By Jim Naveau
When quarterback Will Howard went into a slide as the final seconds of Ohio State’s 20-13 victory over Penn State on Saturday ticked off the Beaver Stadium scoreboard, it erased the memories of two other recent slides by the Buckeyes.
Slide No. 1 was the one Howard went into just one second too late to get a timeout to attempt a field goal at the end of a 32-31 loss to Oregon three weeks ago.
Slide No. 2 was a group effort when OSU slid to the edge of dropping off the list of leading contenders for the national championship after that loss to Oregon was followed by an uninspiring 21-17 win over Nebraska.
Slide No. 3 was nothing like the others. If it is possible to slide uphill, it accomplished that.
Uphill is where the trajectory of OSU’s season is headed again after a win that kept the Buckeyes in the conversations about the Big Ten championship and the College Football Playoff national championship.
Beating No.2 Penn State (7-1, 4-1 Big Ten) was just the sort of win Ohio State (7-1, 4-1 Big Ten) needed for the sake of its own confidence and to quiet their critics at least for a while.
“I think this is going to springboard us going forward,” Day said. “I think it’s fair to say we were at a crossroads.
“This was a big game for us. We didn’t want to publicly say that but we said that behind closed doors. This is a big game for us for a lot of reasons.”
One of those reasons was personal for Ohio State’s coach.
Day has a 63-9 career record at Ohio State but still draws criticism from some fans who say he doesn’t win big games, including a 1-7 record against Top Five teams going into Saturday’s game.
“There’s a lot there to probably unpack but I’m not going to get into all of it. There is a lot that goes with being the head coach at Ohio State. You can say ignore everything that goes on, but your players read it, your coaches read it, your staff members read it, your families read it and you’ve got to stay strong in those moments. But that entire team, our families, they all believed,” he said.
“To accomplish what we did today, a top-five victory, it feels good right now. We’ve got a lot of football ahead of us but right now it feels good and I’m proud of our team and I’m proud of our coaching staff.”
There wasn’t a lot to feel good about early when Penn State got a field goal on its first possession, then went up 10-0 on an interception for a touchdown by Zion Tracy a minute later.
But a 25-yard touchdown pass from Will Howard to Emeka Egbuka and a 21-yard touchdown pass to Brandon Inniss gave OSU a 14-10 halftime lead and it led the rest of the game.
Maybe four things stood out most in Ohio State’s win – the defense, the offensive line exceeding expectations, the return of its running game, and Howard’s ability to make big plays when they were needed.
Penn State did not score an offensive touchdown. And when a long run by Tyler Warren set the Nittany Lions up with a first down at OSU’s 3-yard line the defense stopped them on four consecutive plays when a touchdown would have tied the game at 20-20.
Three running plays gained 0, 1 and 1 yards and a fourth-down pass was incomplete.
Ohio State then put the game away by keeping the football for the last 5 minutes, 13 seconds of the game with 10 straight running plays by Quinshon Judkins, TreVeyon Henderson and Howard in a drive that started at its own 1-yard line.
Ohio State ran the ball well all day, led as usual by Judkins with 95 yards on 14 carries and Henderson with 54 yards on 10 carries. Both had struggled in the six quarters after starting left tackle Josh Simmons suffered a season-ending knee injury against Oregon.
“This is going to build us up moving forward. For our guys to get this win is going to go a long way,” Day said.
