Penn State offense stalls in 7th straight loss to Ohio State [updated]

COLUMBUS, Ohio — Drew Allar was the first player to come out of the Penn State locker room for postgame interviews.

He was asked to assess his performance in a 20-12 loss to No. 3 Ohio State Saturday at Ohio Stadium.

“Sucked,” Allar said with tears rimming his eyes.

For the second straight year, the Buckeyes left the Nittany Lions’ starting quarterback from Ohio crying after a gut-wrenching Penn State loss.

Last time it was Sean Clifford and this time it was Allar, who finished 18-for-42 passing for 196 yards and a last-minute touchdown pass to Kaden Saunders.

The Buckeyes (4-0 Big Ten, 7-0) defeated No. 7 Penn State (3-1, 6-1) for the seventh straight time by shutting down its offense, especially on third down. The Lions did not convert their first 15 third downs before Allar completed a late pass to Liam Clifford.

Penn State was averaging 44.3 points per game and was held to less than 30 for the first time since a 41-17 loss at Michigan last October.

“It sucks to lose like this, especially on the road,” Allar said. “They’re a very good team, but at the end of the day we still lost. There were a lot of emotions in the locker room, and for good reason.

“Nobody wants to feel this way. We put in countless hours of hard work, and it sucks to have a result like this.”

The Buckeyes, who were 4.5-point favorites, prevented Penn State from getting its first road win over a top 10 team since a 13-6 victory over Ohio State in 2008 and its first win in the series since 2016.

Wide receiver Marvin Harrison Jr. had another spectacular performance against the Lions with 11 catches for 162 yards and one touchdown. He piled up 10 receptions for 185 yards in a 44-31 win last year at Beaver Stadium.

The Lions failed to convert on a fourth-and-4 from their 43 with 7:17 to go instead of punting. Ohio State defensive end JT Tuimoloau tipped Allar’s pass.

“You feel like you have to be aggressive there,” Penn State coach James Franklin said. “You may not get the ball back. We needed to be aggressive in that situation.”

Seven plays later, Kyle McCord found Harrison, his high school teammate at St. Joseph’s Prep, on a crossing pattern for an 18-yard touchdown that made it 20-6 and sealed it with 4:07 to go.

“He’s a good player,” Lions cornerback Daequan Hardy said of Harrison. “We respected him. It’s his ability to catch the ball as receivers should do.”

Other than Harrison, Ohio State’s offense didn’t do much against Penn State’s defense.

The Lions held the Buckeyes to 79 rushing yards on 41 carries, a 1.9 average. They had two sacks and nine tackles for loss, including two apiece by defensive end Adisa Isaac and cornerback Johnny Dixon.

Safety Zakee Wheatley made back-to-back stops in the third quarter after Ohio State had a third-and-goal from the 1. He dropped running back Miyan Williams for a 1-yard loss and then tackled wide receiver Carnell Tate for no gain on fourth down.

“I feel like we did (enough to win the game),” Isaac said. “We tried to do our best to have our offense’s and special teams’ backs. But obviously you can’t do it alone. I feel like we played a hard game against a great opponent.”

Nick Singleton, the Gov. Mifflin grad, rushed nine times for 48 yards for Penn State, and Kaytron Allen had nine attempts for 26 yards. The issue was the inability of wide receivers to get open downfield.

Allar’s longest completion was a 34-yarder to tight end Theo Johnson in the second quarter.

“They made a lot of plays and kept us in the game,” Johnson said about the Penn State defense. “We just let them down today as an offense. There are a lot of areas where we could have capitalized. They did a lot for us and we didn’t have their back today.”

Penn State missed a golden opportunity. Ohio State running back TreVeyon Henderson, wide receiver Emeka Egbuka and cornerback Denzel Burke did not play because of undisclosed injuries.

The Lions trailed 10-6 at halftime before Jayden Fielding kicked a 37-yard field goal to put the Buckeyes up 13-6 with 8:59 to go.

In the first half, the Buckeyes scored on their first possession with the help of three completions to Harrison for 28 yards. Chip Trayanum caught a 19-yard pass out of the backfield to the Penn State 15. Hardy then broke up two passes, the first in the end zone, forcing the Buckeyes to settle for a 33-yard field goal and a 3-0 lead.

The Lions scored their first points on the third series, helped by the running game. Singleton carried for 20 and 16 yards, the second one to the Ohio State 26, before Allar was sacked on first down. Alex Felkins drilled a 40-yard field goal to tie it with 5:15 left in the first quarter.

In the second period, the Buckeyes drove from their 39 to the Penn State 25. On third-and-11, linebacker Curtis Jacobs knocked the ball loose from McCord, scooped it up and ran untouched into the end zone. But the 68-yard return was wiped out by a holding penalty on cornerback Kalen King, nullifying the touchdown and keeping the drive alive.

Five plays later, Williams ran 2 yards for the game’s first touchdown and a 10-3 Ohio State lead.

“It’s tough,” Isaac said. “It’s tough. It’s tough. It was just tough. Obviously, we would have loved that on defense. It would have made the game a lot different. But that’s life. You have to learn how to bounce back and keep it moving forward.”

The Lions quickly answered by using their tight ends. Allar found Tyler Warren for 12 yards and then Johnson for 34 yards to the Buckeyes’ 28. The drive, however, stalled, and Felkins booted a 41-yard field goal to cut the deficit to 10-6 at the half.

Penn State, though, didn’t reach the end zone and never drove inside the Ohio State until the final minutes before Allar’s TD pass to Saunders.

“It’s frustrating because of all the work we put in and the time we put in,” Johnson said. “We just didn’t capitalize when we should have today. We gotta keep getting better and come in tomorrow and continue to improve. We have a long season ahead of us.”