Daily Local News (West Chester, PA)
Margin of error against Ohio St. remains slim
COLUMBUS, OHIO » Sean Clifford walked slowly toward the tunnel leading to the Penn State locker room after another loss to Ohio State.
Then Clifford stopped, turned around and looked back at the field, where Buckeyes fans were celebrating a hard-fought 3324 victory Saturday night.
He seemed to be reflecting, perhaps about the five consecutive losses to Ohio State in his career.
“Yeah, it was tough,” he said. “This is where I’m from. I’m from Ohio (Cincinnati). This is a tough one for me.”
It almost always is for the Nittany Lions after they play the Buckeyes.
Since 2001, they’re 4-16 against Ohio State, including 1-7 during James Franklin’s eight seasons as coach and five straight losses since the 2016 upset at Beaver Stadium.
Under Franklin, Penn State has waged fierce battles with the Buckeyes only to come up short, like it did Saturday night. It can be extremely frustrating.
Just ask Michigan, which hasn’t beaten Ohio State since 2011. Or Michigan State, which has two wins over the Buckeyes since 1998 and none in the last five seasons.
Ohio State is the best program in the Big Ten East, the measuring stick. It has been for a long time. The Buckeyes reminded the Lions again Saturday night that an opponent has little, if any, margin of error against them.
“It’s incredibly small,” Penn State linebacker Curtis Jacobs said. “They’re talented. They have a lot of great players. You have to come out and execute. We did that for the most part. We didn’t execute on some plays and it caught up with us.”
The Lions limited Ohio State’s high-powered offense, which had been averaging more than 49 points, to two touchdowns. They allowed three long gains: C.J. Stroud’s 38-yard touchdown pass to Chris Olave, his 58-yard pass to Jaxon Smith-Njigba that set up a field goal and TreVeyon Henderson’s 68-yard run that set up his
short touchdown.
“We did a decent job,” defensive end Arnold Ebiketie said. “There were still some big plays, some missed tackles. We could have done a better job. But overall, yeah, I think we did a pretty good job, considering what they’ve done offensively.”
One week after he was very limited because of his unspecified injury, Clifford looked much better and completed 35-of-52 passes for 361 yards and one touchdown.
He lost the football on a sack and strip, which defensive tackle Jerron Cage returned 57 yards for a touchdown in the second quarter. He threw an interception that Ohio State turned into a field goal in the fourth quarter.
Mistakes always are magnified against the Buckeyes. Otherwise, Clifford played very well.
“That’s the worst part,” he said. “You feel like you’re getting better but it’s just not enough.”
The margin of error is slim off the field as well. The Buckeyes have been the most successful Big Ten team in recruiting, finishing with a top-five class in four of the last five years. Penn State has done well, but it has just one.
Ohio State also has the best facilities in the Big Ten, which explains why Franklin has been pushing for upgrades since he was hired in 2014. If Franklin’s tired of banging his head against the wall trying to catch up to the Buckeyes, he’s not saying.
“I’m glad that we came and competed and did some good things and gave ourselves a chance to win,” he said. “But at the end of the day, we didn’t get it done.”
The most glaring issue for the 2021 Lions has been their poor running game. Even with three four-star recruits starting on the offensive line, Penn State mustered just 33 yards on 29 attempts against Ohio State and dropped to 114th nationally in rushing (108.1 per game).
Aside from that, the Lions’ hopes for the rest of the season look more promising than they did after the Illinois debacle mostly because Clifford looked more like himself than he did a week earlier.
Penn State found out in losses to Iowa and Illinois that its chances to win diminish without a healthy Clifford.
Compare that quarterback situation to Ohio State, where freshman Kyle McCord of Philadelphia filled in admirably earlier this year when starter C.J. Stroud missed a game with a shoulder injury.
“We just have to keep fighting,” Lions wide receiver Jahan Dotson said. “The season’s far from over. We got a lot of football ahead of us. We’re going to give it our all. That’s all we can do at this point.”