Sunday Column: Halloween Reveals Scary Truth — the Buckeyes are Pulling Away Again

The longest throws of the night for both quarterbacks told the story.

Justin Fields’ longest toss came after a pump fake to hold the safety, and was a dime that traveled 50 yards from his hand to the waiting fingertips of Chris Olave, who had a step, maybe a step and a half, on Marquis Wilson. That fake held the safety just long enough to prevent him from getting over in time, and Ohio State had a 49-yard touchdown.

Sean Clifford’s longest throw of the evening was a deep post to Parker Washington, who had found himself behind an Ohio State secondary that left more than a few Penn State receivers open on Saturday evening. Clifford, under duress for the vast majority of his passes, had some time to get rid of this pass. It sailed several yards long.

It is tempting to look at the Nittany Lions’ 38-25 loss that wasn’t really that close and attribute it to the yawning gap between the teams’ quarterbacks. Fields, who is a few months away from being a top-10 selection in the NFL Draft, spent the night making NFL throws behind a line that afforded him enough time to choose his primary, secondary, or even tertiary target. On one of the two occasions he was sacked, a thunderous blindside hit from blitzing linebacker Brandon Smith. Fields was quite clearly surprised at even the prospect of being hit, because a formidable Penn State defensive line had mostly only been able to wave at him.

Clifford’s statistics — 18-of-30, 281 yards, three touchdowns and one pick — do not suggest a poor game at surface level. But his night was very different from Fields’, and not just because the Buckeyes dumped him behind the line of scrimmage five times. When his linemen weren’t letting him down, his running backs were getting blocked into him. When he entered the tentative dance of the read option with those running backs, there was usually a third dance partner wearing white and gray. Unlike Fields, who kept his focus on spots between defenders well down the field, Clifford tried to escape trouble even on the rare occasions when it hadn’t yet arrived, and the results were predictable.

So, yes, the gulf between the quarterbacks was a major factor in the game and, yes, Fields would have made almost any college defense — and possibly a few that are currently masquerading as professional defenses — look silly the way he was spinning it as cardboard dogs and cats looked on from the stands on Saturday evening. As Penn State’s wobbly performance last week in Bloomington suggested, though, there were many other factors at play, starting with — and stop me if you’ve heard this one before — both lines of scrimmage.

Have the Nittany Lions closed the talent gap with the Buckeyes on the offensive and defensive lines the last few years? Yes. Has that been anywhere near good enough? Judging by Saturday’s performances, no. Sure, Kirk Ciarrocca could have and probably shouldn’t have called so many early runs and targeted Odell Beckham, Jr., who somehow slipped into Jahan Dotson’s jersey without anyone noticing on Saturday, a lot more often. But which calls work when your offensive line is getting blown up, not by pressure from five or six-man fronts but by the front four, on almost every snap? Yes, Fields, Olave and Garrett Wilson made Penn State’s secondary look completely helpless in man or zone, but does it truly matter when Fields can comfortably sit back and take his pick of receiver?

Go up and down the roster, and Ohio State has talented players. Go up and down Penn State’s roster, and you’ll find nearly as many talented players. But the difference between these two programs right now is that Ohio State’s players are on the same page as their teammates and their coaches, and that synchronicity, coupled with talent, leads to explosive plays. Ohio State had 10 gains of 15 yards or more on Saturday and averaged 6.7 yards per play. The Buckeyes are always a moment away from taking it to the house against any team in the country. The rainbow to Olave was just one example.

The crazy/sort-of-encouraging/frustrating thing? Penn State, thanks largely to what looked very much like a breakout game from Dotson, also had 10 gains of 15 yards or more, the vast majority in the second half, and wound up averaging 5.7 yards per play. But it also had 11 plays that resulted in no gain or a loss of yardage, not including penalties. The Nittany Lions are also always a moment away from an explosive play; the problem is, you never know if it’s going to blow up the opponent or blow up in their faces. That’s on Clifford, that’s on the line, that’s on the young running backs and, in each case, that’s also on the coaches. It’s not an either-or; it’s a chain reaction, and nearly all of the links have looked suspect at different junctures of this very young season.

Playing against a team like Ohio State, which Penn State will not do again this season, will bring all of these deficiencies to painful light. The last few matchups with the Big Ten’s best team had ended in similar heartbreak, but this one felt less like the gut-punch, one-possession losses of 2017 and 2018 and more like some of the ugly defeats of the early 2000s, which were long, slow bleeds to the finish line.

The good news is the Nittany Lions won’t have to worry about the Buckeyes any more this season. The bad news is they are left to wonder if the gap they’ve worked so hard as a program to close is widening again. Penn State’s overriding goal isn’t to emulate Ohio State, of course, it’s the same as the Buckeyes’ goal — put all the pieces together so that the collective talent has maximum impact. Ohio State showed Penn State what that looks like Saturday.