STATE COLLEGE – Penn State’s eight straight losses to Ohio State have come in a variety of ways, but each one has left the Nittany Lions feeling the same way – frustrated and frazzled.
Saturday was no different.
“It’s hard,” sixth-year guard Sal Wormley said. “We’ve been close multiple times since I’ve been here and we just haven’t gotten over that hump yet.”
Penn State failed to score twice after first downs at the Ohio State 3-yard line, which led to the Lions’ 20-13 loss before a record crowd of 111,030 at Beaver Stadium.
The fourth-ranked Buckeyes stopped third-ranked Penn State four times inside the 3 in the fourth quarter and once late in the second quarter on a spectacular interception by Davison Igbinosun.
“You can’t have the ball inside the 5-yard line twice and come away with no points,” Lions coach James Franklin lamented. “We had a turnover, which is uncharacteristic for us, and then basically another turnover on downs.
“That’s really the story of the game.”
It was another disappointing loss for Franklin, who fell to 1-10 against Ohio State and 1-13 against top-five opponents. He was booed by some fans after the game.
“There’s nobody looking in the mirror harder than I am,” he said. “Ninety-nine percent of the programs in the country would die to do what we’ve been able to do in our time here.
“But I also understand when you’re at a place like Penn State there are really, really high expectations. I get it. I totally get it.”
On Penn State’s last scoring threat, tight end Tyler Warren caught a 31-yard pass from Drew Allar and, after taking a direct snap, ran for 33 yards to the 3. The play calls after that were debatable.
Kaytron Allen carried three straight times into the middle of the line and netted 2 yards. On fourth-and-goal from the 1, Warren was double-teamed so Allar threw to Khalil Dinkins, but it was incomplete.
Franklin was asked if he and/or offensive coordinator Andy Kotelnicki considered putting the ball in Warren’s hands on any of those four plays.
“Should we have probably given the ball to Tyler Warren after the plays he made? Yeah, I get the question,” he said. “I get it.”
Ohio State then rushed on 10 consecutive plays from the 1 to the Penn State 40 and took a knee to run out the clock. Penn State’s defense had held the Buckeyes to less than 300 total yards to that point.
“That was our time to make a stop,” linebacker Kobe King said. “We felt good in that situation. Guys were emphasizing making the play and stepping up. We needed a big play to be made.
“It’s kind of a sucky feeling. We just didn’t execute the way we were supposed to execute.”
Late in the second quarter, the Lions started from the Ohio State 49 and picked up a first down at the 3 on Allar’s 21-yard pass to Harrison Wallace III.
But on the next play, Allar tried to hit Wallace again in the corner of the end zone. Igbinosun took the ball from Wallace as he fell out of bounds for an interception with 11 seconds left in the half.
“I just have to do a better job of making sure Tre or nobody catches the ball,” Alla said. “I had to give Tre a better shot of coming down with it on that play.”
The Lions thought they had forced a turnover earlier in the fourth quarter. Quinshon Judkins appeared to catch a pass out of the backfield before cornerback Cam Miller knocked the ball loose. Penn State corner A.J. Harris recovered and returned it into Ohio State territory.
The officials reviewed it and ruled that Judkins did not have control of the ball. Several plays later, Jayden Fielding kicked a 39-yard field goal to make it 20-13.
Allar completed 12-of-20 passes for 146 yards, Warren rushed three times for 47 yards and caught four passes for 47 yards and running back Nick Singleton caught six passes for 54 yards.
Former Downingtown West star Will Howard threw two touchdown passes for Ohio State and Judkins rushed for 95 yards.
After Penn State took an early 3-0 lead on Ryan Barker’s 29-yard field goal, Zion Tracy intercepted Howard’s pass and returned it 31 yards for a touchdown.
Ohio State answered quickly when Howard found wide-open Emeka Egbuka for a 25-yard touchdown. Then in the second quarter, he threw a 21-yard TD pass to Brandon Inniss after an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty on cornerback Elliot Washington II kept the drive alive.
“(You) can’t do that,” Franklin said. “Can’t do those things. Happened last week. Happened again today. That’s on me. We have to be a disciplined football team. We were not disciplined at times today.”
The frustration after another loss to Ohio State was evident on the faces of several Penn State players afterwards.
“Everybody’s upset,” Singleton said. “We felt like we didn’t finish. We just gotta finish, man. It was a close game. We know we’re good. We just gotta finish.”
Source: Berkshire mont