Pete Werner spent the entirety of last season hearing people openly wonder why he played for Ohio State over Brendon White. Jonathon Cooper was rarely discussed as an impactful defensive end, with conversations tilted toward Zach Harrison and Tyreke Smith. Haskell Garrett, even before he got shot in the face, had everybody projecting Taron Vincent as the team’s next star 3-technique. Tuf Borland has listened to years of nonstop criticism. Tyler Friday gets forgotten about all the time due to his smaller stature in comparison to other edge rushers.
The defensive line, as position coach Larry Johnson told his players ahead of the season, is filled with a “bunch of no-names” trying to replace Chase Young. The linebacker corps consists of a group that constantly has onlookers question why they’re on the field instead of the younger players at their position.
The guys littering Ohio State’s front seven have gone overlooked in their careers. They’re no longer the youngest or shiniest players teeming with blank resumes and seemingly endless potential. Yet without them, the Buckeyes’ 38-25 beatdown of Penn State on the road would have looked a heck of a lot different.
“Overall, I thought we played physical,” Day said. “I thought we had good energy. We played tough. It wasn't clean, but our guys just kept swinging away.”
And up front on defense, it all stemmed from a largely unheralded slew of defensive linemen and linebackers.
Tommy Togiai and Garrett combined to take over on the interior of the defensive line. Incredibly, Togiai had never recorded a sack in his Ohio State career before this weekend but will wake up on Sunday and go into meetings to analyze a three-sack performance, which also included a team-high seven tackles. Largely known as the strongest man on this talent-rich roster, he has begun to translate his physical gifts – along with an enviable motor – into big-time production.
Garrett added just two tackles, but he worked his way into the backfield just about as often as Togiai. His up-the-middle pressure forced quarterback Sean Clifford into a second-down sack by Cooper and Zach Harrison in the second quarter.
“I think they're amazing,” Cooper said of Garrett and Togiai. “I think they have been playing the best football of their careers, honestly, just with their effort, how focused they are, their leadership and everything in between. They've been doing great. Nothing but good things to say about them.”
- #3 Ohio State 38, #18 PENN STATE 25
- • OHIO STATE CONTROLS PENN STATE IN HAPPY VALLEY
- • FIELDS, Wilson, AND OLAVE CONTINUE TO GO OFF
- • DEFENSIVE FRONT SEVEN MAKES A STATEMENT
- • Five buckeyes who flashed against Penn state
- • 5 Things • Notes • Quotes • Debriefing • Social Reax
- • OHIO STATE POSTGAME • PENN STATE POSTGAME
Cooper might as well have said those words in first person, too, referring to himself.
He didn’t want to admit it. At least not before going back to the film to confirm everything that happened in what he described as a “blur” of a game. But everybody else will go ahead and make the declaration for him: Cooper’s Saturday evening in Happy Valley was his best game ever as a Buckeye. Better than even the past two performances against Michigan when he picked up sacks.
Technically, he only recorded five tackles and 1/2 of a sack on Saturday, but those numbers don’t do him justice. The redshirt senior started showing up early, pressuring Clifford on the first drive, and continued to get after him for the duration.
“I feel like I've always had that in me,” Cooper said. “I feel like just the environment, it being Penn State, the way our coaches had us prepared and ready took my game to the level it's supposed to be.”
Friday added a trio of tackles on stuffs at the line of scrimmage. Harrison ensured he’d find himself on the game’s highlight reel, too, by simultaneously tackling two Nittany Lions in the backfield the same way Joey Bosa and Sam Hubbard did before him.
“I thought the D-line created a lot of disruption,” Day said.
Behind them, Werner looked every bit like the playmaker the coaches wanted when they moved him to weakside linebacker. He ended the game’s first drive with a pressure on Clifford and began the final drive by clocking running back Devyn Ford for no gain on a screen pass that seemingly had potential.
Werner led the linebacker with six tackles, and Borland followed up with five tackles. He shut down a screen pass of his own early on and constantly put himself in position to shut down a struggling running game. Penn State knew it would have to move the ball on the ground – both with Clifford and Ford – in order to stand a chance. From the jump, though, the Buckeyes penetrated, filled gaps and altered the line of scrimmage.
A week after his 119 rushing yards helped charge the Nittany Lions’ offense, Clifford managed five rushing yards on 18 carries. Just three of those rushes went for more than two yards. Ford didn’t fare much better, accruing 36 yards on eight rushes. Just one of them went for more than three yards.
Do the math: In totality, only four of Penn State’s 27 carries ended as gains of more than three yards.
“I feel like in order to be a great defense, you have to stop the run,” Cooper said. “If you let an offense run on you all day, then you're not a very good defense and you probably don't have a really good defensive line. That's a huge emphasis for us is stopping the run early.”
They also knew they had to keep tight end Pat Freiermuth, an All-American candidate, in check. Werner and Baron Browning frequently drew him in coverage, holding him to three catches for 46 yards.
So much of what Ohio State required of its front seven to hold the Nittany Lions in check on Saturday came to fruition. It was physical, won at the point of attack and played smart. Nobody spent their offseason looking at this front seven wondering how offenses would ever penetrate it. But nobody on the Buckeyes’ defensive line or at linebacker would particularly care about that.
They’ve all been counted out before, and it’ll happen again. The way they collectively performed against Penn State in primetime, however, might as well have doubled as a warning shot to anyone who’ll overlook them going forward.
