Ohio State's offense trotted onto the field Saturday night toward the end of Beaver Stadium which housed Penn State's raucous student section knowing if it didn't get in the end zone, the game was over.
After blowing a 17-point halftime lead, somehow it had all come down to this moment for the 13th-ranked Buckeyes. If they wanted to keep hope alive to be selected as a playoff team at year's end, they had to find a way to score.
Led by redshirt freshman quarterback J.T. Barrett, Ohio State found the end zone on that drive. Then, it scored a touchdown on its possession in double overtime and the defense followed with a stop as the Buckeyes escaped Happy Valley with a 31-24 victory.
How the game unfolded — and the way Ohio State won the game — certainly left a lasting impression on head coach Urban Meyer.
"J.T. Barrett took the field; we were down by seven points after blowing the lead, and to see him lead an offense as a redshirt freshman into the student section, down by seven in the first overtime was — I just remember I'll probably never forget that look when I saw our offense taking the field against the whiteout of the student section, down by seven, against the defense that really kind of shut us down in the second half," Meyer said Monday during his weekly press conference. "No. 1 rush defense in the country, and he takes us in for a score."
There are two ways to look at the win over the NIttany Lions: No. 1 is Ohio State barely escaped in a game it was a two-touchdown favorite over an inferior opponent. No. 2 is the Buckeyes found a way to win a game in one of college football's most hostile environments.
However you look at it, though, the bottom line is Ohio State did not play well and found a way to win the game.
A large part of that was because of a defense that was essentially lights out for three-plus quarters of play, but another key factor was how Barrett — who struggled for much of the evening — performed in the overtime periods, despite playing with a knee injury he suffered at some point during the second quarter.
The redshirt freshman had 32 yards rushing and both Ohio State touchdowns in overtime as the Buckeyes did not attempt a single pass in the extra periods.
“Just finding a way. Anything you’ve gotta do so we can win the game," Barrett said following the game. "It wasn’t just me, it was the whole offense as a unit just looking at each other like, ‘Hey, we haven’t been playing very well. Let’s go finish it.’”
That's exactly what Ohio State did, too.
Meyer and the fellow coaches on the Buckeyes' staff, along with Barrett's teammates, have raved about the Wichita Falls, Texas native's leadership abilities since it was announced he would be this season's starting quarterback.
For the first time this year, we really saw that Saturday when Ohio State was on the verge of an epic collapse.
For those on the Buckeyes' sideline, it seemed as if there was never really a doubt.
“There’s nothing like looking in a player’s eyes to find comfort as a football coach," running backs coach Stan Drayton said. "I just so happened to see J.T. Barrett’s eyes at that moment and I tell you what, I got all the confidence that I needed that he was gonna — at least at that moment — give everything that he had to try to put us in a situation to win that ballgame and it turned out that was the case.”
Meyer downplayed Barrett's injury Monday, saying with his MCL sprain he will likely be limited in practice this week but will be good to go Saturday when the Buckeyes take on Illinois.
It looked like the knee could have played a factor in the second half of the game against Penn State. But when it got to overtime, Barrett wasn't going to be limited by his knee. His mindset was simple.
“Just thinking that we have to score. There’s nothing else to do. We can’t kick a field goal," he said. "We were looking at each other like, ‘Let’s go score. Put it in the end zone, whatever it takes we’ve gotta do it.’”
On the legs and leadership of its quarterback, Ohio State survived to see another day.
"He's one of the toughest cats I've ever been around," Meyer said of Barrett. "To think what he did to that game, I'm just so impressed by that."
