Ohio State defeats Penn State in lackluster game, 24-7

State College, PA - On a beautiful, sunny Saturday afternoon, the first one in weeks in the northeast, 110,033 Penn State and Ohio State football fans anticipated an epic Big Ten battle at Penn State's Beaver Stadium.  Though Ohio State came away with the 24-7 victory, they overcame a lackluster PSU performance with slightly more effort than their adversaries while both had added incentive generated by Iowa's first conference loss earlier in the day.  The Hawkeye's 17-10 loss to Northwestern gave each a shot at a BCS berth or a Rose Bowl bid pending OSU's game versus Iowa next Saturday.  Instead, the game and the effort added more fuel to the fire that the Big Ten continues to falter in talent, intensity, strategy, and excitement.   If these two are among the three best this conference has to offer, there's at least four conferences right now better than this tired old group.  The result was a disappointment to Guest Game Analyst Tom Gause,  a PSU grad who made his first trek to State College with us since his last visit about ten years ago.  From a CFF.com perspective, it was disappointing in the sense of lackluster play by both squads, especially by Penn State who showed no passion on the field or imaginative play-calling by the coaching staff.  The Lions gave up a few big plays to Ohio State  which made the difference, and could generate none of their own.  Despite what you may read about a meeting between the conference's two toughest defenses, it doesn't say much for a conference who still seems to thrive on "three yards and a cloud of dust."  Their style of play yesterday was downright boring.

    Field position was the name of the game for the Ohio State victory.  The OSU offense took advantage of it.  Their defense put the Lions in the hole on three occasions and their special teams made the most of it.  A six-yard sack of Darryl Clark by DE Craig Heyward, son of the late "Iron Head" whom we saw play against Penn State here back in the '80s, forced PSU to punt from its own 13.  Ray Small returned it 41 yards to the PSU nine.  Two plays later, the much bally-hooed Terrell Pryor dove over the goal line for a 7-yard TD run and a 7-0 Buckeye lead.  Late in the period, PSU got into OSU territory keyed by a 31-yard pass to Graham Zug.  A defensive pass interference call in the end zone put the Lions and the two, and Clark just got the ball over on a QB sneak to tie the score early in the second period, 7-7.  A Devin Barclay 37-yard FG was the result of the Buckeye's ensuing series for a 10-7 lead which held up through halftime.  Before the half, PSU made its deepest penetration on offense for the rest of the game getting to the OSU 45.  A mishandled punt by the Buckeyes had the potential to result in a PSU score but instead came out to the 20-yard line as a result from a touchback.

     MS. P.J. Maierhofer put on another stunning, baton-twirling exhibition during halftime as she has now for several years featuring three flaming batons at one time.  She should have sent one into the locker room to allow Joe Paterno to light a fire under his team. They needed something to jump start them as they would receive the second half kick-off.  Quite clearly, there was no spark.

    Penn State rushed for 76 yards the entire game.  Each of the next three series result in punts no farther than from their own 36.  The third put Ohio State on their own 38.  One long pass to DeVier Posey on a poorly covered, long pass play for 62 yards extended the Buckeye lead , 17-7.  GGAd Tom Gause and John Massimilla agreed that there was still a chance for PSU to get into this game with 1:41 left in the third, but a good return on the kickoff and no more points by the Lion defense would be the keys to a comeback.  GGA John Massimilla was disgruntled by the poor line-blocking by the PSU O-line.

   PSU continued to play conservatively.  Jeremy Boone's punt all the way to the OSU eight was returned by Ray Small 45 yards to the Lion 47.  The  lack of PSU's defensive front to stop the Buckeyes on critical third downs resulted in two first downs as the Buckeyes picked up key yards on the ground on their next drive.   Pryor polished off the Lions with his second TD pass of the day from six yards to Brandon Saine.  With a 24-7 lead, Brian Homan's interception of Clark on PSU's subsequent series stopped all hope from the home team's perspective.  The Blue and White faithful lined up for the exits.  A punt and a turnover on downs with more conservative play calling kept the Lions from ever going farther than the OSU 47.  The Buckeye defense held PSU to 201 total yards on offense.  With Iowa at 5-1 before the start of this game, you would have expected the Lions to make a wild run for the Roses.  Instead, it was  very feeble one.

Extra Points:  This was the 300th PSU game played at Beaver Stadium.  In the annals of our history, the Lions stand 62-21.  The Buckeyes are 3-6 now with them winning both their games we attended this year.  PSU leads our series 4-2.

Tailgated with John and Kelle Massimilla with their family and friends including John and Carol Van Horn, fellow Juniata College alum.

We hope JoePa learns a lesson from his early season non-conference schedule.  Wins against Akron, Syracuse, Temple and Eastern Illinois, virtually all over with by halftime, did not prepare his team for the challenges of the two best teams on this year's schedule.  These wins are moot points aside from the money and the wins (unless that's only what this is all about).  It doesn't look good that the two losses are against the only two teams ranked on this year's schedule.  Alabama will be played on the road next season and at home the year after which is great.  But PSU has to do away with too many Youngstowns, Indiana States, and Kent States and come up with a game to prep his team for the pressures of conference games that mean something.  It's time to step up and play Pitt for a one-on-one home and away rivalry.  That game would be a great way to prep before Big Ten play.

More arguments against the current BCS system.  Who wants to watch a mediocre Big Ten team play in  abig bowl when you could have exciting undefeated teams like TCU and Boise instead?

Weird event in the parking lot after the game:  as Tom and I had a couple of beers before the Beaver Stadium parking lots cleared out for the next 90 minutes, a PSU fan strolled up to the crest of the hill where we were parked and asked if we had jumper cables.  I did and pulled them from the trunk.  I figured he just needed cable and had someone else with another car.  He didn't.  He next asked if we could pull up down hill to give him a start.  We passed another few dozen cars.  Everyone else just kind of hung around.  We couldn't figure out why this guy seemed to seek us out of all the other people around him.  We got him started.  He started to offer money, but I said forget it.  On the other hand, neither Tom nor I brought any food for after the game.  So we asked if he had any chips.  That worked out.  It just all seemed kind of strange.