Ohio State ultimately had no trouble in dispatching Penn State 38-14 on Saturday, but the Nittany Lions hung around for a while and the game became unnecessarily close just prior to halftime.
The Buckeyes
pulled away in the second half for what was a comfortable win in the end, as Matt Patricia made some good halftime adjustments and the offense took over.
However, there are always nits to pick. Here’s what put me in an unhappy valley on Saturday.
Daytime Blackout
I’m sorry, but I just don’t see the point of a blackout for a noon game. It didn’t look particularly cool on the television broadcast, and black is an extremely minor part of the Ohio State color scheme. It seemed forced to me.
Do people enjoy this? Is this something that others find appealing that is somehow escaping me? Let me know if this is something you want to see continue.
Toss Trouble
Ohio State’s defense struggled in the first half to stop a simple toss play as Penn State put big bodies on the outside and hit for a big run and a touchdown on the same play.
Kaytron Allen went for 26 yards on the pitch play, getting numbers on the perimeter. Ohio State defenders failed to come off their blocks and the Nittany Lions moved from their own 25-yard line to the Ohio State side of the 50 on one play.
Penn State also shredded Ohio State’s vaunted goal-line defense on the same play call in the second quarter, tossing it to Nick Singleton, who cut the Buckeye lead to 10-7 at the time.
O-Line Whiffs
Penn State has struggled at times defensively in 2025, despite having top-notch recruits on that side of the football. Ohio State made things a bit easier for the visitors on Saturday with some critical blocking whiffs.
It wasn’t one lineman consistently, but it made things harder on the offense than they needed to be. One notable whiff in the run game was Luke Montgomery lunging at and missing the large frame of Yvan Kemajou, which turned a second-and-short into a loss and a critical third-and-medium situation.
With the ball on the PSU 4-yard line, Carson Hinzman was roasted on a simple spin move early in the second quarter, getting caught leaning the wrong way. That allowed a quarterback pressure on Julian Sayin, forcing Ohio State to settle for a field goal.
The line did much better in the second half.
Third-and-Forever
One of Ohio State’s defensive issues on Saturday (not that there were many) was giving up first downs on third-and-long situations. Patricia opted for a couple of three-man rushes in those situations and despite Penn State playing with a freshman quarterback, he had plenty of time to get comfortable and wait for receivers to get open, allowing annoying conversions in spots when the Buckeyes could have gotten off the field.
Donaldson’s Fumble
I probably need a copy of the rulebook, because I’m not sure how referees determine when forward progress is stopped.
Late in the second quarter, the Buckeyes led 17-7 and had the ball at their own 20-yard line. For some reason, the offense started with a run up the middle by C.J. Donaldson, who was stood up at the line for a couple of seconds and then started to get pushed backward when the ball came out.
The play seemed to be obviously over, but the whistle never came, and the play was ruled a fumble and a recovery by Penn State. It was upheld upon review. Donaldson has to protect the football in that situation regardless, but everything about that snap was aggravating, from the personnel group to the play call to the fumble to the lack of a whistle for Donaldson’s forward progress being stopped.
But the most annoying thing of all was it allowed the Nittany Lions a short field, starting at the OSU 13. Penn State took advantage and cut Ohio State’s lead to 17-14 just before halftime.
Speaking of Which…
Ryan Day opted to let the clock run on defense on that short Penn State drive to preserve time, using a timeout only late in the play clock once after checking the PSU formation with 29 seconds left. As a result, the Nittany Lions left just 20 seconds on the clock and Ohio State kneeled to end the half on its next possession.
It seemed a couple of timeouts may have saved sufficient time to hit a few passes and get a late score.
No Fair
Bryson Rodgers committed one of the more humorous fair catch interference penalties in recent memory when he tried to catch a Joe McGuire punt in the air and bundled over the punt return man. What was less amusing is that Penn State’s first possession of the second half started at its 25-yard line instead of its 10, thanks to that easily preventable mistake.
Those are the things that made my stomach rumble (although that could have been raiding my daughter’s Halloween candy, come to think of it) when the Buckeyes hosted the Nittany Lions. I could go on (as usual), but we’ll call it a day here, because easy wins over Penn State have been few and far between in recent years.
What stood out to you?
Of course, there were plenty of positives, including another stellar day from Sayin and starting wideouts Jeremiah Smith and Carnell Tate, who used the Nittany Lions secondary as their own personal playground. Bo Jackson had some nice runs in the second half on his way to a 100-yard rushing game. The defense rebounded from giving up 14 points in a single quarter to pitching a second-half shutout.
Next up for the Buckeyes is a trip to something called… Purdue. The Boilermakers are coming off a performance that saw them finish within a touchdown of Michigan on the road, and West Lafayette, Indiana produces some odd situations, so Ohio State must be on guard against a letdown.
