Penn State returned to the field where they committed an unforgivable crime two years previously. It started out looking like they might do it again, but the Buckeyes scored 35 unanswered points in the second half to defeat Joe Paterno’s Nittany Lions. Pryor did not have a great day throwing the ball with 8/13 for 139 yards and 2 touchdowns and an interception. The player of the game was most certainly Dan Herron who picked up 190 yards and a touchdown on 21 carries – that’s 9 yards a carry for the game.
The Buckeyes started with the ball and started out with two fantastic runs to Boom Herron. On the second run the blocking was about the best we’ve seen all season. Several receivers got a couple lead blocks to get Herron about 15 yards on the carry. When Penn State came out on the next play with man coverage, Pryor read it and hit Posey for a 49 yard strike to put the Buckeyes in fantastic scoring position near the 10 yard line. Unfortunately the Nittany Lion defense stiffened and forced the Buckeyes to kick a field goal.
Penn State came out with a redshirt freshman walk-on at the Quarterback position, Matt McGloin. After a first play that saw him running for his life from Cameron Heyward and nearly throwing a pick, the Nitts turned to Evan Royster in the running game. The Buckeye defense stood tall and stopped them with a three and out to force a punt.
The Buckeyes were forced to give the ball back after a quick three and out. The drive ended with a Brandon Saine pass in the flat that Zoom flat out dropped. Penn State started to use the short passing game to try to soften up the Buckeye defense. The strategy began to work a little as the PSU offense began to move down the field. Even as the Buckeye defense dug in to try to stop the Lions, McGloin found a wide open Brown for a touchdown as McGloin was taking a hit. The play was the first ever touchdown pass by a Joe Paterno coached team in Columbus.
The Bucks again struggled to move the ball on offense and were forced to kick the ball back to the Lions. As before, the Nitts began to move the ball with authority and were quickly building confidence in their ability to win this game. The Lions had no trouble, with a little help from a couple poor penalties by the OSU defense, putting the ball back into the endzone. McGloin tossed another pass, this time into nearly triple coverage, for the touchdown.
It was clear the Penn State gameplan was to target Devon Torrence. Devon was abused all game long and could do nothing to deal with what the Nittany Lions were throwing at him. That didn’t help the rest of the secondary which was already light on experience and ability as it was. With no solid safety help from Gant and Johnson, Torrence was on his own and unable to handle what the Lions were tossing his direction.
The Buckeyes went back to the bread and butter of handoffs to Boom Herron. Herron made sure that the decision was a good one as Herron rattled off a couple great runs for a pair of first downs to move the Buckeyes into Penn State territory. The drive stalled, though, likely due to Herron becoming gassed and being forced to leave the game. A couple rough plays and the Bucks were forced to punt.
Penn State had no trouble moving the ball down the field again on their third consecutive drive. Repeatedly, the Nitts were forced into 4th and 1’s by the OSU defense, and repeatedly the Lions went for the first. The decisions were sustaining drives for the Lions and exhausting the OSU defense. The strategy cost Penn State a chance for three when the Buckeye defense stopped Penn State on their third fourth and one attempt of the game near the OSU twenty yard line.
The Buckeyes were completely unable to do anything with the ball after some questionable play calling. A called TP run on first, a Saine draw play on second, and a pass to the flat that was underthrown to Saine that failed to earn the first down. The result was a punt to Penn State with a minute left in the half. Penn State decided to take the game into the half and not do anything too risky to cost themselves the game.
The Buckeye of the half had to be Dan Herron with 9.9 yards per carry on 7 carries for 69 yards. That wasn’t enough, though, to get the OSU total yardage above Penn States. The Nittany Lions outgained the Buckeyes 213-148 for the half. Most of that came from Matt McGloin’s 13/18 for 141 yards and 2 touchdowns. Pryor was only 4/8 for 58 yards on the game.
The defense took the field to start the second half to raucious noise from the crowd. The noise caused McGloin to false start on the first play, but did not keep the Nittany Lions from moving the ball as well as they did in the first half. This time, however, the Bucks locked down and forced a stop on the Penn State offense. The PSU kicking team managed to pin the Bucks down inside their own 5, making things tough for the next OSU possession.
