COLUMBUS, Ohio
Four takeaways from Penn State’s up and, mostly, down showing at Ohio Stadium on Saturday night ...
■ It’s one thing to be young and talented, it has been said. It is completely another thing to be great.
That has been said for generations about teams like Penn State, and on Saturday night at the famed Horseshoe, in front of the second-largest crowd ever to watch Ohio State play a home game, these Nittany Lions showed they are young and talented.
The great team those fans got to watch was, of course, the Buckeyes. They fell behind, hung around, made adjustments, made big plays on both sides of the ball, never panicked, got the ball to their best play-makers and wound up with a fairly neat and convincing 38-10 win over Penn State.
For their part, the Nittany Lions did some of that, some of the time. Just not nearly enough of the time. That’s why, after another thorough beating against the No. 1 program in the nation and the one that sets the standard in the Big Ten, so many players lamented not what Ohio State was able to do, but what they weren’t.
It was to the point where quarterback Christian Hackenberg was asked, quite bluntly, after the game if he’d have thought Penn State would have beaten the No. 1 team in the country if he had been told before the game that running back Saquon Barkley would dominate the way he did, plowing his way to 194 yards on 26 carries. And Hackenberg responded, with a shrug, “Well ... yeah.”
The issue was, the Lions were victimized by themselves, over and over again.
The dropped pass by tight end Mike Gesicki at the Ohio State 20 would have put Penn State in position to go up 10-0 early in the first quarter. And Barkley’s 44-yard carry on the very next play actually would have put them up by that score had right guard Brian Gaia not been called for about as obvious a holding call as you can get flagged for in the Big Ten.
The coaches didn’t help all that much, either. Offensive coordinator John Donovan and Franklin called for far too many delayed handoffs to Barkley in short-yardage situations, and the problem was, that was the only play on which Barkley was consistently stopped. The Ohio State defense needed that extra second to beat Barkley to his spot, and it’s sort of mind-boggling that the delay kept getting called when it was clear that was the case.
There was also that five-wide set on first down at their own 8 in the third quarter, when the Nittany Lions needed a drive to get back in the game. Hackenberg was predictably sacked, and that drive was shot down before it started.
You can make mistakes and beat Ohio State, for sure. But you can’t make many.
Penn State made far too many in every facet of the game.
■ Sure, it’s one position that was sort of left for dead after the NCAA’s ill-fated sanctions against Penn State, but it’s still pretty amazing the Nittany Lions have not been able to develop a reliable punter since Anthony Fera left for Texas before the 2012 season.
An argument actually could be made that Penn State lost Saturday because Ohio State punted better. Think about this: Ohio State’s punter, Cameron Johnston, pinned the Nittany Lions inside their own 10 to start four drives in the game. That puts quite a mental toll on an offense when it knows it has to start a quarter of its drives with practically the entire field in front of it.
“Obviously, it’s kind of tough,” Hackenberg said. “You press more in those situations sometimes.”
Ohio State, meanwhile, saw its average field position start at its own 36, a perfectly comfortable starting point. That’s because Penn State punter Chris Gulla averaged just 36.2 yards per punt, and the supposedly stronger-legged backup, Daniel Pasquariello, averaged a mere 35.3.
It was the biggest mismatch in the game, and the Nittany Lions need to correct it. This has nothing to do with sanctions or scholarships, really. Penn State has a great tradition of walk-on punters excelling. They need to fix the issue, and soon, with the two guys they have — or somebody else.
“We’ve had major issues for two years punting the ball,” Franklin said, simply. That has to change.
■ Another thing Penn State needs: A reliable third threat on offense.
Saturday, Barkley and receiver Chris Godwin combined for 94.3 percent of Penn State’s total yards. Yep, 297 of the 315 yards it gained. A combination that good, and that young, is certainly a solid foundation.
But opposing defenses can scheme against two guys. The Nittany Lions need to start developing a third threat, and freshman receiver Brandon Polk might be a good place to start. He has the speed and toughness to break the occasional big play.
■ Conventional wisdom is that either Austin Johnson or Anthony Zettel is the best player on Penn State’s ultra-productive defensive line, and that might be what the NFL Draft indicates down the road. But it’s getting more and more difficult to pass defensive end Carl Nassib off as just a fun story on quite a run.
The Buckeyes’ offensive line, which is a terrific one, couldn’t handle Nassib on Saturday. He finished with 1.5 sacks and 3.5 tackles for loss. His eight tackles were second on the team, too, which shows the impact he’s having against the run. These are becoming every-week numbers he’s putting up, and it’s no fluke. The guy is a pro prospect, for sure.
(Collins covers Penn State for Times-Shamrock. Contact him at dcollins@timesshamrock.com and follow him on Twitter @psubst)