For a hot minute, I really thought James Franklin was about to do it to us.
8 minutes to go, Ohio State's offense hadn't done jack, Dwayne Haskins looked like a fawn in the headlights, the receivers were dropping passes and the defense made Trace McSorely look like Reggie Bush leading to a Penn State touchdown to stretch the lead to 12 points.
But James Franklin is a Buckeye Legend, and don't you forget that.
Last season, he was looking at a win probability of 97.3 percent with 7:35 left on the clock. This year, it was at 96.1 percent with 8:00. He lost both of those games. The chances of that happening are 0.105 percent – literally 1 in a thousand.
Don't get me wrong, Ohio State was clutch as hell in those games and did everything necessary to get the win down the stretch, but it takes a special kind of incompetence to duff that up twice in two years.
May Franklin remain at Penn State forever.
ICYMI
- Ohio State Wins Instant Classic.
- Notebook
- Quotebook
- Five Things
- Debriefing
- Social Reax
- Game in Gifs
- Players of the Game
- Statagram
- Ohio State was going to lose, then it switched.
- Relive the game-winning drive.
- It wasn't pretty, but Dwayne Haskins did enough to get the win.
- A look at Ohio State's win probability at various times in the game.
- Binjimen Victor's game-changing touchdown.
- Huge plays from K.J. Hill and Binjimen Victor were key for the win.
- Though seemingly down and out, the Buckeyes never gave up.
- James Franklin gets testy with a fan.
- Penn State vs. Ohio State brings high ratings.
- James Franklin: "That's on me."
Word of the Day: Sententious.
WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED? In short, I still don't really know and probably never will, but I'll never get tired of hearing about it.
From Pete Thamel of Yahoo! Sports:
For more than 50 minutes on Saturday night, No. 9 Penn State outplayed and outclassed No. 4 Ohio State, building a 12-point fourth-quarter lead behind a blitz-happy defense and the verve and guile of precocious quarterback Trace McSorley. For most of the night, Penn State’s performance managed to match its scintillating surroundings.
Then everything unraveled in a devastating spiral that abruptly ended the party for the 110,889 at Beaver Stadium on Saturday night. Imagine a phalanx of cops showing up at the high school party of the year. Or a stink bomb at the symphony. Or a fire alarm at the monastery. The air got ShopVac’d out of Beaver Stadium in the fourth quarter almost faster than the second-guessing could begin. And James Franklin went home with a whopping migraine of regret, knowing Penn State squandered a signature victory for the program.
...
Ohio State came back thanks to a balletic 47-yard touchdown weave by Ohio State’s Binjimen Victor that changed the game and a 96-yard drive to win the game that Urban Meyer minted as “one of the great drives in Ohio State history.”
But those moments were all trumped by Penn State’s final offensive call. McSorley looked for much of the night like Baker Mayfield 2.0, the 2018 sequel of the former Oklahoma star’s resplendent Heisman Trophy season. He gashed Ohio State on quarterback draws, showed a feathery touch down the field when needed and finished with a program-record 461 yards of total offense (286 passing and 175 rushing). He was, essentially, their entire offense and would certainly top any advanced metrics that calculated grit. But with the game on the line and two timeouts to think about it, Franklin and coordinator Ricky Rahne could only muster a zone-read that Meyer said the Buckeye defensive coaches predicted was coming on the headset. “We had an idea what they were going to do,” defensive tackle Dre’Mont Jones said, “and they did exactly what we planned for.”
This year's impossible win has such a different vibe to it than last year.
Last year, it almost felt deserved. Ohio State basically spotted Penn State 21 points in Columbus and was playing catch up the rest of the game. It was clear the Buckeyes were the better team, but just didn't seem like they were going to win. But they did, and it felt like sweet justice.
This year, it feels like the Bucks just straight up stole something. Penn State dominated pretty much the entire game, but never put up quite enough points to put it out of reach. And Ohio State took advantage with an absurd play, one good drive, and a defensive stand.
I ain't complaining.
