The Ohio State football team celebrates after a touchdown during the No .2 Ohio State-No. 13 Penn State game Saturday. Ohio State won 44-31. Credit: Katie Good | Asst. Photo Editor
Head coach Ryan Day saw what he needed Saturday at No. 13 Penn State to become convinced in the Buckeyes.
Trailing 21-16 with less than nine minutes to go in the fourth quarter, No. 2 Ohio State flipped the script. Behind who Day said is “the best quarterback in the country” in third-year C.J. Stroud and a pick-six by second-year defensive lineman J.T. Tuimoloau, the Buckeyes not only stepped up against the Nittany Lions, but picked one another up to finish their mission.
“That’s, to me, the difference between winning a championship, reaching our goals, or not,” Day said.
Stroud, Tuimoloau and Ohio State scored 28 points and gained over 150 yards in the final nine minutes during their latest bout with Penn State, which served as the first daytime meeting since 2009.
Ohio State trailed in the second quarter or later Saturday for the first time since then-No. 5 Notre Dame led 10-7 Week 1. Penn State held the advantage offensively 303 yards to 263 at the start of the fourth quarter, and the Buckeyes seemed searching for an answer.
But they didn’t give up, Tuimoloau said.
“We never broke. We always stay strong,” Tuimoloau said. “We were just telling each other like, ‘Hey, there’s stuff we got to fix.’”
As Ohio State erased its deficit in the fourth quarter, Day said he saw leadership on the sidelines, and he said he saw Stroud at the front of it.
Stroud guided the Buckeyes to touchdowns on three-consecutive drives, going 6-for-8 for 138 yards and handing the football to second-year running back TreVeyon Henderson twice for rushing scores.
“He was tremendous,” Day said. “To come in and play like that in this environment and go put the offense on his shoulders like that, listen, it’s everybody on offense, but boy he was gutsy in this game. I’m proud of him.”
Stroud didn’t take all of the credit, though.
Ohio State averaged 12.6 yards per play, didn’t allow a sack and recovered a fumble — all in the game’s final frame.
“We know that it gets tough in the fourth quarter,” Stroud said. “I think we’re a fourth quarter-type of team, at least we try to be. We work for that in the offseason.”
Offensively, the Buckeyes sputtered in the first half, averaging 2.1 yards per carry and scoring just once on their first seven drives.
Ohio State also snapped its perfect red zone scoring streak this season, having scored on each of its 36 trips — including 31 touchdowns — before Penn State junior cornerback Johnny Dixon sacked Stroud as time expired in the first half.
Stroud said throughout the starts and sputters offensively, he kept his message clear: “Let’s go be us.”
“I’m just telling my O-line, ‘You all keep me clean, I’m going to keep you all clean,’” Stroud said. “It’s not just me out there, so I really appreciate my teammates grinding.”
Ohio State remains undefeated through the season’s first nine weeks, and the first College Football Playoff rankings will be unveiled Tuesday.
Day and the Buckeyes made three goals clear for the 2022 season: avenge their loss at Michigan, recapture the Big Ten Championship and advance to the CFP National Championship.
They kept their hopes alive Saturday at Penn State.
“This is a hard place to play,” Day said. “It always is, so for us to do that was, I mean, that locker room was on fire afterwards. They deserve it.”
