Ohio State fans are quite familiar with the Penn State team and only have to go back to two years ago to feel the disappointment of Ohio State's last trip to Happy Valley. Despite playing a subpar game by Buckeye standards, J.T. Barrett and the Buckeyes had a chance to win it late but it was not in the cards as Ohio State could not overcome a litany mistakes that eventually did the Buckeyes in, 24-21.
Fast forward to this year, the Buckeyes are going into Happy Valley as the No. 4 team in the nation while Penn State has its own top-10 ranking as the No. 9 team. Both teams have high-powered offenses and are actually No. 1 and No. 2 in scoring offense (Penn State holding that slight edge of one point). Each team has had to go on the road (to a certain extent) once to play with Ohio State going to the state of Texas to take on TCU while Penn State went to Pittsburgh to face Pitt in their home building. Outside of that, neither team has faced much in the way of resistance in terms of their foes, though Appalachian State took Penn State to overtime and Illinois gave the Nittany Lions all they could handle for about 35 minutes in Champaign (Ill.) while Ohio State has not had to play starters much beyond the 3rd quarter in any of its other games.
Outside of final scores and highlight packages, what do we really know about the Nittany Lions other than the fact that they are undefeated as well and tied with the Buckeyes at the top of the Big Ten East? We are heading Behind Enemy Lines to catch up with a friend of the site, Nate Bauer of BlueWhiteIllustrated.com to learn more about Penn State and get his take on this upcoming game.
BuckeyeGrove: How is this offense different from the offense last season? Where is it better and is there anywhere where it may not be as good?
Nate Bauer: I guess the first thing I would say is that, fundamentally, it’s not different. Joe Moorhead’s ascension to head coach at Mississippi State turned into the offensive coordinator role for Ricky Rahne, who seemed to be his most devoted apprentice for a two-year tenure anyway. And by every account internally, and certainly to my eye at least, the product on the field looks strikingly similar to the one that produced two of the highest scoring seasons in school history in 2016 and 2017.
That said, you can’t ignore the absences of Saquon Barkley, Mike Gesicki and DaeSean Hamilton. They were all integral pieces of that success, not least of all Barkley, who will no doubt be remembered as one of the best running backs to ever play at Penn State.
The thing is, though, with quarterback Trace McSorley returning for a fifth-year senior campaign, the emergence of a versatile horse in junior running back Miles Sanders, the breakouts of K.J. Hamler and Ricky Slade, the contributions of Juwan Johnson, DeAndre Thompkins, Brandon Polk, Mac Hippenhammer, Jonathan Holland, Pat Freiermuth, and Danny Dalton, and the undeniably improved play of a now-veteran offensive line, the new normal for Penn State fans isn’t all that bad. And in fact, I would probably argue that it’s mostly improved as a whole.
Surely, I think it’d be foolish to suggest that anyone on this offense has Barkley’s game-changing capability. He was just on another level when it came to breaking off an 80-yard run or a kickoff return or a reception for a touchdown. But there’s also something to be said for a guy in Sanders who can average 7.0 yards per carry through the first four games and legitimately seems to pick up that number every time he touches the ball. There’s something to be said for a receiving corps that can manage its projected star, Juwan Johnson, going MIA the first three games without seeming to miss a beat.
And no doubt, McSorley’s ability is a key component to all of it. He’s thrown eight touchdowns with two interceptions, neither of which was really his fault, and has another six rushing touchdowns to go along with it. He’s heady, he’s stable, he’s collected under pressure, and going into this game Saturday night, he’s tied for sixth in the nation for individuals with the most points responsible for at 84 for the season. Given an offensive line in front of him that is infrequently giving up much to the pass rush and is consistently opening up holes in the ground game, it’s been a winning method.
All of this, of course, acknowledging that Ohio State’s defense will present a challenge that is more difficult than anything else this group has seen this season from Appalachian State, Pitt, Kent State, and Illinois.
