Buckeyes Pull Off Miracle Finish In Happy Valley

Admit it, you thought the Buckeyes were dead meat.

So did a lot of people. But if you are a Buckeye fan, you’re lucky, because the people who really mattered weren’t ready to raise the white flag. The athletes wearing Scarlet and Gray weren’t ready to run up the surrender flag because white was not something they needed any more of in Beaver Stadium.

In front of a massive and rabid white-out crowd No. 4 Ohio State rallied from down 26-14 with under seven minutes to play to claim a gutty 27-26 win over No. 9 Penn State.

It wasn’t easy, but what it may have lacked in artistry was more than made up for by the kind of sports theater that is rare.

The Ohio State comeback began when Haskins and wide receiver Bin Victor connected on a 47-yard scoring play to cut the Penn State lead to 26-21 with 6:42 remaining. The game was suddenly a one-score game with enough time left for a last-gasp drive if the OSU defense could get the ball back.

They did just that.  Penn State could not move the ball and punted it back to Ohio State with 4:35 on the game clock.  There was time, but OSU took over on their own four-yard line.  It was 96 yards to paydirt, and they hadn’t exactly been lighting it up on offense, so what were the chances really.

Yeah, maybe you didn’t believe, but the Buckeyes did.

On first down at the four-yard line Haskins hit J.K. Dobbins with a perfectly executed screen pass that carried all the way out to the 39-yard line.  Dobbins rushed for seven more before Mike Weber added 11 more on the ground to move the ball to the Penn State 43.  Haskins then hit Parris Campbell for 14 yards to take OSU to the Penn State 29.  On third and five from the Penn State 24 Haskins got it to K. J. Hill on a another screen. Hill  got a key block from Austin Mack and scampered into the endzone to cap the 96-yard drive for the go-ahead score. A two-point conversion attempt failed, but OSU led with 3:27 left to play.

The story of the game was Victor’s late TD catch and OSU’s clutch 96 yard drive, but there was plenty of intrigue that set up the final drama. Penn State dominated the first quarter and had 135 yards of total offense while Ohio State had just 27.  Penn State’s defensive success was made possible by an effective pass rush that kept Haskins on his heels. Haskins was harried into errant throws and was also victimized by several drops. Despite the discrepancy in yardage Penn State managed just one field goal to hold a slim 3-0 lead at the end of a quarter. The Nittany Lions put three more on the board when Haskins was intercepted early in the  second quarter to put the Penn State offense in business at the OSU 28-yard line, but the OSU defense kept them out of the endzone and forced a field goal that put PSU up 6-0.

Penn State had come into the game with the leading scoring offense in the nation.  The Buckeyes were second, but neither team was able to score a touchdown until Penn State put together a 98-yard drive in three plays, the big one being a 93-yard touchdown catch and run by K.J. Hamler late in the second quarter. The play was the longest pass play against Ohio State in school history and matched the longest play from scrimmage, set most recently two weeks ago when TCU’s Darrius Anderson rushed for a 93-yard score. The big play made the score 13-0 it it looked for the world like the Buckeyes were done, but before the half ended a Penn State fumble was recovered by the Buckeyes at the Penn State 25.  OSU made the most of the break when J. K. Dobbins scored to make it 13-7 despite being outplayed by a wide margin in the first half.

OSU drove the second half kickoff to a score to take an improbable 14-13 lead, but Penn State scored the next two touchdowns to set up the final fourth-quarter theatrics.

Penn State outgained Ohio State 492 to 389 but the Lions could not capitalize with touchdown and settled for field goals too often.

McSorley was the leading rusher in the game with 175 net yards on the ground. He was also the game’s leading passer with 286 yards passing for two touchdowns and no interceptions.

One place where the Buckeyes did have a statistical advantage was in the punting game where Drew Chrisman punted nine times for an average of 47.9 yards per punt. Three of his punts were downed inside the 20. His kicking consistently gave Penn State a long field and help keep them out of the endzone.