Game Observations: Ohio State Defense Plays Best Game Of Season When It Was Needed Most

Without a sliver of a doubt, Ohio State's defense played its best game of the 2021 season on Saturday night. Statistics aside, the Silver Bullets repeatedly came up in the clutch in tight situations. On a night where the offense had difficulty moving the ball (especially in the run game), the defense kept the Buckeyes' College Football Playoff hopes alive.

Sean Clifford threw for 361 yards and the Buckeyes allowed a few too many bigger gains through the air, but the Nittany Lions managed to run for just 33 yards on 29 carries throughout the night. They also had a defensive touchdown on Jerron Cage's scoop-and-score.

After a rare offensive mistake on the opening drive, during which Jeremy Ruckert lost a fumble, the very first play of the game of the game for Penn State's offense was a disaster. Marcus Williamson forced Noah Cain to fumble the ball and Haskell Garrett recovered it. A HUGE response from the Silver Bullet defense and Ohio Stadium erupted louder than it's been all season.

The Buckeyes came up with four sacks and eight tackles for loss on the night, constantly harassing Sean Clifford, John Lovett and Noah Cain.

Steele Chambers was ejected from the game for targeting just seven seconds into the start of the third quarter, which was a really tough break for the Buckeyes. He'll miss the first half of next week's game against Nebraska.

Ohio State Stymies Penn State, Keeps College Football Playoff Hopes Alive

Cam Brown came up with a late interception that really helped seal off the victory. Ohio State finished the night with three takeaways, which was one of their best performances of the season.

I thought it was great to see the Buckeyes get challenged defensively on a night where the offense was struggling to finish drives. This unit has come an awfully long way since the first couple weeks of the season.

-----

Be sure to check out our new message boards, Buckeye Forums. We'd love to have you part of the conversation during the season.

-----

You may also like:

Ryan Day’s Message To Recruits: “You Come To Ohio State For Games Like This”

Denzel Burke Looking Forward To Covering Penn State WR Jahan Dotson

Ohio State's Marvin Harrison Jr. Embraces Being Son Of Pro Football Hall Of Famer

Building The Buckeyes Talks Avery Henry, Earnest Greene And Kam Dewberry

Ohio State QB C.J. Stroud Added To Maxwell Award Watch List

-----

Be sure to stay locked into BuckeyesNow all the time!

Join the BuckeyesNow community!
Subscribe to the BuckeyesNow YouTube channel
Follow BuckeyesNow on Twitter: @BuckeyesNowSI
Like and follow BuckeyesNow on Facebook!