Ohio State football: How the Buckeyes match up with Penn State

Here are five things to know about the game:

1. Ryan Day expects a formidable home-field advantage for Penn State even with the noon start.

“No matter when you go into Penn State, it’s going to be a challenge,” Ohio State’s head coach said. “They do a great job with the atmosphere.”

Most of the Buckeyes have not experienced a game with fans at Beaver Stadium since the 2020 contest was played in front of almost no one as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Their crowd is gonna be in it and they’ll play a factor,” Day said of a PSU squad that benefited from Minnesota being flagged for five pre-snap penalties on offense last week. “And they’re good team. You can see what they did last week. You can see what they did all season. And really good coaches, really good players, veteran quarterback. New scheme this year on defense. They play good on special teams. So we gotta play our ‘A’ game.”

2. A familiar face will be at quarterback.

Sixth-year senior Sean Clifford is a Buckeye State native looking for his first win against the Buckeyes in four tries as Penn State’s starting quarterback.

The Cincinnati St. Xavier product is the reigning Big Ten Offensive Player of the Week, and he had one of his best games last season at Ohio State when he threw for 361 yards and a touchdown.

He is seventh in the Big Ten in passer efficiency for the season and can be streaky, but he is also a dual-threat who can hurt teams with his legs.

“Guys who played that much football, they’ve seen so many different things and you know that that makes him dangerous in and of itself, but he’s tough,” Day said. “He’s really good throwing the ball. He’s accurate. He’s made a lot of plays in his career with his with his feet and with his arm.”

3. Penn State presents many challenges with its skill players.

The Nittany Lions (6-1) lead the Big Ten in offensive explosiveness according to CollegeFootballData.com. That measures how many of the available yards a team gains on a given play, and it is not an area of strength for the Ohio State defense, which ranks 11th in the Big Ten in the same category.

Parker Washington leads Penn State with 388 yards on 30 catches while Western Kentucky transfer Mitchell Tinsley has 28 catches for 340 yards.

Tight end Brendon Strange has 245 yards and four touchdowns on 17 catches, and highly-rated freshmen running backs Nicholas Singleton and Kaytron Allen have combined for 957 yards and 11 touchdowns. Allen averages more than five yards per carrie, and Singleton averages almost seven.

“The combination of quarterback and wide receiver will be the biggest challenge so far,” Day said. “They’re good, a good collection of talent. Running backs, wide receivers, tight ends and the quarterback.”

4. Ohio State should have the advantage in the trenches.

Penn State coach James Franklin told attendees at Big Ten Media Days in July he was going to deviate from previous appearances and abstain from declaring this would be the year his offensive line became a strength.

That appears to have been the right decision as the group ranks 83rd nationally in Football Outsiders average line yards (measuring success rate of runs on a play-by-play basis), 115th in opportunity rate (percentage of runs that gain at least four yards) and 75th in “power rate” (short-yardage situations). They have protected Clifford well, though, ranking 19th in sack rate.

The Ohio State defensive line is fifth in line yards, sixth in opportunity rate and fifth in short-yardage while coming in 19th in sack rate.

Ohio State’s offensive line ranks second nationally in line yards, third in opportunity rate and 10th in sack rate, but the short-yardage running game continues to be a concern as the Buckeyes are just 82nd there.

On defense, Penn State is 27th in line yards, 60th in opportunity rate and 49th in short-yardage, but the pass rush has been nearly nonexistent (101st in sack rate).

5. Ohio State might need a bounce-back performance from its running game.

Quarterback C.J. Stroud called Penn State cornerback Joey Porter Jr. the best in the country at his position, and the PSU secondary overall is considered the team’s strength.

If they can slow down the vaunted OSU passing attack, the Buckeyes likely will need more than the 66 yards rushing they had last week against Iowa.

“One, just staying on blocks,” Ohio State offensive coordinator Kevin Wilson said. “(Iowa) did a really nice job. They’re always good fundamentally, and I just thought their hand placement and getting off blocks (was effective). We felt early some plays that would maybe be two and three needed to get to three and four.

“But just in general, they played better than us, and we gotta play better across the board.”

In particular, the Hawkeyes gave Ohio State’s interior linemen some problems.

“We’ve got good players and they didn’t have their best game, so credit to those guys,” Wilson said. “They kind of won some one-on-one battles.”

SATURDAY’S GAME

Ohio State at Penn State, Noon,