Blowouts Normal for Ohio State, but not vs. Penn State
Ohio State's lack of exposure to late-game pressure may indeed prove its undoing, but such circumstances certainly haven't phased OSU the past two seasons.
No one knows that better than No. 8 Penn State (8-2), which has suffered two crushing losses to the second-ranked Buckeyes in the teams' most recent meetings.
OSU coach Ryan Day called the plays in both those comebacks, from 26-14 in the last eight minutes last year at State College, and from 38-27 in the last six minutes in 2017.
J.T. Barrett threw a pair of touchdown passes to power the first rally, just like Dwayne Haskins did the second.
But the specifics of how they unfolded?
Day can't help you.
"It’s hard to remember," he said. "It's hard for me to remember what those feelings were like because you’re just in, you’re in the game. I guess it would be like asking a guy who is playing in the game, 'How were you feeling in this moment?' 'I was just playing,' you know?
"I was just coaching. I think that’s really what it is. You just, you’re not really thinking. You’re just reacting. You're competing. And then once the game gets over, I remember last year running up to Coach Meyer on the field and going, like 'What just happened?'
"You just don’t realize it until you get done with the game. You’re like, 'That really happened?' Because you’re just doing everything you can to try to get the right plays in and make sure the guys are in the right spot and do everything you can. So it's hard to remember exactly what was going on."
Penn State fans probably have more vivid memories of three crucial plays OSU made at the finish last season:
- Binjamin Victor took a simple crossing route that should have gone for short yardage, but he shook a tackle, found freedom along the left sideline and weaved back to the middle, scoring from 47 yards.
- J.K. Dobbins got OSU out of trouble at the Penn State 5-yard line by taking a short flip from Haskins 35 yards to start the game-winning drive.
- K.J. Hill capped the comeback with a 27-yard catch and run to the end zone, dodging a tackle in the flat that would have forced Ohio State to convert on fourth down.
Those plays, and comparable ones that fueled Ohio State's rally in 2017, don't come together unless coaches call the right plays under do-it-right, do-it-now or defeat-is-certain duress.
"It’s just communication, just trying to figure out, like do we need new plays or are the plays working and we’re just not executing them very well?" Day said. "When you go against good defenses things like that happen.
"I think that’s the art of coaching, figuring out, 'Is it the right thing that we just need to execute better?' Or, 'Is the play no good?' That’s based on the different styles of defense that you play against and then measuring the plays that your guys know and then trying to give the defense something new to look at."
Another reason Penn State faithful haven't forgotten is the reaction from head coach James Franklin afterward.
Crushed emotionally for a second straight year by a Buckeyes' comeback, he launched into a stream of conscious rant.
"It's not going to happen again," Franklin said in the locker room afterward. "I'm not a negative guy. But I am going to make sure that as our program, that we do everything right and we grow every single day and we challenge ourselves every single day and we get uncomfortable, we get comfortable being uncomfortable and break out to that next phase."
Now, here they are again, a win away from essentially clinching the Big Ten East. Sure, Penn State would have to beat Rutgers the close the regular season, but the Everest in its path is slaying the Ohio State monster.
A third straight loss looks inevitable, given the 18-point spread oddsmakers accord OSU, and the fact it will be played in Columbus, where Ohio State has lost one Big Ten game in eight years.
Franklin knows his words from the 2018 post-game will be thrown back at him if his Lions become just another roadkill victim of an OSU machine that's won every game by 24 points or more.
"What I said after that game, I can make arguments both ways," Franklin said. "I could make arguments both ways that I'm comfortable and good with what I said, but I can also make the argument there's things that are probably appropriate for me to say in the locker room, behind closed doors, that's not appropriate (to say) to you guys in the media because how things can go. It can blow up into something more than what you anticipated it being.
"I can make arguments both ways. I don't wake up regretting that. Again, I could probably be a little bit more strategic."
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