K-squared cook up perfect recipe for win over Penn State

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COVER PHOTO: OSU defensive coordinator Jim Knowles. Picture by Sam Fahmi/Columbus Wired.

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A couple of narratives have been pestering Ohio State since their loss against Oregon like an annoying gnat you keep swatting at but continues to find its way right back into your face: we still haven’t seen offensive coordinator Chip Kelly’s true genius and defensive coordinator Jim Knowles is keeping this defense too tight.

Well, that pesky gnat got a proper smack on Saturday afternoon and might finally stay away for good after both coordinators called potentially their best game of the season as the fourth-ranked Buckeyes (7-1, 4-1 Big Ten) flew out of Happy Valley with a gritty 20-13 win over the previously undefeated, third-rated Penn State Nittany Lions (7-1, 4-1).

The victory gave OSU head coach Ryan Day his third-ever win against a top-5 team, now making his record as such, 3-6.

Penn State head coach James Franklin, on the other hand, is now 1-13.

But the win wouldn’t have happened if Knowles’ defense didn’t stop Penn State from scoring a single point on their final drive after the Nittany Lions had the ball first-and-goal at the OSU 3 and Kelly’s offense then literally ran out the remaining 5:13 on 10 runs and no passes for 58 yards.

The Buckeyes ended the game with 176 yards on the ground, led by running back Quinshon Judkins who toted the rock 17 times for 95 yards, including 32 on the final drive.

“To win in that fashion where our defense makes a stop on the one yard line, for the second week in a row - you know they did that last week against Nebraska - and then our offense responded. And to not give the ball back at the end of the game … I think our offensive line -  against as good of a defense that we’ll face (all year) - stepped up and did a great job. So I was happy for the players and everybody involved in this whole thing,” said Kelly.

Knowles said the final goal-line stand showed “a lot of heart and a lot of guts” by his squad.

“That really showed up big today,” he said. “There was a lot going on out there and Penn State throws a lot (of different looks) at you and our guys just handled it beautifully.”

Ohio State corralled Penn State to a season-low 270 yards and it was the Nittany Lions’ first time this year they didn’t score an offensive touchdown.

“At the end of the day, the way that we’ve been talking about it is, ‘go win the game’, and we had to get a stop on defense,” Day said. “And to finish that drive the way we did, I think is going to springboard our physicality (and) our toughness as we head into the back half of the season.”

Franklin lamented that they didn’t get 6-foot-6, 261-pound tight end Tyler Warren a little more involved in running the ball in for the potential game-tying score.

“Yeah, we gave the ball to the running back (Kaytron Allen), I think three times (and) threw the ball on the last one. Yeah, should we probably have given the ball to Tyler Warren after the plays he made? Yeah, I get the question.”

PSU offensive coordinator Andy Kotelnicki ran it three consecutive times up the middle that the Buckeyes stuffed and quarterback Drew Allar’s pass over the middle to tight end Khalil Dinkins - who had caught five passes all year - fell incomplete.

“They had a championship drive right there at the end,” Franklin said. “We did not play well in an obvious running situation (and) did not handle (well) the fact that the offense didn’t score in that situation.”

Kelly, however, handled his business and showed Buckeye Nation why he’s making $2 million a year. He whipped out some unique plays like read-options on third-and-short (including two for first downs that came on OSU’s final drive) and other read-options that turned into pitches to the running back for solid gains.

Quarterback Will Howard was the one who kept the ball on those third-and-short read-options, gaining three and seven yards, respectively, to keep the drive moving.

As for Knowles, we saw glimpses of his progressive play calling against Nebraska when he began blitzing linebackers and safeties on a few different occasions, something he wasn’t doing with his base, 4-2-5 scheme throughout the first six games.

But against the Nittany Lions, Knowles implemented different looks as he sent both safeties and linebackers in zone blitzes on the same play a couple of different times.

Some disgruntled observers within Buckeye Nation were questioning Kelly’s beefy contract after a somewhat pale offensive day against Nebraska mustered a season-low 21 points against a Cornhusker defense that had just given up 56 the week before to the Indiana Hoosiers.

Other discontented folks were observing that Knowles’ basic defenses throughout the first half of the season weren’t showing a tenacity that was expected from a veteran bunch many felt were finally pumped and primed to be turned loose like a ferocious pack of wild dogs.

