Ohio State’s defense grabbed the pregame headlines with Jim Knowles returning to the Horseshoe, but it was the Buckeyes’ jet engine of an offense that made the reunion miserable in a 38-14 beatdown of Penn State on Saturday.
Julian Sayin went video-game mode: 20-of-23 for 316 yards and four touchdowns, becoming (with Geno Smith in 2012) one of the only FBS QBs since 1985 to post three games in a season with 300-plus yards, 3-plus TD, 0 INT, and 85 percent-plus completions. Ryan Day loved the aggression.
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“We came in at halftime and we were up by three – you would have thought we were down by 21, but I thought we responded well. I thought some of Julian’s deep balls were excellent… we felt we had a chance to get behind them and called those plays.”
Penn State punched back early – the first team all year to score a first-half touchdown on Ohio State – and trailed just 17–14 at the break. Then the wheels came off.
The Buckeyes scored on three of their first four second-half drives, starting with a 57-yard Carnell Tate haymaker that set up a short CJ Donaldson plunge. Sayin kept hunting explosives, hitting Tate (5 for 124) on verticals and feeding Jeremiah Smith (6 for 123) for two scores, including an 11-yard one-handed poster with 9:43 left that ended the drama.
“See ball, get ball,” Smith said. “I didn’t want Julian to throw an interception, so he could grade out a champion. So I decided to make a play.”
Interim coach Terry Smith tipped his cap to the third-quarter avalanche.
“We scored two touchdowns in the red zone against a team that’s No. 1 in the country in that area, then we came out in the second half, and the third quarter set the tone for them. They got 14 points and we just never could respond.”
QB Ethan Grunkemeyer finished 19-of-28 for 148 yards with a pick; Kaytron Allen and Nicholas Singleton had Penn State’s rushing TDs, but the Lions stalled after halftime.
The Horseshoe even got petty late.
With Ohio State up 24, the videoboard flashed Knowles in the booth (boos) and then Matt Patricia (cheers). Message received. The top-ranked Buckeyes are 8–0 (5–0 Big Ten), suddenly looking as dangerous vertically as they are stingy.
“We saw how they were playing us… get Carnell and Jeremiah run right by him,” Sayin said.
Penn State drops to 3–5 (0–5), its fifth straight loss – the kind that leaves a mark.
Up next: Ohio State at Purdue; Penn State hosts No. 2 Indiana.
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