Ohio State's defense blanketed Penn State to deliver a 20-12 win in one of the most important games of the regular season.
Five years after James Franklin promised the Nittany Lions would eventually graduate to join the top teams in the Bowl Subdivision, the loss reinforces the program's place: Penn State is very good, but not elite. The Nittany Lions are treading water.
Michigan, the Buckeyes are a physical team defined more so by defensive excellence than by an offense that has top-end skill talent but has taken a noticeable step back from the past two seasons.
Penn State needed 58 minutes to convert a third or fourth down and didn't get into the end zone until 29 seconds were left in the game. Penn State failed to convert on its first 15 third-down attempts.
Kyle McCord was 22 for 35 for 286 yards and the Buckeyes (7-0, 4-0) put up 367 total yards, a season-high against Penn State's stingy defense.
Penn State, beating the Nittany Lions 20-12 in Columbus on Saturday. True to recent form, a lot of the game between the Buckeyes and Nittany Lions was played with only a score separating the teams, but Ohio State was able to put some distance on Penn State in the fourth quarter before a late touchdown by the Nittany Lions made the final tally look a little more respectable.
“I’m not sure if we didn’t just watch the two of the best teams in college football, specifically on the defensive side of the ball," Penn State coach James Franklin said.
He added: “The story of the game came down to third down. We weren’t able to stay on the field, which was the biggest difference in the game.”
Beside a ton of points, we saw a little bit of everything else in Saturday’s game in Columbus. There were some studs, some duds, and some moments that were flubbed. I try and summarize what I liked, what I hated, and moments that lost me during the game.
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