THE GREAT PUMPKIN LOSES IT. Without doubt the highlight of my post-victory formation night was James Franklin absolutely melting down in his postgame press conference. I watched all 11 minutes with my mouth pleasantly gaping in bewilderment. It was like performance art.
The highlight for me was when the Pumpkin King heatedly brought up players skipping class as something that could have made up a one-point differential in the football game he clearly could have won with better game management and coaching.
Imagine losing the biggest game of the season at home against the top team in the conference in spectacularly improbable fashion for the second-straight time and then choosing to complain about teens cutting class in the opening statement of your postgame press conference.
What a guy.
It's not like dealing with college students as a college football coach is a situation unique to him. Every coach on an elite team has to handle immature kids while trying to win football games, and be accountable for the players they recruit. They just all clearly do that better than James Franklin does.
Franklin was right about one thing though – Penn State isn't elite. And based on what I've watched the past two years, it might be an elite coach away from reaching that point.
Keep your head up though, coach. Maybe you'll have a 13-point fourth-quarter lead to blow next year.
SCARY TERRY CLEARS THE WAY. Where were you when Terry McLaurin erased the entire field side of Penn State's secondary with a single block?
We're going to have to run that one back on repeat for a little bit.
I'm getting this gif tattooed on my body.
Of course, the tin-foil hats came out, claiming that this should have been a block in the back, but that would be nearly physically impossible considering McLaurin's left hand was on his chest and buddy ultimately landed on his back.
That, folks, is why Terry McLaurin was named the Offensive Player of the Game despite not catching a single pass.
We need to give Austin Mack some love, too. He made a conscious decision to block the bigger free-hitting safety instead of the out-of-position cornerback, and it spring K.J. Hill for the touchdown.
I expected Ohio State's receivers to have a big day in Happy Valley. This isn't exactly what I had in mind, but I'll take it without a second thought.
SURVIVING WITHOUT THE QUARTERBACK RUN. This is a safe space, so I'm going to be honest with y'all – there were more than three times on Saturday that I audibly expressed my desire to have the quarterback run back in the offense.
Penn State was defending Ohio State the same way it had the previous four seasons, and it had the same results. The Buckeyes couldn't hit passes downfield (they only attempted two longer than 20 yards and the longest completed was 12 yards to Binjimen Victor) and couldn't consistently establish the run with the running backs.
But this time, they couldn't go back to old faithful and get four free yards with the quarterback's legs, either.
From Doug Lesmerises Cleveland.com
But the Buckeyes were there in Beaver Stadium without their crutch, and that made it even more difficult than they remembered, and Penn State at night isn't a place you forget.
The OSU offense was hobbling and it was time for that thing Urban Meyer always does when the other play calls don't work.
But the Buckeyes don't do that anymore.
Four years of jokes about leaning on quarterback draws on third-and-short were funny because they were true and non-stop because they were effective. Quarterback legs bailed out other failures, the game of football reduced to its simplest element because everything else was so darn difficult.
Facing one final drive with the game on the line, the Buckeyes finally went heavy on the screen game, and it worked.
The hilarious thing is that before the season, Urban Meyer actually suggested that the bubble screen might be his new "get out of jail free" card with Haskins at the helm, replacing the quarterback run.
I guess it just took him a few quarters to remember.
VICTOR KEY TO VICTORY. If Ben Victor doesn't snag a duck out of the air and doesn't slow motion weave past no fewer than four Penn State defenders on his way to the end zone, we're probably all serfs in James Franklins kingdom.
But he did it, and it might have saved Ohio State's season.
From Tony Gerdeman of theozone.net:
Meyer addressed all of the questions, but began by giving credit where he thought it was due.
“Well, Ben Vic started that bad boy off, that comeback,” he said. “That was one of the best plays, right in front of me on the sidelines there. He went and attacked the ball and then the receivers got in the defenders’ way.”
And when asked if it was the biggest play of Victor’s career, Meyer didn’t hesitate.
“It’s the biggest play of anybody’s career,” he said smiling.
I have a strong hunch that could earn him some playing time in the near future.
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