The Buckeyes’ Jeremiah Smith celebrates his second touchdown of the game in Saturday’s blowout win over Penn State. (Press Pros Feature Photos)
Ohio State led at halftime, but it didn’t feel like it to them. So they hit Penn State hard in the third quarter, making a statement that they should be at the top this week in the first College Football Playoff rankings.
Columbus, OH – Third-quarter and big-play Ohio State, during another Big Noon Kickoff Saturday, played like the football team it always wants to be, can be, and what the College Football Playoff committee wants to see.
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On Tuesday night, the jury of 12 entrusted with discerning the best teams one through 12 will unveil its first ranking. Cases will be made that Indiana and Texas A&M have better resumes.
Resumes are a factor, and Penn State’s staggering five-game losing streak doesn’t bolster the Buckeyes’ resume. But choosing the No. 1 team is also about talent and what your eyes tell you. What the AP No. 1 Buckeyes showed in the third quarter – their backs as close to the wall at halftime as they’ve been all season – is how No. 1 teams respond to adversity after a fumble-induced wobbly second quarter.
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The Buckeyes went to halftime ahead by a mere field goal.
“You would have thought we’re down by 21,” Day said.
The Buckeyes, of course, made schematic adjustments. But the third quarter was more of an attitude adjustment, a get-of-our-way mentality because of a let’s-get-nasty attitude.
Long, beautiful passes from Julian Sayin to Carnell Tate and Jeremiah Smith sparked two bang, bang touchdowns, and the Buckeyes (8-0, 5-0 Big Ten) cruised to a 38-14 victory over the once-fierce and one-upon-a-time second-ranked Nittany Lions.
“I didn’t feel the intensity I felt like we needed,” Downs said of speaking up at halftime. “And I just put out the fact that this is a game. These guys aren’t going to come in here and lay down, and we gotta go and take it. We came out and did that a high level in the second half.”
The attitude-adjusting play was a late first-half fumble by C.J. Donaldson, the first by a Buckeye back this season. Penn State took advantage and scored in five plays from the 13, the final yard on a run by Kaytron Allen, to cut Ohio State’s halftime lead to 17-14.
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Head Buckeye Ryan Day mentioned the fumble a few times after the game and laughed at himself for mentioning it so much after a large margin of victory against a revered program. It was the first thing he talked about.
“It’s a great example for everybody that when you turn the ball over, especially down there, you put yourself at risk,” he said. “All the work that gets put in can be all for naught if we don’t take care of the football. It’s a lesson learned.”
Suddenly the wacky stuff that happens in this series to keep games close was in play. But Day knew what to say at halftime to settle the troops. He’s seen these kind of dramatic story twists enough to know what it takes to get to a happy ending.
Ohio State’s Brandon Inniss shakes off a Penn State defender after the catch in the first half of Saturday’s win at Ohio Stadium.
“If we take care of the football, we’re going to win the game,” he said. “The second thing was that we needed to have a great drive to come out in the third quarter, and that great teams win the second half.”
The Buckeyes started the second half with the ball. That was all the daylight they needed. On the second play, Sayin threw deep to Tate for 57 yards to the Penn State four. Donaldson, still seen as trustworthy, scored from the one for a 24-14 lead.
The defense, which gave up an uncharacteristic 15-play, 75-yard touchdown drive in the second quarter, rallied with a new attitude. And a new scheme to use linebackers Arvell Reese and Sonny Styles to take away the perimeter runs and passes they didn’t control in the first half.
The offense got the ball after one Penn State first down. This time on the second play, Sayin told Smith to go long. And the best half of the best receiver tandem in America caught a 57-yard pass to the Penn State 21. Sayin found tight end Bennett Christian for a one-yard touchdown and an insurmountable 31-14 lead with 3:21 left in the third quarter.
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“We were kind of disappointed with turning the ball over, so coming out at halftime we knew what we were doing, and we knew we can move the ball,” Sayin said. “We we’re excited and took a shot, hitting the second play, just keeping the momentum going.”
The Buckeyes, other than the fumble in a disadvantageous spot, looked like a team starting to play its best football in November. And if it’s to be believed that Penn State is more talented and better than its 3-5 record – a point Day and his captains made this past week – then this was the kind of second-half-of-the-season performance that coaches crave.
