OSU makes several statements in win over Penn State

Nov. 3—When quarterback Will Howard went into a slide as the final seconds of Ohio State’s 20-13 victory over Penn State on Saturday ticked off the Beaver Stadium scoreboard, it erased the memories of two other recent slides by the Buckeyes.

Slide No. 1 was the one Howard went into just one second too late to get a timeout to attempt a field goal at the end of a 32-31 loss to Oregon three weeks ago.

Slide No. 2 was a group effort when OSU slid to the edge of dropping off the list of leading contenders for the national championship after that loss to Oregon was followed by an uninspiring 21-17 win over Nebraska.

Slide No. 3 was nothing like the others. If it is possible to slide uphill, it accomplished that.

Uphill is where the trajectory of OSU’s season is headed again after a win that kept the Buckeyes in the conversations about the Big Ten championship and the College Football Playoff national championship.

Beating No.2 Penn State (7-1, 4-1 Big Ten) was just the sort of win Ohio State (7-1, 4-1 Big Ten) needed for the sake of its own confidence and to quiet their critics at least for a while.

“I think this is going to springboard us going forward,” Day said. “I think it’s fair to say we were at a crossroads.

“This was a big game for us. We didn’t want to publicly say that but we said that behind closed doors. This is a big game for us for a lot of reasons.”

One of those reasons was personal for Ohio State’s coach.

Day has a 63-9 career record at Ohio State but still draws criticism from some fans who say he doesn’t win big games, including a 1-7 record against Top Five teams going into Saturday’s game.

“There’s a lot there to probably unpack but I’m not going to get into all of it. There is a lot that goes with being the head coach at Ohio State. You can say ignore everything that goes on, but your players read it, your…

Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/osu-makes-several-statements-win-153300569.html

Author : The Lima News, Ohio

Publish date : 2024-11-03 15:33:00

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