Buckeyes control trenches in win over Lions
STATE COLLEGE » Three days before Penn State faced thirdranked Ohio State, Nittany Lions coach James Franklin made a prescient comment.
Franklin expected Saturday night’s Big Ten showdown to be won and lost in the trenches. And he was right.
Ohio State controlled the line of scrimmage on both sides of the football and beat Penn State 38-25 at Beaver Stadium before a crowd reduced to family and friends by the coronavirus pandemic.
“I don’t think we consistently won that matchup tonight,” Franklin said about the line of scrimmage. “Our defensive line wasn’t able to get them off schedule. We weren’t able to get tackles for loss or sacks. The same thing with our offensive line.
“There are a lot of things that go into it, but we did not win the line of scrimmage tonight.”
Conversely, the Buckeyes offensive line protected quarterback Justin Fields, who showed
why he’s considered an elite NFL prospect. Often with no pass rushers around him, Fields completed 28of-34 passes for 318 yards and four touchdowns.
Fields, who was once committed to Penn State, threw two touchdown passes to wide receiver Chris Olave and two to tight end Jeremy Ruckert. He made it look ridiculously easy for the second straight week after a sensational performance against Nebraska.
“They were in manageable situations pretty much the entire game,” Franklin said. “With a quarterback like that and their offensive personnel, not getting them off schedule makes it challenging.”
Ohio State (2-0) beat Penn State (0-2) for the fourth straight year and eighth time in the last nine meetings and appears well on its way to another Big Ten East championship.
Fields has almost as many touchdown passes (six) as incompletions (seven) in the first two games.
After Penn State closed within 21-13 early in the third quarter on the first of Sean Clifford’s three touchdown passes to Jahan Dotson in the second half, Fields threw a gorgeous pass to Olave for a 49-yard score.
While the Lions’ defense was unable to consistently pressure Fields, their offensive line struggled to protect Clifford and open holes for their running backs for much of the night.
Clifford was sacked four times and scrambled from pressure several other times. He finished 18-of-30 passing for 281 yards after going 2-for-7 for 29 yards in the first half. Penn State netted just 44 rushing yards.
“We really struggled to run the ball and to protect Sean pretty much the entire game,” Franklin said. “He was getting hit way too much. We were able to get the ball out of his hand quicker in the second half. He made plays on the perimeter.”
Dotson made two remarkable catches on a scoring drive in the fourth quarter, including a one-handed grab for a 22-yard score. He finished with eight catches for 144 yards.
“From the first half to the second half, we just talked about what we were seeing,” Clifford said. “I thought Jahan had a great game, did some really great things and made some plays.
“Ohio State matches up in man because they have athletes across the board. I told the guys, ‘You’re going to have to run across people’s faces and get open.’ The first half just wasn’t up to the standard.”
The Buckeyes outgained Penn State for the sixth time in the last seven meetings, this time by a 526-325 margin.
Ohio State dominated from the outset, taking less than two minutes to score its first touchdown. Garrett Wilson sprinted for 62 yards on a jet sweep on the first snap before Master Teague finished it with two rushes for 13 yards.
A few minutes later, Franklin’s decision to go for it on fourth-and-2 from the Penn State 45 backfired when a scrambling Clifford threw an incompletion. Five plays later, Fields threw a strike to Olave for a 26-yard touchdown and a 14-0 lead less than seven minutes into the game.
The Lions put together their best drive of the half on their next series. Clifford hit Dotson for 20 yards and Devyn Ford picked up 23 yards. But after a first down at the Ohio State 11, Penn State took a delay of game penalty on third-and-9 and settled for Jake Pinegar’s 31yard field goal.
The Lions were fortunate on Ohio State’s next series when Wilson let a pass slip through his hands in the end zone on third down and Blake Haubell missed a 20yard field goal.
The Buckeyes defenders didn’t let the miscues bother them. They held Penn State to no first downs on its next three series. Ohio State outgained the Lions 117-4 in the second quarter and built a 21-3 lead on Fields’ 10-yard touchdown pass to Ruckert.
“We only put up three points as an offense in the first half,” Clifford said.
“That’s unacceptable.”
A weird sequence, however, at the end of the half, gave Penn State a break. The Buckeyes took a knee on what appeared to be the final play of the half. Both teams went to their locker rooms before the officials called them back to the field and put one second back on the clock.
That allowed the Lions’ Jordan Stout to drill a 50yard field goal as time ran out, making it 21-6 at the break.
But the way Ohio State owned the line of scrimmage, it didn’t really matter at the end. Now Penn State tries to rebound from its first 0-2 start since 2012.
“We have to realize there’s a lot of football left in the season,” Dotson said..”We have to go 1-0 each week. That’s the mentality. We can’t look ahead. We can’t look back.”