This week's lotto numbers are 4, 24, 19....ugh. This loss was too depressing to even complete the joke. It sucks being right sometimes, and sure enough, today's game went (mostly) how I thought it could go, just with an inverted pace.

This was another glimpse back to the 2018 team I really had hoped would never return. All of the old issues from last year reared their ugly heads.

And Penn State's offense shot the lights out. Post mortem will be ugly.

Offensively, Ohio State sucked for the second week in a row. No other way to put it. Penn State stifled them, only allowing 8 goals on 22 shots on goal. Colby Kneese played outstanding, getting 14 saves (obviously) to completely shut down a suddenly stagnant Buckeye offense.

Only Tre Leclaire shot higher than 33% on the day, leaving out Lukas Buckley's 1 goal on 1 shot for the day. It was awful.

The offensive players not named Buckley or Leclaire went a collective 3 for 22 shooting. I don't know what exactly Coach Myers is seeing in practice to not give younger guys more of the ball, but the current middies are pretty dreadful.

Colby Smith went 0-5, JT Bugliosi went 0-3, Jasinski went 1-4, Reid was 1-6. Why not give TJ Hendricks a run at 6'5"? Worst case, he's a physical mismatch.

Johnny Wiseman has disappeared, I assume due to injury, but his athleticism is sorely missed. Jasinski needs another dodging threat to take the pressure off, and he's just not getting any midfield help.

Only Leclaire and Jackson Reid had multiple points today, with Reid dishing out the only 2 assists the Buckeyes had against Penn State. Assists are a great indication of offensive effectiveness, and to only have 2 shows how little depth the Buckeyes have in the attacking zone.

21.6% shooting will not get it done, and I don't know what exactly else to say. The players aren't shooting well enough against actual talent.

In complete fairness to the O, no other area was really great, either.

Defensively, the Buckeyes got ripped to shreds. Completely. Grant Ament dished out 6 assists, scored twice, and showed exactly what the Buckeyes are missing: an elite facilitator.

There's no QB for the Buckeye offense. Just a really good shooter with a decent lefty role player and an inefficient midfield dodger.

Ament is a better passer than Pat Spencer, he just doesn't have the insane goal-scoring abilities Spencer does. Ohio State still hasn't settled in on D after losing an all-American and another elite defender from 2018.

Penn State took a lot fewer shots than OSU, but made them count. Penn State had 11 fewer total shots, but only 2 fewer shots on goal.

And, most importantly, Penn State scored on 50% of its shots this evening. That's unheard of against supposedly elite competition.

Really, it all came down to how good Ament is on the field, as he had 8 of Penn State's 19 points, and every single assist for the Nittany Lions.

Cole Willard had a hat trick on 3 shots to lead the supporting cast, none of whom attempted shots without scoring at least once.

That's depth, something Ohio State is sorely lacking offensively. For the Buckeye D, it may just be one of those times to tip the cap and get ready for Hopkins. Not much else to do.

In goal, Colby Kneese thoroughly outclassed Josh Kirson in every way. Kneese saved 63.6% of shots on goal, had 14 saves in total, and suffocated the Buckeye O.

Kirson had 7 saves, a save percentage of 35.0%, and may find himself on the bench next week. This is untenable, as this is 2 weeks in a row Kirson has been under 40%.

It's appallingly bad. At the very least Wahlund could be getting experience to begin improving. It can't be worse right now.

At the faceoff X, Justin Inacio barely squeaked out the W overall, winning 12 of 23 faceoffs on the day. In battling one of the top 3 FOGOs in the country, Inacio showed he is no slouch.

That said, it wasn't enough to prevent the inexorable march towards defeat. Inacio did what he could, beat his individual matchup, and the squad just came up short. He just has to keep up his efforts, and hope the rest of the team can fix itself quickly.

Surprisingly, Ohio State didn't fare too poorly on special team against Penn State. They scored 1 of their 3 Man Up opportunities, while Penn State failed to score on either of their opportunities with the extra man.

This vast improvement did nothing for the team, however, making it completely in vain. If this trend continues, however, then the Buckeyes have turned a corner in an area that has been disappointing literally for years.

It's been a rough two weeks for the Buckeyes. Two big losses, one of them bad and completely unexpected. There's been no major improvements or adjustments made to what has been a regression to the doldrums of 2018.

With 3 games left, the Buckeyes are in real danger of no postseason at all. Once more, like 2018, it's a 3 game season, and the Buckeyes need to win 2 of 3 to have any shot at conference or national playoffs.

Hopkins is up next.