The Good, The Bad & The Ugly: Reviewing Penn State football’s 38-14 loss to Ohio State

Penn State, as expected, lost to Ohio State on the road Saturday afternoon in a game that exposed some of the Nittany Lions’ biggest weakness and showed the gap between the two programs.

Let’s take a look at the good, the bad and the ugly from the Nittany Lions’ fifth straight loss.

Good

Julian Sayin: Never a great sign for Penn State when the best player on the field is the opponent, but it’s hard to ignore just how good Sayin was for Ohio State. The Buckeye quarterback was on the money most of the game, including some high level deep throws that allowed his elite receivers to go make a play on the ball. His play in a game like this shows just how far away Penn State is right now. Because it hasn’t seen quarterback play anywhere near this level since Trace McSorley left, and even the way he played was very different from how Sayin does. The Ohio State quarterback isn’t just one of the best in the country at the position — he’s also a very strong Heisman candidate at this point. And he’s doing it as a first-year starter.

Zakee Wheatley: Penn State has had one player show up for every game and play at an elite level on defense and it’s Wheatley. He’s established himself as one of the best safeties in the country and likely would be the best if not for Ohio State safety Caleb Downs (who should have been ejected for targeting late in this game in one of the most egregious overturned calls I’ve ever seen). Wheatley has been excellent in coverage, strong in run support and has established himself as one of the leaders of the defense. He has good size for a safety and should find himself in the conversation to go in the top 50 picks of the 2026 NFL Draft. There isn’t a lot of positives from the team this year, but Wheatley’s growth has been remarkable.

Bad

Ethan Grunkemeyer: Much like last week, this isn’t an indictment of Grunkemeyer’s future. Rather, it’s another sign that he just isn’t ready to be a starter and has been put in a bad position because of an unfortunate injury and poor roster construction at quarterback. Grunkemeyer missed more than a few reads — including a deep ball that could have been completed to Devonte Ross in the early game, when he instead misfired a pass to Kyron Hudson on an intermediate route — and was not able to hit his open receivers consistently. He’s not mobile enough to escape and create on his own when his protection breaks down or when his receivers don’t separate (more on that shortly), making this a very difficult situation for him to have any success in.

Penn State’s receivers: And this is part of the problem for Grunkemeyer, just as it was for Allar and anybody else throwing passes this year. Ross has been good for the Nittany Lions, and his lack of production is more about misusing him than anything, but Hudson has been a massive disappointment and Trebor Peña has failed to gain any traction with the program. Penn State completely overhauled its receiver room during the offseason and what it got was one playmaker who it doesn’t know how to properly use and two adequate starters who disappear for long stretches within games. The group hasn’t come together at a level necessary for this offense to be average, let alone successful, and it’s likely to hold back the unit the rest of the season, too, unless Koby Howard or Tyseer Denmark breaks out at some point.

Cornerback play: A.J. Harris was mostly fine when he was covering receivers (and not when he was on tight ends) but the rest of the position group had a brutal day. Audavion Collins and Zion Tracy both struggled mightily, getting beat in man coverage and not doing their jobs at a high level in zone coverage. Yes, Carnell Tate and Jeremiah Smith might be the two best receivers in the country and having Sayin throw them the ball is basically a cheat code, but it gets a lot easier when the cornerbacks are allowing those players to get over the top for big plays. This was supposed to be one of the strongest position groups on the team this season, but instead it has been a severe letdown, and Saturday felt like the culmination of those struggles.

First drive punt: It seems like every week I get to lose my mind about an embarrassing decision to punt (shout out to Iowa for giving me plenty of opportunities two weeks ago) and this week it came from Penn State. The Nittany Lions were, somewhat surprisingly, moving the ball well against Ohio State on their first drive. They even got into Ohio State territory before attempting a run on a third down in need of six yards. That’s a perfectly reasonable decision because it can set up a short yardage situation on fourth down. And that’s what it did, gaining three yards and leaving Penn State with three more to go on fourth down to keep the drive rolling — except the Nittany Lions punted. And gave the ball back to one of the best offenses in football to promptly drive down and score a touchdown. That made it look bad, but even if Ohio State didn’t score quickly, it was still bad process and that can doom a team.

Ugly

Pass rush: This has arguably been the most disappointing aspect of Penn State’s team this year. Defensive end Dani Dennis-Sutton has underwhelmed since an elite start in non-conference play and defensive tackle Zane Durant has not taken a step forward like he was expected to this season. That’s not to say they have been bad — they just haven’t been elite for a defense that desperately needed them to both be dominant forces in the passing game. If Dennis-Sutton and Durant were consistently getting pressure on opposing quarterbacks, the players in coverage wouldn’t have to hold up for as long on the back end and everything would fall more into place with the entire unit. But instead, quarterbacks have all day to throw, and the Nittany Lions are getting diced apart at every level — a far cry from what was supposed to be the backbone of the team this season.

Jon Sauber

Centre Daily Times

(814) 231-6461

Jon Sauber covers Penn State football and men’s basketball for the Centre Daily Times. He earned his B.A. in digital and print journalism from Penn State and his M.A. in sports journalism from IUPUI. His previous stops include jobs at The Indianapolis Star, the NCAA, and Rivals.