The Good, The Bad & The Ugly: Reviewing Penn State’s 38-25 loss to Ohio State
Penn State head coach James Franklin sensed the urgency early in the then-No. 18 Nittany Lions’ 38-25 loss to No. 3 Ohio State at Beaver Stadium on Saturday night.
The Buckeyes opened the game by gutting the Nittany Lions’ defense with a 62-yard jet sweep by sophomore receiver Garrett Wilson on the very first play. Two plays later, they scored. Then, already feeling pressured to match Ohio State’s offensive intensity, Franklin decided to go for it on fourth-and-two in his own territory. Penn State didn’t convert, and Ohio State quickly scored another touchdown — going up 14-0 less than halfway into the first quarter.
“We wanted to be aggressive,” Franklin said after the game. “That’s why we went for it early.”
After finding a rhythm on offense in the second half — thanks to junior receiver Jahan Dotson and freshman receiver Parker Washington creating separation from defenders and getting open — the Nittany Lions put up a respectable fight. Redshirt junior quarterback Sean Clifford completed 16 passes in the second half, after completing just two in the first.
Though Penn State came as close as eight points in the third quarter, it never truly felt like the Nittany Lions had a chance to win.
It resulted in the program’s eighth loss to Ohio State in the past 10 years, and its first 0-2 start to a season since 2012.
“This is a winning program with an 0-2 start,” Clifford said. “We’re gonna get back on track. We’re gonna work even harder this week.”
GOOD
WR Jahan Dotson shines as WR1: Leading up to the matchup versus Ohio State, there were questions about whether Dotson could be a solid No. 1 option at receiver for Clifford. If there were any doubts, the 5-foot-11, 182-pound Nazareth native put them to bed after his performance Saturday night.
Dotson finished with eight catches for 144 receiving yards and three touchdowns. He was one of the sole reasons the Nittany Lions had a chance late in the contest.
He had the play of the night for Penn State when he grabbed a one-handed 21-yard touchdown pass from Clifford with 14:30 left in the game. Dotson created just enough separation from Buckeyes star senior cornerback Shaun Wade — in what may have been a push-off — before reeling the ball in with his right hand and running into the end zone. After a failed two-point conversion attempt, Dotson’s score put Penn State within 12 points.
Then, with 6:27 left in the contest, Dotson scored his third touchdown of the night. This time, it came from a 20-yard pass from Clifford. Though the game seemed out of reach at this point for the Nittany Lions, Dotson’s efforts gave Penn State faithful enough reason to believe they had a chance.
Oh, and this all came against one of the best teams in the country. If Dotson can keep up this pace, he could be one of Clifford’s favorite targets for the rest of the season.
WR Parker Washington’s encouraging performance: Another optimistic sign in Saturday’s loss also came from the Penn State receiving corps. Washington — named a starter as a freshman — knew he’d be relied on this season with the Nittany Lions’ lack of returning talent at receiver.
While he finished with two catches for 12 receiving yards against Indiana last week in Penn State’s season-opener, Washington stepped up against Ohio State.
Against the Buckeyes, he ended the contest with four catches for 73 receiving yards — good for second on the team behind Dotson.
Washington consistently created separation from defenders in the second half on Saturday, giving Clifford another downfield target to go with Dotson. On two of Penn State’s touchdown drives — one to start the third quarter and the other midway through the fourth quarter — Washington had big catches.
His 20-yard reception early in the third quarter allowed the Nittany Lions to get into Buckeye territory and eventually score their first touchdown of the game five plays later. And his 31-yard grab in the fourth quarter — Clifford’s second-longest pass of the night — gave Penn State some confidence on offense to respond to Ohio State when it needed to most. On that same drive, the Nittany Lions scored six plays later to pull within two scores of the Buckeyes.
Franklin raved about Washington’s ball skills leading up the start of the season. The 5-foot-10, 205-pound Sugar Land, Texas, native showed a glimpse into what all the hype was about on Saturday.
QB Sean Clifford’s average yards per completion: After throwing the ball just seven times in the first half against Ohio State, Clifford threw 23 times in the second. The increase in pass attempts paid off.
The redshirt junior completed 16 of his 23 passes after halftime. In fact, it was Penn State’s passing game that allowed it to get back into the contest in the second half. The Nittany Lions receivers — mainly Dotson and Washington — began creating separation from their defenders, and Clifford took advantage.
He connected with Dotson eight times on 12 targets, and hit Washington four times on four targets.
One of Clifford’s passes was a 37-yard throw — his longest of the game — to Dotson on third-and-17 on the Nittany Lions’ first drive of the fourth quarter. A drive that looked like it had stalled out turned into a timely touchdown for Penn State just a play later, cutting the Nittany Lions’ deficit to 12 points.
Even aside from a couple big plays, Clifford got the job done throwing the ball in the second half. For the game, Clifford averaged 15.6 yards per completion, compared to 11.4 yards per completion by Ohio State star junior quarterback Justin Fields.
The downfield success Clifford had later in the game makes one wonder if Saturday’s outcome could’ve been any different if Clifford had aired it out more earlier.
BAD
Running game: Heading into the 2020 season, Penn State’s running game was supposed to be the strength of its offense. For obvious reasons, that has changed.
Still, not many would have predicted the Nittany Lions would do as poor of a job on the ground as they did on Saturday. They finished the game with 44 total rushing yards on 27 attempts — that’s an abysmal 1.6 yards per carry.
In the first half, Clifford had run more than he’d thrown. But the 6-foot-2, 217-pound quarterback couldn’t get it going with his legs. He finished the contest with only five rushing yards to show for 18 attempts.
Sophomore running back Devyn Ford — who Franklin said will need to be “the guy” in the absence of standout redshirt junior running back Journey Brown and sophomore running back Noah Cain — didn’t get the job done, either. Ford only ran eight times the entire night, totaling 36 yards with one rush that he broke for a 23-yard gain.
As a surprise to many watching the contest against the Buckeyes, neither freshman running back Keyvone Lee nor freshman running back Caziah Holmes got a single carry. That was a bit odd after Franklin has said several times that replacing Brown — and now Cain — would be a group effort.
Penn State will have to find consistency running the football to avoid being one-dimensional down the road.
UGLY
Third downs: One of the biggest issues with Penn State on Saturday was the fact that its offense couldn’t stay on the field.
After having more than double the time of possession that Indiana did in its first game of the season, the Nittany Lions couldn’t extend drives as often as they would’ve liked to do so against Ohio State. Penn State had the ball for 22:59, compared to the Buckeyes’ 37:01. The most obvious reason for this was the Nittany Lions’ inability to move the chains on third down.
Penn State was just three of nine on third-down conversions versus Ohio State. The Buckeyes, on the other hand, went 10 of 18 on their third-down conversions.
Oftentimes, the Nittany Lions offense couldn’t get anything going earlier in drives, creating a far from ideal situation on third downs. Penn State’s average distance to go on third down was 10.4 yards, while Ohio State had just an average of 5.2 yards in those situations.
The Nittany Lions will have to find ways to keep drives alive to give themselves a better chance against teams that are able to score as easily as the Buckeyes.
This story was originally published November 1, 2020 at 5:57 PM.
