Do not be fooled by the 38 points. The Ohio State comeback was only possible because of how the Buckeye defense limited the Penn State offense, holding the Nittany Lions to a 29-percent offensive success rate.

Against Penn State’s spread, run-pass option heavy scheme, defensive coordinator Greg Schiano worked from the inside out. Up front, Schiano often had his under defensive line formation slant or twist – often away from Saquon Barkley’s pre-snap alignment – to handle the inside run portion of the Nittany Lions’ read plays. The read-side linebacker would then set the edge or loop around in a scrape exchange to play the outside portion of the read.

If Penn State was in a balanced front, this was the Sam or Will outside linebackers. But if Penn State aligned in trips, Schiano shifted his linebackers, moving Sam linebacker Dante Booker over the slot, with Mike linebacker Chris Worley filling the edge role.

In the back end, Schiano did one of two things. The Buckeyes would play their base cover 4. Or more often, Schiano would bring an edge run blitz behind the slant. If it was from the boundary, it would come from the short-side corner or safety.