The Ohio State football team has looked like arguably the best team in the country so far in 2022, but it has what might be its biggest test of the year coming up on Saturday when it travels to Happy Valley to play a top-fifteen Penn State team.
Of any program in the Big Ten that’s played the Buckeyes well, it has been the Nittany Lions. More often than not, when these two get together, it’s a close one, especially when the game is in Beaver Stadium. And while Penn State has been inconsistent this year, you can bet that Ohio State will get the Nittany Lions’ best shot.
Still, on paper, OSU is the better team and there are plenty of reasons to believe Ohio State will beat Penn State when the two meet at high Noon ET on Saturday.
Here are five reasons we think the Buckeyes will be victorious in State College this weekend.
An improved defense travels
As they say, defense travels. And with Ohio State and the improvements we’ve seen under Jim Knowles, you have to feel good about going in hostile environment and not falling prey to too many big plays to have to absorb a first punch early and play from behind.
I expect the offense to not be as efficient as we’ve seen for most of the home schedule just because of the crowd and boost Penn State will get, but I like the defense to make life difficult on quarterback Sean Clifford and the offense.
Yes, the defense, and not entirely the offense, will be the reason Ohio State wins this one.
A noon game
I’d rather listen to an awkward Jim Harbaugh press conference than hear how cool and intimidating the Penn State whiteout crowd is. But to be fair, it is an imposing setting to go into with fans seeming to get into it more as the night descends on the central Pennsylvania night.
And while Ohio State playing in Happy Valley has almost been a part of that tradition every other year, that’s not the case in 2020. Instead, Fox picked up the game for their Big Noon Kickoff Game of the Week and we’re here to tell you that you can send Christmas cards to the corporate offices in Los Angeles.
Sure, Penn State fans will be jacked for this one, but it’s not going to be as near to a scene, setting, and all that goes with whiteout conditions in October. It’s a little easier to win a game in the sleepy Noon window than a night game with your eyes being burned out by a bleached white screen in high definition.
C.J. Stroud over Sean Clifford
Look, I’m not looking to take anything away from Penn State quarterback Sean Clifford. After all, nobody can argue what he’s given to the Nittany Lion program — plus he’s an Ohio native who has been in college longer than I’ve owned my house.
But when you look at the quarterback matchup here, it’s a guy that’s likely the leader for the Heisman race vs. a very inconsistent option under center who has flopped in the majority of the big games he’s played in.
I’ll go a step further. I hope that both play well and make this one whale of a game despite the national narrative that would result. But if you are simply looking at the two players that are going to have the most say in how this one goes on the field, it’s C.J. Stroud hands down.
Ryan Day is greater than James Franklin
I know it’s still a short career for Ryan Day at Ohio State, but he’s shown that he’s a great X’s and O’s type of guy that usually has great in-game and halftime adjustments. James Franklin has had some very good moments at Penn State, but like his quarterback, he too has struggled more often than not in the biggest of games.
The knock on Franklin has always been that he’s a great recruiter, and great with the players, but not a great game-planning and in-game coach. We’ve all seen evidence of that, and it could come to pass again on Saturday.
I’ll take the guy on the visiting sideline in this one over the home one. But hey, we are Ohio State homers so …
An outlier last week
I know we folks in the media are the knee-jerk type that likes to run with things after what we see during that week, but I’m here to try and be a wordsmith missionary and change all of that. It’s about the body of work and not what one week holds.
Ohio State has shown an ability to run the ball and not just against the weaker opponents on the schedule. Last week was really the first one that the Buckeyes struggled to gain any traction on the ground. Before that, the Buckeyes didn’t have too many issues running against pretty good Notre Dame and Wisconsin fronts.
For me, last week was more about Iowa outnumbering OSU in the box with different looks than it had shown to date, and Ohio State not getting into the right play to adjust to it during the first half. This Buckeye offensive line is very good and I’ll go ahead and put it out there that there won’t be nearly the issues we saw running the ball as what everyone jumped on last week.
Running the ball as a part of a balanced offense will help move this thing along to a victory for Ohio State.
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