Buckeyes fight to beat a Penn State team built to stop them

Buckeyes fight to beat a Penn State team built to stop them STATE COLLEGE, Pa. — Penn State, it turned out, was built to stop Ohio State. It's just that Ohio State — with a second-year starting quarterback, a fourth-year head coach, a new $2 million defensive coordinator, five-star recruits across key positions, and the best receiving crew in the country — shouldn't be able to be stopped.So the Buckeyes weren't.Penn State showed how you go about it Saturday, playing fearlessly, defending the pass aggressively and stopping the run consistently. It worked well into the fourth quarter, but it still wasn't enough. The Buckeyes made blocks, forced fumbles, hit holes, caught passes and made plays when they needed to. Yeah, you can wonder a bit about this one. It wasn't easy. But understand how tough and skilled this Penn State team is, and how hard that program fights at home against the Buckeyes."We played really well against Ohio State today. We had a chance to win the game, but we made too many mistakes at critical moments, which you can't do against a top-ranked opponent like that," Penn State coach James Franklin said. "They're a really talented team. I thought we played our tail off."Penn State doesn't fear the Buckeyes, which allows the Nittany Lions to get after it. But Penn State is now 1-8 against Ohio State in Franklin's nine years. It's not because the Nittany Lions can't hang. It's because the Buckeyes know how to shed a talented rival even if it takes all 60 minutes."We go into these games, our expectation's to win," Ryan Day said. "I know that's not everybody's expectation. That's our expectation. Do we want to play perfect? Yeah. Do we want to win by four touchdowns? Yeah. But the expectation coming in here has to be win. And that's what we did."We knew it was going to take four quarters."This 44-31 win for Ohio State was very much in doubt when the Buckeyes trailed by a point at halftime and even more in doubt when Penn State seized a five-point lead with fewer than 10 minutes to play in the fourth quarter. It was all made possible, and felt real, because Penn State could handle what the Buckeyes do best. Ohio State won't face a team from now until a potential national title game with a better pair of outside corners than what they saw against Joey Porter Jr. and Kalen King."That might be the best secondary we're going to play all year," said Marvin Harrison Jr., who pulled in 10 catches for 185 yards against that group. "Very talented. We knew it was going to be a challenge for us."Ohio State is still fighting to figure out the other part of its offense, following a tough running game effort against Iowa last week with another one on Saturday.But the Buckeyes, as always, must throw to win. So when C.J. Stroud took the field with 9:19 to play and his team down, he did what a great quarterback must do. He led a go-ahead touchdown drive, as Stroud hit passes of 21 and 13 yards before TreVeyon Henderson popped a 41-yard touchdown run behind two perfect blocks from Cade Stover and Dawand Jones.That was one of four touchdowns the Buckeyes scored in the final nine minutes. It was close until it wasn't.Penn State deserves a lot of credit for those first 51 minutes. Ohio State deserves even more for the final nine.