Penn State’s wild comeback bid comes up shy at Ohio State
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COLUMBUS, Ohio -- No one really gave Penn State much chance to win anyway as a 19-point underdog, and down 21-0 in the third quarter, the Nittany Lions were left for dead.
Then some crazy stuff started happening.
Ohio State got butterfingers and kept fumbling, the Lions capitalized in the blink of an eye, and all of a sudden, PSU was right back in it.
But the wild comeback could not be completed.
All of that made for an intriguing scenario after the No. 2 Buckeyes regrouped and held on to beat the No. 9 Lions, 28-17, in the battle for the Big Ten East title before 104,355 fans at Ohio Stadium.
Was it a good loss for Penn State?
Is there is such a thing as a good loss for a team ranked in the top 10 and still holding hopes for the College Football Playoff?
Is it acceptable for a program like PSU to play the moral victory card after an unexpected comeback against what might be the country's best team -- on the road, no less?
Opinions varied among the Penn State players.
"It felt like we proved that we've got fight in us," safety Lamont Wade said. "I told them boys in the locker room, of course this hurts, real tough pill to swallow, but we fought. We fought our butts off. And I couldn't be no more proud of defense, offense, special teams for how hard we fought today."
But … it was a loss.
"A loss is a loss, I don't care what the score is," defensive end Yetur Gross-Matos said bluntly. "We've got to find a way to win, especially in critical situations where you can win."
Trying to find the right balance between suffering a key loss and being proud of the comeback effort left the players in a strange spot.
"I think we showed a lot of fight, a lot of resilience," tight end Pat Freiermuth said. "When you go down 21-0, it's not easy to stay positive and continue to fight, but we did that."
That they did.
But they also got down 21-0, and looked bad doing so, both offensively and defensively.
"You've got to figure out a way to win sooner," Gross-Matos said. "Fourth and third quarter is too late to turn it around. You've got to get out from the start. We should have started faster, on offense and defense."
Penn State (9-2, 7-2 Big Ten) had a good shot, with a win, to move back into the College Football Playoff discussion. But Ohio State drove 91 yards -- all on the ground -- for a touchdown on its first possession, and at that point, the Lions clearly were in trouble.
The Buckeyes (11-0, 8-0) drove right down the field again on their next possession, only to have quarterback Justin Fields fumble inches before the ball crossed the goal line.
Ohio State scored a TD with two minutes left in the first half. It finished the half with 255 yards of offense -- 147 on the ground -- and 16 first downs, running roughshod over Penn State's defense.
"They did a good job spreading us out to run the ball," linebacker Cam Brown said. "They got the looks that they wanted, and they executed when they needed to."
The Buckeyes got the ball to start the second half and drove right down the field for another touchdown and 21-0 lead with 11:31 left in the third quarter.
This thing was getting ugly.
But Penn State didn't lose confidence.
"I knew even when we were down 21, we could still come back in this game," running back Journey Brown said. "There's still time on the clock. It's not over 'till the fat lady sings. I didn't hear her singing at that time, so we kept pushing."
Things turned even more bleak a minute later, however, when PSU quarterback Sean Clifford got hit on a pass and went down with a leg injury. He did not return -- although he could have, coach James Franklin said -- and was replaced by backup Will Levis.
What followed in the next few minutes looked like some sort of minor miracle.
Levis' hard running helped the offense move right down the field, and Brown had a tough 18-yard TD run to get Penn State on the board.
OK, but Ohio State's offense was still going to keep pounding through PSU's defense. Right?
Nope. On their first play, running back J.K. Dobbins fumbled, and PSU recovered at the Buckeye 12.
Levis hit Freiermuth for 11 yards, then scored from a yard out on the next play to make it 21-14.
Three plays into its next possession, Ohio State fumbled again, for the third time on the day. All three fumbles were forced by Wade, who tied the Big Ten single-game record in that category.
The Lions got the ball at the Buckeye 35 and were in prime position to tie the game. They drove to the 11, and on second down, Levis threw a strike on a slant pass to Brown inside the 5. He was wide open and would have scored.
"For sure," Brown said.
But the running back dropped the pass. It turned out to be one of the biggest dropped passes in recent PSU memory because, instead of tying the game and seeing where things would go from there, the Lions had to settle for a 24-yard field goal from Jake Pinegar that made it 21-17.
"That was on me," Brown said. "Will made a good throw. I was seeing ghosts. And I just happened to drop the ball."
What did he mean by ghosts?
"I thought there was more people around me than there was," Brown said.
The Lions were pinned and had to punt from inside their 5 on the next series, and Ohio State got the ball at the PSU 44. Fields lofted a beautiful 28-yard TD pass to Chris Olave to stretch the lead to 28-17 with 13:18 to play.
Penn State drove into Ohio State territory on its next series, but Levis threw an ill-advised pass into heavy traffic over the middle that was picked off. The Lions needed points there to get it back to a one-score game, but it didn’t happen, and their offense was stymied the rest of the way.
So, the game featured a bad start, a great comeback, then a bad ending for Penn State.
"We battled," coach James Franklin said. "That's who we are. That's really who we have been for six years. That's how my teams have been for nine years. We'll fight and we'll battle."
On this day, the battle was impressive. But there were too many other things that were not good for the Lions, issues that they've got to clean up over a four-quarter game in order to beat an opponent of this caliber.
"We've got a strong locker room," Franklin said. "We've got a bunch of really good guys. Everybody in there is totally invested and had a lot of confidence that we could come here and win. … Obviously going down 21-0 to the No. 2 team in the country is not ideal, but we battled."
That wasn't enough, however, and the Lions' College Football Playoff hopes are now over.
"It felt like my heart got ripped out of my chest," Wade said of that reality.
"But one thing I told them guys, the only thing that's holding my tears back right now is how hard we fought and we didn't give up. It hurts, but me being proud of those guys in the locker room was helpful."