STATE COLLEGE, Pa. — The No. 4 Ohio State Buckeyes (5-0, 2-0) won a dramatic come-from-behind battle 27-26 over No. 9 Penn State (4-1, 1-1), giving the Nittany Lions their first loss of the season. After the game, Urban Meyer and several Buckeyes spoke with the media to give their thoughts on the game, the team, and just the evening as a whole.
Urban Meyer
+ Binjimen Victor started the comeback for the Buckeyes with a play of the year. He’s been “outrageous” in practice the last three weeks.
+ The first half was awful offensively. Give credit to Penn State for that.
+ On Dwayne Haskins: “When he’s upright, he’s been good.”
+ Penn State blitzed 70-80% of the time.
+ “Hats off to the defense because they kept us in this game.”
+ The penalties were awful.
+ Dre’Mont Jones rolled an ankle.
+ “Ben Victor changed the whole deal.”
+ Greg Schiano called the final timeout when Penn State had the fourth down and said they’d run the zone read and they called a play to handle it. It worked.
Dwayne Haskins
+ Penn State wasn’t allowing downfield throws, so the offense had to stay patient and stay short.
+ It’s a credit to how great this offense is that they never gave up and found ways to move the ball at the end.
+ Haskins was only thinking about what he could do to help win the game, he wasn’t thinking about the crowd or anything like that.
Jonathon Cooper
+ They didn’t hear anything about how this game was supposed to be a shootout. They all knew their roles and they took pride in standing up to a very tough Penn State offense.
Ryan Day
+ Penn State was pressuring and blitzing a lot, so the screens were a good call to take advantage of that aggression.
+ Binjimen Victor’s play is what they have seen in practice and it’s great to see. It didn’t just start tonight. “I think it’s a defining moment” for Victor.
+ The kids hung in there and “winning on the road is hard.”
+ You have to believe that the game is never out of reach, and this team responded with exactly that mindset. They showed poise.
+ They knew in the second half that they had to get the tempo going, and they were able to do that with the screens. They told the receivers at the half that they needed to be ready to block out wide.
Davon Hamilton
+ All he was thinking about on the fourth down was that the defense had to make a play. He wasn’t thinking about past games against Penn State, only that this game was about to be decided and a play had to be made.
+ The defense isn’t close to its full capacity yet and the big plays need to be controlled.
Dre’Mont Jones
+ The defensive line was cautious not to jump offsides on the final fourth down play.
+ The defense rose to the occasion when they had to have a stop, but they have to figure out the big plays.
+ “We’ve got to put some work in. It’s still early in the season. Got a lot of time. We need to find a way to be stout in all aspects.”
Isaiah Prince
+ The adjustments in the second half were the difference. They couldn’t move the ball in the first half, then fixed that at halftime.
+ “This was a great team we played against. They’ve been great all year. We just came prepared to be in a dog fight.”
+ Regarding being backed up on the 4-yard line late in the fourth quarter: “There isn’t a reason to be nervous. No reason to flinch. Stick together as brothers, play for each other, and just continue to play hard. We’ve been in situations like this before so it’s nothing new to us.”
Penn State linebacker Koa Farmer
+ On the second half: “They just had great play calling, to be honest. I wasn’t expecting the to do what they were doing and that’s why we failed.”
Penn State cornerback Amani Oruwariye
+ “Guys are down because we put so much work in for this game and every game. It’s tough because we work so hard and to fall short by one point the past two years sucks.”
Penn State head coach James Franklin
+ “This one hurts, obviously. We didn’t finish the game when we should’ve finished the game. There is no doubt about it, we played a great first half and we weren’t able to finish late in the game.”
+ “I’m pretty upset right now because I a hurting for those guys right in that locker room. I know how hard they’ve worked.”