ANALYSIS: Defense, offensive line deliver much-needed top-5 win for Ohio State

“Guys came back on this team for a reason,” Ohio State head coach Ryan Day said after his team improved to 7-1 overall and 4-1 in the Big Ten. “To go win the rivalry game, the Big Ten championship and the national championship.

“Along the way, I think there was this conversation about the expectations and all those types of things, and I said to the team, ‘There’s no great accomplishments that happen without going through adversity.’ It’s just the truth.

“You don’t just walk into a season and think you’re gonna go reach your goals. That’s just not the way life works, so you get backed up against the wall, you got to respond, and that is life. So all of our goals are in front of us now, and we’ve been through a lot, and now we have to continue to build as we head into the back half of the season.

“But I can tell you coming out of that locker room right there, there’s a lot of guys in a room that are excited, probably the most animated locker room I’ve been in a long time.”

Here are four takeaways from the game:

1. The Ohio State defense stood tall all day — especially at the end.

The unit has been the subject of criticism for failing to come through in big games during the Jim Knowles era, but the Buckeyes made a goal-line stand in the fourth quarter to preserve the lead.

That was actually the second time in the game Penn State drove to the Ohio State 3 and did not score. The first came late in the second quarter when Davison Igbinosun took a pass away from the intended receiver in the end zone for a touchback.

The goal-line stand finished off an all-around strong day as the Buckeyes did not allow an offensive touchdown.

Penn State finished with 270 yards.

2. The offensive line also delivered when it mattered.

Playing without its best left tackle and first choice to replace him, Ohio State had to reconfigure its offensive front going into a loud, hostile environment.

Star end Abdul Carter sacked Will Howard twice, but the Buckeyes ran the ball well all day — especially at the end.

Trying to protect a seven-point lead, Ohio State drove from its 1-yard line to the Penn State 41 before taking a knee to run out the clock.

Behind left tackle Donovan Jackson, left guard Carson Hinzman, center Seth McLaughlin, right guard Tegra Tshabola and right tackle Josh Fryar, the Buckeyes ran it on 10 consecutive plays before that, pounding the Nittany Lions inside with Quinshon Judkins and TreVeyon Henderson before Howard picked up a pair of key third downs with quarterback sweeps to the outside.

Judkins and Henderson combined for 149 yards and 24 carries, and Howard added 24 yards on the ground for a running game that has been searching for the ability to do that to a team for a long time.

3. Howard got the last laugh (eventually).

A native of Downington, Pa., the Ohio State quarterback said he was stoked to show Penn State they were wrong not to recruit him, but he immediately gave the Nittany Lions a 10-point lead with a crippling interception returned for an easy touchdown on his first throw of the game.

Later in the second quarter, Howard appeared to score a touchdown on a 13-yard run, but Penn State’s Zakee Wheatley punched the ball out near the 2-yard line and it went off Howard’s knee out of bounds for a touchback.

That prevented the Buckeyes from opening up a 21-10 lead.

“I believe If you took away the pick and the turnover in the end zone it’s probably like 28-3 going into half,” Howard said. “It’s a different game, but we willed ourselves to win that game. I can’t give enough credit to my teammates. They bailed me out. Winning a game like that in my home state, it’s unbelievable.”

He ended up completing 16 of 24 passes for 182 yards and two touchdowns.

4. Ryan Day saw value in winning in such a way.

The head coach of the Buckeyes, who badly needed to win a top five game for perception’s sake after losing at Oregon in October, has been trying to change the reputation of his team for going on three seasons.

With the offensive line and defense doing what they did, they might have taken a big step in that direction, but there are four games left in the regular season, including visits from undefeated Indiana and arch-rival Michigan.

“I think it’s fair to say we were at a crossroads,” Day said. “This was a big game for us for a lot of reasons. We did not really publicly want to say that, but we said that behind closed doors. To get a top five win like this on the road in a tough environment, we knew we had to win the rushing yards, the turnover battle and (explosive) plays, but at the end of the day, we had to find a way to get a stop or that extra score. That’s what it will come down to.

“For our guys to get this win, it’s going to go a long way. I think this is going to springboard us moving forward. All of our goals are in front of us now. We have to continue to build as we go into the back half of the season.”