by In the most important game thus far of the 2024 season, the No. 4 Ohio State football team stood strong and defeated No. 3 Penn State on the road. This was truly a make or break game for the Buckeyes’ year and with the gritty victory, they should have some relatively smooth sailing for the next few weeks. This was Ohio State’s eighth straight win over the Nittany Lions, let’s look at how they got it done.
Running game controls the finish
To start the game, the Buckeyes did not look sharp. They played mistake-filled and out of control football, leading to a 10-0 deficit in the first quarter. However, they were able to turn things around and with a seven point lead, ran the final five minutes off the clock to secure the victory. In that final drive, the trio including running backs Quinshon Judkins and TreVeyon Henderson as well as quarterback Will Howard ran it on every carry, converting four huge first downs.
After starting the season with a strong running game, things really went on the downturn in recent weeks. Last week against Nebraska, the Buckeyes could hardly generate anything in the backfield and because of it they certainly could have lost the game. Today, though, things were much better as Judkins led the way with 14 carries for 95 yards. With the performance, he looks to have silenced any doubters that were saying he’d been playing through an injury. Henderson went for 54 yards on 10 carries and Howard had 24 important yards himself.
Offensive line overcomes adversity
While the running backs were good, they couldn’t have done it without the exceptional play of the offensive line. Ever since the Oregon game when left tackle Josh Simmons suffered a season ending knee injury, the unit has been in flux. Zen Michalski, Simmons’ replacement last week, wasn’t available today, so Head Coach Ryan Day and his staff had to get creative.
What they ended up doing is sliding left guard Donovan Jackson, who is slated for an early selection in the 2025 NFL Draft, over to tackle and having Carson Hinzman come in at guard. Let’s not forget that Hinzman started all season last year at center, playing so poorly that he’s hardly had any role whatsoever on this year’s team. However, he, Jackson, Seth McLaughlin, Tegra Tshabola and Josh Fryar did a fabulous job containing star edge rusher Abdul Carter and the rest of the Penn State defensive front.
Defensive line holds strong
With the score 20-13 and Penn State having the ball at Ohio State’s three-yard line with under eight minutes to go, it looked very much like we were about to have a tie game to many Nittany Lions fans’ delight. Although, as we know, things went in a very different direction. The Ohio State defensive front held in there and stuffed running back Kaytron Allen three straight times, before forcing quarterback Drew Allar to make an errant throw under pressure on fourth down to get the crucial turnover on downs.
It was easily the most important defensive set of downs the Buckeyes have faced all year, and not only that but they did it without their best defensive tackle, Tyleik Williams, who left the game just before with an apparent injury. Other defensive tackles Ty Hamilton, Hero Kanu and Kayden McDonald as well as linebacker Cody Simon and safety Lathan Ransom were huge in the stop and deserve some serious recognition.
Quickly, while he isn’t on the defensive line, we need to take a moment to praise cornerback Davison Igbinosun for his clutch interception in the second quarter. With the Buckeyes up 14-10 at the time and only 14 seconds left in the half, Allar and the Nittany Lions were driving into Ohio State territory. Allar lobbed a pass to the back left corner of the end zone to wide receiver Harrison Wallace III that initially looked like it was caught, but upon further review, Igbinosun ripped the ball into his own hands while keeping a foot in bounds for the turnover. The play arguably changed the trajectory of the game, as Ohio State was able to go into the break with both the lead and the momentum.
Howard makes early mistakes, responds well to back up talk
Just like we said earlier in the week, Howard is prone to making mistakes and that is exactly what happened once again. First, on the first offensive drive of the game, Howard was looking for wide receiver Jeremiah Smith on a slant route and never saw Penn State cornerback Zion Tracy, who picked off the pass in stride and took it all the way back for a touchdown. Then, in the second quarter, Howard scampered out of the pocket all the way towards the goal line and at the one-yard line, was hit by a defender. On the hit, the ball was dislodged and accidentally kicked through the end zone by Howard for the turnover and touchback.
Those two plays were ugly, but Howard did have his good moments, per usual. The touchdown passes were nice, and he was a constant threat to run, something we haven’t always seen this year. In fact, Howard was the runner who converted the final third down to put the game away.
At the end of the day, Howard’s part in the victory was certainly enough to back up some of the things he said to the media following last week’s game. “I grew up a Penn State fan. I wanted to go there my whole life and they didn’t think I was good enough,” Howard said. “I guess we’ll see next week if I was.” Welp, I guess he was.
New receiver makes presence felt
Lastly, it’s been a theme for weeks that offensive coordinator Chip Kelly needs to get other receivers involved in the passing game to take some of the pressure off the stars (Emeka Egbuka and Smith). The last couple weeks it was Carnell Tate, who had been the third guy, but this time it was sophomore Brandon Inniss. The former four-star had just two catches for 33 yards, but they were both game changing plays. Late in the second quarter, Howard found Inniss for a 21-yard, catch and run touchdown and then in the fourth quarter, Inniss made a key first down catch that set up a field goal. It must continue to be said that another receiver must consistently step up alongside of Egbuka (who caught a touchdown today, too) and Smith, and today that guy was Inniss.
Next up for Ohio State will be a home game against Purdue next Saturday. The test should be a relatively easy one, but each game for the Buckeyes is highly important as they look to find a way into the Big 10 Championship game.