Of course, the narrative on Knowles was warranted after they gave up a season-high 496 total yards to the Ducks and didn’t force a sack nor a turnover in the 32-31 loss.

This game wasn’t without its frustrations, either.

Early on, it looked like Penn State finally had Ohio State’s number after losing the last seven contests to the Buckeyes when they jumped out to a 10-0 lead 10 minutes into the game. Their opening drive was their longest of the entire game both time and play-wise, eating up eight minutes of clock on 14 plays. However, it only resulted in a 29-yard Ryan Barker field goal.

But it got weird three plays later on Ohio State’s first offensive drive when the Nittany Lions went up 10-0.

“We talked about this was going to be a four quarter game,” said Kelly. “When you really think about it, we threw a pick-six to start the game (and) we fumbled the ball at the goal line and there’s 14 points (lost).”

The “pick-six” and fumble were both turnovers by Howard. The interception was returned 31 yards for a touchdown by cornerback Zion Tracy, which was Howard’s first pass of the game.

The fumble came midway through the second quarter when Howard kept it on a first down, read-option at the PSU 13 but got the ball punched out by safety Zakee Wheatley as he approached the near, left corner of the end zone. The ball then hopped off his left thigh and went careening over the top of the pylon, which is part of the end zone.

By rule, if the ball is fumbled by the offense into the end zone but goes out of bounds, the opposing team takes possession at the 20 yard line, which is what happened.

According to Kelly, though, it didn’t faze his offense.

“Our whole mindset is ‘so what, now what?’ We’ve always got to play the next snap.”

However, in between those two turnovers, the Buckeyes responded on both sides of the ball, immediately marching down the field after the interception on a seven-play, 74-yard drive that was capped by a 25-yard TD toss from Howard to receiver Emeka Egbuka.

OSU forced PSU to punt on the following possession and once again found the end zone when Howard hooked up with receiver Brandon Inniss on 21-yard drag route to the left side on a brilliant play call by Kelly that was set up by Howard faking a pitch to running back TreVeyon Henderson and finding Inniss open where Inniss sprinted the remaining 17 yards to the corner of the end zone.

The Buckeyes held a 14-10 lead at that point with 11:54 to play in the second quarter.

However, things got dicey for the Scarlet and Gray after the fumble, which gave the ball back to Penn State with under two minutes to play in the half. The Lions drove 46 yards to the OSU 3 to set up a first-and-goal with 14 seconds left.

Then some hijinks happened when Allar found receiver Harrison Wallace along the right side of the end zone for a touchdown to give them a 16-14 lead with 11 ticks on the clock.

Initially, it appeared Wallace hauled in the ball for the go-ahead score but the replay booth wasn’t so sure and called for a review. After the refs took a closer look, they overturned the original call after it was shown that OSU cornerback Davison Igbinosun thwarted the TD by snatching the ball from Wallace as the two went sprawling out of bounds.

That kept the score at 14-10 in the Buckeyes’ favor after 30 minutes of play.

The two would trade third quarter field goals and the Buckeyes would get another in the fourth from kicker Jayden Fielding with 10:13 to go to give them the 20-13 lead.

The following drive for the Nittany Lions is the one that ate five minutes of clock that got them down to the OSU 3 but ultimately didn’t result in anything.

Howard finished 16-of-24 passing for 182 yards, two TD’s and the one pick while carrying the ball a season-high 12 times for 24 yards.

His counterpart, Allar, was 12-of-20 for 146 yards, 0 TD’s and one INT.

Egbuka finished with three catches for 31 yards and the one score while Inniss caught two balls for 33 yards and the one 21-yard TD.

True freshman Jeremiah Smith led the team with four catches for 55 yards.

Warren led the Nittany Lions with 47 yards on three carries and was second on the team with four catches for 47 yards.

Running back Nicholas Singleton led the Lions with six receptions for 54 yards.

Former Buckeye receiver Julian Fleming, who transferred last year at the end of the regular season, was targeted once in the game and brought it in for a four-yard catch.

OSU linebacker Cody Simon led the team with 10 tackles including a nine-yard sack.

All-star PSU defensive end Abdul Carter ended the game with four tackles and two sacks totaling 12 yards.

Ohio State’s next game is at home against Purdue on Nov. 9 with the kickoff set for noon and will air on FOX.