Ohio State On This Date: The Buckeyes Give Penn State A “Good Whoopin’” and Joey Bosa Creates a Bad Beat on Oct. 5

The first game Ohio State played on Oct. 5 was in 1895. The Buckeyes hosted Akron at Recreation Park and won 14-6. This was the fifth game between the schools and the Buckeyes now had a 4–1 series lead. The two programs would not face each other again until 2001.

A battle of top-five teams was held on Oct. 5 in 1996 as No. 3 Ohio State hosted No. 4 Penn State. Joe Paterno's Nittany Lions entered the contest with the nation's 13th-best ground game, averaging 230 rushing yards per game, and were playing in Columbus for the first time in three seasons. GameDay was on campus and for the first time, Lee Corso donned the mascot's head of the team he believed would win the game.

Fred Pagac's defense set the tone as the Silver Bullets held Penn State to 26 yards rushing on 12 carries and 48 yards passing at halftime. The team from Pennsylvania didn't cross midfield until halfway through the third quarter and was held to 211 yards of total offense.

When the final whistle blew, the Buckeyes had recorded four sacks and nine tackles for loss. Damon Moore led the Buckeyes with 11 tackles, eight being solo stops.

"When it was 24-0, you could look in their eyes and see that they were in trouble," Moore said, "that they knew they were going to have an uphill battle."

On the offensive side of the ball, John Cooper's team found success through the ground and air. Pepe Pearson eclipsed the century mark for the fourth consecutive game as he rushed for 141 of the Buckeyes' 350 rushing yards. Dimitrious Stanley caught five passes for 105 yards and two touchdowns – all in the first half – as Stanley Jackson completed the game 11 of 22 passing for 169 yards and two touchdowns.

"He's probably one of the most underrated players to play around here in a long time," Cooper said after Stanley's big day.

The Buckeyes scored in every quarter and were 3:43 away from shutting Penn State out in the 38-7 victory. It was Joe Paterno's fifth-worst loss in 30 years and he fell to 3-5 all-time against Ohio State with the defeat.

Following the beatdown, Paterno opined, "That's a team that would compare to some of the better teams I've seen in the last eight to 10 years. We just got a good whoopin' in every which way."

How bad was it for Paterno? "Come on guys," he said to the media, "let me go home and shoot myself, will you?"

Games to Remember

2013: Late Bosa touchdown beats Wildcats and the spread 

Nearly nine years to the day Ohio State lost to Northwestern at Ryan Field in a night game, the Buckeyes returned to Evanston to take on Pat Fitzgerald's 15th ranked team.

The 2013 version of the game was also going in favor of the home team for much of the contest. Northwestern led 23-13 with 10:40 left in the third following Jeff Budzien's third field goal. At that point, the Buckeyes' only touchdown had come when Bradley Roby blocked and recovered a punt in the end zone late in the first quarter.

Carlos Hyde went off in the second half and rushed for 112 of his 168 yards as Urban Meyer put the outcome on No. 34's broad shoulders. With his team trailing 30-27, Hyde scored his third touchdown with 5:22 remaining to put the Buckeyes ahead.

Following the kickoff, the Wildcats drove to the Ohio State 34-yard line, where they faced a 4th-and-1 with 2:43 remaining. Fitzgerald called for Kain Colter to run the ball, but he was stopped for no gain by Curtis Grant and Joshua Perry.

Hyde and the Buckeyes picked up a first down, but could not run out the clock. After five plays, Cameron Johnston punted the ball out of bounds at the Northwestern 16-yard line with 21 seconds left.

On first down, Joey Bosa sacked Trevor Siemian for a nine-yard loss. Following an incomplete pass on second down, Colter came back in the game and completed a short pass to Tony Jones. Jones then lateraled to Venric Mark, who fumbled, and Bosa jumped on the ball in the end zone as time expired.

Bosa's touchdown gave Ohio State a 10-point victory, and as Brent Musburger hinted at, the late score covered the Vegas point spread. The play can now be seen in the introductory montage for the “Bad Beats” segment on Scott Van Pelt’s SportsCenter.

The Buckeyes improved to 29-1 over their last 30 games against Northwestern with the win.

1985: Last-second field goal by coach's son gives Illinois upset victory

A pair of shanked punts by Tom Tupa in the fourth quarter enabled unranked Illinois to score 10 unanswered points and secure an upset win over No. 5 Ohio State. The usually reliable Tupa misfired on consecutive punts that went 25 and 27 yards. 

"I was trying to power the football," Tupa said. "I was trying to kick it too hard. They sort of went off my foot."

Following the first misfire, Illinois capped off a 12-play drive with a Jack Trudeau 1-yard touchdown run. Trudeau's score knotted the game at 28. The second shanked punt occurred with 4:03 remaining in the game with Ohio State on its own 32-yard line facing 4th-and-8. Tupa's wonky punt was marked out at the Illini's 41-yard line, giving the home team a short field to set up a game-winning field goal.

Illinois head coach, Mike White, called a mixed bag of runs and passes as his team converted two third downs to get the ball to Ohio State's 21-yard line. With four seconds remaining on the clock, the head coach sent his field goal kicker – who was also his son, Chris – onto the field to win the game.

With the wind behind him, and his dad on the sideline, the younger White split the uprights down the middle from 38 yards out. The not-so-encouraging words of “Don't miss” from Eric Kumerow weren't enough to keep Illinois from upsetting Ohio State on that windy day in Champaign.  

Stat Superlatives

Five Fun Facts

1. Kirk Herbstreit scored on the 32-yard run with 3:20 remaining in the game to give the Buckeyes a 24-2 lead. His only other collegiate rushing touchdown came five games later when he scored on a 72-yard run at Minnesota. 
2. Oct. 5, 1957 marked Ohio State's first game at Washington’s Husky Stadium.
3. The Buckeyes are undefeated against ranked opponents on this date.
4. This is the fourth time, but the first since 1997, that Ohio State has played Iowa during the first week of October.
5. Vince Workman scored his first collegiate touchdown against Illinois in 1985.