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One thing is for sure, the Buckeyes’ passing game is the nation’s most dangerous and so-far unstoppable force. Sayin surpassed 300 yards for the fifth time with 316 yards. His pin-point accuracy created a 20-for-23 day and four touchdowns. He also threw a 45-yard touchdown pass to Tate in the second quarter.
Day wouldn’t say Sayin, a redshirt freshman with eight starts to his credit, is the best quarterback in the nation, and he wouldn’t wager on the Heisman Trophy race, which Sayin now has the best odds of winning. But Day realizes why that conversation exists. Sayin is the nation’s highest rated passer, leads the nation with an 80.7% completion rate, has thrown for 2,272 yards and 24 touchdowns and only three interceptions.
String together the three perfect long passes Sayin threw Saturday and you have a potential Heisman montage moment. Of course, what he does against Michigan and presumably in the Big Ten title game will determine whether he wins the award or someone else does.
“If Julian continues to play the way that he’s playing, he deserves to be in the conversation at the very least,” Day said.
Sayin showed off his burgeoning moves with a crazy-legs nine-yard scramble for a first down in the second quarter that kept the drive alive that raised the lead to 17-7. And when he was pressured early, he got rid of the ball with no harm done. All season he has stood his ground in the pocket and hit open receivers when the heat is coming.
OSU defensive coordinator Matt Patricia credits the student section for their vocal support of his defense during Saturday’s win over Penn State.
“When you can feel the rush and not have your eyes on it, your eyes can be down the field, you can anticipate what’s happening, the ball comes out, I’d like to tell you that we coach that, but we don’t,” Day said. “That’s something that makes a quarterback special. He has that trait.”
And what about the special traits of Smith and Tate, two wideouts who are good enough to win national awards. They continue to wow with their acrobatic catches, ability to burn cornerbacks and get behind safeties. And their stats are pretty good, too.
Smith, who Day has called the best offensive player in America, caught six passes for 123 yards and two touchdowns. The first one was a 14-yarder on a slant he caught just in front of the goal line for the first score of the game. His strength and cutting ability make him nearly impossible to stop in those situations.
Smith’s second TD was an 11-yarder for the day’s final touchdown. On that one the ball was tipped at the line, but he tracked the fluttering football and reeled it in with one hand at the goal line in front of two defenders.
“See ball, get ball,” Smith said. “I didn’t want Julian to get an interception so he couldn’t grade out as a champion. I just had to make a play.”
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Smith’s 2,040 receiving yards and 22 touchdowns are the most in the nation since the start of the 2024 season.
Tate’s twisting TD catch displayed again that passes to himself and Smith that seem up for grabs have far better odds of being completed than the average 50-50 ball. He caught five passes for 124 yards.
Add in third receiver Brandon Inniss who Sayin is finding now with more regularity. Inniss caught a touchdown against Wisconsin and caught four passes for 41 yards Saturday.
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“Best in the country – nobody’s better than us,” Smith said of himself and Tate, then quickly added Inniss to the group. “The whole receiver corps all got talent.”
The same can be said for the defense. They got their pride dinged a little on Penn State’s 15-play, 75-yard touchdown drive in the first half. They allowed 141 yards in the half. But in the second half, with Reese making plays up and down the line of scrimmage and behind it on his way to 12 tackles, the Buckeyes held the Lions to 59 yards.
Reese made his highlight play of the season in the second half after the lead had reached 31-14. Penn State had one last chance to stay marginally in the game when Reese blitzed, ducked under the left tackle’s air block and blindsided quarterback Ethan Grunkemeyer for a sack. Reese’s turbo-charged move was as explosive as any deep pass or the 51-yard run Bo Jackson made in the fourth quarter to set up Smith’s one-handed touchdown.
Even when Penn State made headway, Downs wasn’t worried. All the defense needed to do, he said, was execute assignments and beat blocks.
“There’s never any panic,” he said. “If something’s wrong, it’s on us. And we have to fix it when we have a chance to. It’s always an opportunity to test ourselves when teams do something good on us.”
Downs almost got ejected for a targeting call in the fourth quarter that would have cost him the first half next week at Purdue. The unsportsmanlike penalty stood, but replay overturned the targeting call that drew flags from four officials. A few plays later Downs ended the Penn State drive with an interception in the end zone on fourth-and-goal from the seven.
“God gave me one right there,” Downs said. “I’m appreciative of the moment, and he showed mercy on me.”
But the Buckeyes showed the Nittany Lions no mercy when challenged. That’s one way to stake a claim to No. 1.
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