The Buckeye’s struggles on offense continued early on their first drive as Bryant Browning false started, putting the Bucks back near to the 1 and a half yard line. But, a good passing play to Herron converted Ohio State’s first third down of the game. On the subsequent play Herron broke a big run around the right side that put the Penn State defense out of position and gave the offense momentum. The Bucks finished the drive with a touchdown on a 5 yard Dan Herron run up the gut where he went untouched into the endzone. The score was setup by a great 20 yard carry by Saine that only barely missed scoring.
Perhaps Torrence’s poor play in the first half was simply baiting Matt McGloin. McGloin threw a pass to Michael Zordich that Torrence jumped. He tipped the pass to himself twice before taking it into the endzone. After the pick, the Nittany Lions went three and out, finding no success at all against the fired up OSU defense.
On offense, Ohio State continued to pound away at the Penn State front. The Nitts were playing solid coverage on the OSU receivers – demonstrated by the complete lack of passes to Sanzenbacher. The Bucks responded with a healthy dose of running from Pryor, Herron and Saine. The drive chewed up lots of time on the clock but ended with an interception on the one yard line. Pryor saw Sanzenbacher over, but the Penn State safety came over and made a play.
Chekwa made a great play on the ensuing possession. Joe Pa ran two straight running plays to open up some space with the goalline. The plays resulted in a 3rd and 6 from the 5 yard line. McGloin was forced to pass, which was called – as usual – a quick 3 step drop and throw. Instead of challenging Torrence as they had all game, they threw the ball to Chekwa’s side of the field. Chekwa hit the receiver as the ball arrived and forced an incompletion.
The Buckeyes made a couple of great plays to completely take the wind out of Penn State’s sails. On the first, Pryor ran for 40 yards and was only stopped by the last guy hitting him at the 10. Unfortunately, Bryant Browning held on the play, putting the Bucks in a hole for 2nd and 23. On the ensuing play, Pryor tossed a deep pass to Posey 68 yards. Posey, however, was in double coverage and wasn’t able to make the catch. Despite that, though, the ball was tipped to Sanzenbacher who walked into the endzone for a touchdown. The play was straight out of the EA Sports NCAA games – one of those plays that the other team always completes on your defense.
McGloin threw his fourth touchdown on the game on Penn State’s very next drive. However, it was more like the previous touchdown he threw. Ohio State’s Travis Howard jumped a poor pass from McGloin and took it into the endzone for 6, essentially negating the entirity of Penn State’s offensive production for the day.
The Buckeyes forced another punt from the Nits with every intention of running the clock out. However, the Penn State defense had other ideas as they were too gassed to slow down Dan Herron’s 9 yards per carry average. Herron hit another 47 yard carry on the drive to put the Buckeyes in good position to score again. From the 4 yard line, the Buckeyes ran a play action pass with Herron running up the gut. The play faked out the Penn State defense leaving Stoneburner open in the endzone for the touchdown.
Pryor did not have the best game of his career, but he ended with reasonable stats. He threw 8/13 for 139 yards, 2 touchdowns and an interception. He also ran 9 carries for 50 yards. Matt McGloin had the best half of any quarterback that played, but ended with the worst half for a quarterback I’ve ever seen. He finished 15/30 for 159 yards, 2 touchdowns and 2 interceptions. For those of you at home keeping score, that means that McGloin went 2/13 in the second half with 2 interceptions.
Dan Herron finished the game with a career high 193 yards on 21 carries, more than 9 yards per carry, with a touchdown. Saine also had some success on the ground with 8 carries for 46 yards. For the Nitts, Evan Royster ran 16 times for 50 yards and his backup Redd picked up 41 yards on 12 carries. Those are much below than their averages the last few games – not surprising considering Ohio State’s run defense this year.
Posey and Sanzenbacher led the Buckeye receivers with 3 catches for 63 yards and 1 catch for 58 yards and a touchdown respectively. Penn State’s leading receiver was Justin Brown who picked up 64 yards on 5 receptions and a touchdown.
The Buckeyes next face Iowa in Iowa City next Saturday, November 13th. That game will air at 3:30pm on ESPN.
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