The Penn State Nittany Lions appeared to have a great chance at continuing with their unbeaten season after an early pick-6 gave head coach James Franklin's team a 10-0 lead over Ohio State in the first quarter.
But instead of building off that early momentum, Penn State was stopped in its tracks and could only muster a field goal in the last 54-plus minutes of the game. As the Nittany Lions saw their offense stall out, Ohio State rallied with two touchdowns and came through with a 20-13 road victory.
The loss meant that Franklin had failed once again against the Buckeyes. The Nittany Lions are a brutal 1-10 against Ohio State under Franklin.
The head coach heard fans calling for his firing as he walked back to the locker room at Beaver Stadium calling for his job, and he reacted negatively to a fan who criticized him. “If you're gonna be man enough to talk, what's your name,” Franklin was quoted as saying on Instagram.
He attempted to take a higher road when he met with the media later on. “I own it all,” Franklin said. “We did some things that were good enough to win, other things we did not. You can’t have the ball inside the 5-yard line twice and come out with no points.”
Ohio State offense bounces back after slow start
Will Howard's first quarter pass was picked off by Zion Tracy at the Ohio State 31-yard line and the Penn State cornerback raced untouched into the end zone as the Nittany Lions took a 10-0 lead.
However, instead of collapsing, Howard bounced back with a pair of touchdown passes. He connected with wide out Emeka Egbuka on a 25-yard TD pass later in the first quarter that got the Buckeyes on the scoreboard.
Howard followed that touchdown with a 21-yard scoring pass to Brandon Innis that gave the Buckeyes a 21-10 lead. They would hold on to that advantage throughout the rest of the game.
Offensive coordinator Andy Kotelnicki and Penn State had a chance to tie the score in fourth quarter when the Nittany Lions had a 1st-and-goal situation at the Ohio State 3-yard line. Three consecutive running plays failed to produce a touchdown and quarterback Drew Allar's 4th-down pass into the end zone fell incomplete.
Howard is a Philadelphia native who had hoped to go to Penn State, but the Nittany Lions never gave him a scholarship offer. As a result, winning a game at Penn State meant quite a bit to him.
“We willed ourselves to win this game,” Howard said. “Winning a game like that in my home state is unbelievable.”
Follow Us
Subscribe
