The less said about last week, the better. It was a brutal loss, and a black mark on the soul of every Buckeye lacrosse fan.

I am hopeful it was the product of the huge, emotional win in South Bend, and not a sign that the Buckeyes are reverting to last season's form. We will probably not find out this week, as Penn State is on a roll, is dominating really great teams, and may hang 20 on the Bucks if they're anything like last week on the defensive end.

Offensively, Penn State attempts to blitz opponents into submission in the first quarter, pouring in goal after goal and demoralizing their opponents completely.

The onslaught comes fast and furious, often hammering in the final nail in the coffin before the first quarter ends. Penn State is +37 in scoring margin in the 1st quarter this year, and +43 in total shots. Each quarter these totals go down, to the point where Penn State is -34 in total shots during the 4th quarter.

The biggest difference is Penn State has a shot percentage of .429 this year. That's absolutely insane. And it's a product of how the Nittany Lions like to play offense.

Generally, Penn State plays a pretty simple game. Their entire scheme is dodging from 3 areas out of 2 looks, they just have such a skilled dodger and feeder in RS Sophomore Grant Ament (#1, 10 goals, 48 assists) that the gameplan works like a charm.

Penn State lines up in a 1-4-1 70% of the time, and dodges Ament from the wing, looking to feed. The closer crease man is Ament's partner/picker, who sets a pick for Ament to go over (towards midfield) or under (towards GLE).

Simultaneously, the opposite pair will interchange (or exchange, depending on your preferred term), where the two players switch positions in a specific manner. Because teams rarely practice slides for wing dodges, it causes tremendous confusion early, resulting in massive goal totals for Penn State.

Teams adjust, sometimes, but are usually so far behind it doesn't matter. For Ohio State to win, they will need to survive the early onslaught and get their slide package locked in. And I don't think they'll be able to do it.

Defensively, Penn State is pretty stout. They're fundamentally pretty sound, packing it in on the backside post at all times to cut down on slide times for 2nd or 3rd slides.

The team is holding opponents to a shot percentage of .258, a very respectable mark. Watching Penn State play, they're pretty aggressive on the slide, doubling the ball quickly while recovering to the middle almost simultaneously. It's an effective way to play, but can leave them vulnerable when a defender freezes, waiting to go, while his man is free to do whatever he pleases behind him.

Additionally, since Penn State slides so quickly, there can be open players around the perimeter. The challenge for Ohio State is taking advantage of that. And that will be a tall order, given their struggles against Rutgers.

In goal, Penn State starts #34 Colby Kneese exclusively, only replacing him when Penn State has already ground its opponent into dust. Kneese is pretty good, posting a save percentage of .527 on the year.

He's a solid goalkeeper, but not necessarily all-American material. That said, the Buckeyes spent plenty of time agsinst Rutgers just throwing the ball into the goalie's stick, so we will need to see a lot of improvement in shot selection from Ohio State to really have a good chance at putting up numbers.

At the faceoff X, Justin Inacio will face the toughest opponent on the entire docket. Gerard Arceri was an all-American last year, was a preseason all-American this year, and is currently winning 62.7% of his faceoffs on the season.

Arceri helps the Nittany Lions go, winning the ball back after the offense has put it into the opposing net. In all honesty, this is the area Ohio State matches up best with Penn State this year, as Inacio has really been coming on lately.

The Buckeye FOGO will be looking to continue the torrid form he showed last week against Rutgers, and he will need to really be on his game to give the Buckeyes a chance at beating PSU.

On special teams, Ohio State is hopelessly outclassed. And that is being nice about it. Penn State is leading the country in Man Up, converting 63.3% of their chances this year. The Nittany Lions have had 30 attempts as well, which is on the lower side.

The propensity for Ohio State to commit lots of penalties is definitely not an asset for this game. Nor is the fact that ODU struggles so much on Man Up themselves. Penm State is allowing teams to convert 33.3% of their Man Up opportunities, but OSU has been hapless with the extra man for 2+ years now.

The best thing would be for the Buckeyes to commit as few prnalties as possible, but that will require a herculean effort.

This has been a pretty pessimistic preview, and there's good reason. Last week was Ohio State's worst performance on the season, at the worst possible time. The Buckeyes will have to have their BEST performance this week, in order to have a hope of beating Penn State away.

And I just don't know that they can hang with the Nittany Lions. Ohio State showed how poorly they deal with fast teams last week, and Penn State will be even faster. This one probably gets ugly.

Final prediction: 17-9, Penn State.

I hope I am wrong, quite wrong. But it'll take a perfect game that, thus far, has eluded Ohio State against top teams.