Defense shares blame in Penn State's 4th-quarter collapse

STATE COLLEGE — When Ohio State’s offense is concerned, it’s always only a matter of time.

A matter of time before they find the groove. A matter of time before the big plays pile up. A matter of time before a good beginning turns into a nightmare of an ending.

And, so it was for Penn State’s defense Saturday. After holding the nation’s most potent offense to just one touchdown in the first 50 minutes at Beaver Stadium, the Nittany Lions saw the Buckeyes score 28 points in a span of 6 minutes, 9 seconds to break open a close contest that turned into a devastating 44-31 loss.

In that stretch, the Buckeyes ran 11 plays, gained 174 yards and scored three touchdowns. They averaged 15.8 yards per play, stunning a Penn State defense that, to that point, did a commendable job controlling an offense that ranked in the top five in the nation in scoring, explosive plays and total offense.

“Ohio State did a great job switching it up on us in the fourth quarter, going tempo, getting the ball and just going,” Nittany Lions safety Ji’Ayir Brown said. “They weren’t doing any more check-with-mes. They were just lining up and going, rushing us to get set up, rushing us to evaluate their offensive sets, and they did a great job. That was a great adjustment. They executed pretty well, got some good catches down the stretch and made some plays like they always do.”

When running back Kaytron Allen scored on a 1-yard touchdown run with 9:26 to play, it gave the Nittany Lions a 21-16 lead and put the game in the hands of a defense that had a significant rest after the offense orchestrated a 13-play drive that ate 5:44.

But that’s when Ohio State’s offense and coach Ryan Day changed approach.

The Buckeyes scored just one touchdown and averaged what, for them, was a conservative 5.8 yards per play to that point. Quarterback C.J. Stroud got the drive going with a 21-yard strike to star receiver Marvin Harrison Jr. Then he found Emeka Egbuka for 13 more before running back TreVeyon Henderson broke his first big run of the game, a 41-yard touchdown that handed the Buckeyes the lead back in 33 seconds.

Penn State’s offense got away from an effective running game once the Buckeyes picked up their offensive pace, and quarterback Sean Clifford fumbled the ball away and threw a pick-6 to lead to the more lopsided score after that. But the defense also didn’t give the offense a shot to work back from two scores down.

Tight end Cade Stover scored on a 24-yard catch and run the play after Clifford fumbled, making it 30-21. Even after the offense responded with a long drive resulting in a field goal to get within a score with 5:49 left, the defense didn’t have a stop left in it.

Ohio State simply marched 75 yards downfield in less than three minutes, converted a third-and-10 with a 12-yard pass from Stroud to a wide-open Harrison, and watched Henderson ultimately break the game open again with a 7-yard scoring run.

“We had them right where we wanted, I felt,” cornerback Joey Porter Jr. said. “Throughout the first three quarters we felt like we were playing great ball. We made some mistakes, but nothing to put us in a losing position, Really we just have to finish hard and fight through it.”