre Nebraska last week. With no substantial wins on the resume, a loss here could have been a playoff eliminator.

“I think it’s fair to say we were at a crossroads,” Day said. “This was a big game for us. We didn’t really want to say that publicly, but we said it behind closed doors.

“There’s probably a lot to unpack, but I won’t go into it all. But there’s a lot that comes with being the head coach at Ohio State, and you can say, ‘Ignore everything that happens.’ But your players read it, your coaches read it, your staff read it, your families read it. At times like this you have to stay strong. But to achieve what we did today, a top five win, feels good right now.”

Ohio State secured this game despite some quarterback play that could have been catastrophic. Will Howard delivered Penn State’s lone touchdown with a pick-6 interception on the Buckeyes’ first possession, putting them in a 10-0 hole and rocking the stadium. Later in the first half, Howard was heading to the end zone for a running touchdown when he was stripped of the ball, which bounced off his knee and out of the end zone for a touchback and a turnover.

Between these two disasters, Howard was pretty damn good. And in the second half he was good enough: he led two field goals, made some key throws and runs and avoided mistakes.

“I had my worst game of the year,” Howard said. “But man, we wanted that game. We talked about it earlier this week: we’re going to have to push ourselves to win this game. There’s no way we can lose. And that’s the way we played.”

Ohio State’s $20 million investment in its roster Dividend paid out on Saturday.

Injuries had weakened the offensive line, which bottomed out with just 64 rushing yards against Nebraska. The coaches moved their top lineman – Donovan Jackson, one of several seniors who remained at the school with some help from the Ohio State NIL collectives – from left guard to left tackle for this game.

Jackson hadn’t played tackle since high school, but the move helped stabilize the situation. Abdul Carter, Penn State’s fearsome rushing end, had two sacks but didn’t dominate the game, and Ohio State ran for 176 yards on the day.

“We had to run the dang ball,” Jackson said.

Fifty-eight of those rushing yards came on the final drive, when the Buckeyes took over at their own 1-yard line and moved down the field until the clock ran out.

“That was fun,” Jackson said. “As an offensive lineman, those are the drives you dream about.”

The running back tandem of TreVeyon Henderson and Quinshon Judkins came up big, racking up 149 total rushing yards. They also caught three passes for 25 yards and delivered several crushing blocks.

Henderson decided to stay for his senior season. Judkins was a transfer acquisition from Mississippi. When Judkins visited Ohio State last winter, Day had the two backs sit in a room together and discuss how they thought a job split would work out. They came out of the room and told Day that they were both on board.

The Buckeyes have assembled a lot of elite pieces around a quarterback be able to be good enough to win a national title. Howard, per se, isn’t the game-changing talent that Cam Ward is at Miami or Dillon Gabriel is at Oregon. But he can also make enough plays to help win games, as long as he doesn’t make mistakes that cost them.

Ohio State has two overmatched opponents next (Purdue and Northwestern). Then come two more big games to close out the regular season: undefeated Indiana and arch-nemesis Michigan. Given the weakness of the early schedule, beating Penn State is a necessary addition to the playoff resume.

“In life you’re going to get these opportunities where you have to try to win yourself,” Day said. ‘You have to go get something. You have to find a way to make that happen.”

Ohio State always finds a way against Penn State. And Penn State always fails to find a way. The same as it ever was.