Penn State An Industrial-Strength
Challenge For No. 1 Buckeyes

By Paul Smith
paul.smith@collegeblitz.com

COLUMBUS -- This was industrial strength football, this scrum between top ranked Ohio State and Penn State.

It was a day where Penn State grew up a whole lot in the face of a 28-6 defeat, the final result of which was as deceptive as Bill Clinton looking Chris Wallace straight in the eye and playing Pinocchio for half an hour.

There wasn't anytthing Liar's Poker or Texas Hold 'Em about this game. It was classic slobberknocker, which would be typical of the matchup of representatives of two of the grittiest patches of real estate in America.

Halftime score: 3-0.

Penn State.

Then a muscle-driven third-period thrust, nine plays, 75 yards, with Antonio Pittman slashing the final 12 for a lead the Buckeyes wouldn't surrender.

"(Blocking back) Stan White had to make a key block early back in the backfield (catching Penn State in a blitz)," said Pittman, who rushed for 110 yards in 22 tries. The safety (Donnie Johnson) and I had to turn it up." It was typical of the max effort on both sidelines.

On a day when the venerable pedagog with the coke-bottle glasses left the fare sideline twice -- once in the middle of the first half, a second time in the fourth quarter -- to address a stubborn strain of gastritis, the defenses exchanged smash-mouth shots with opposing offenses. But before you say, "Poor Joe Paterno," keep in mind football's most lovable curmudgeon wasn't into waxing Gray's Anatomy tales.

"Sixty years (in coaching and playing college ball), it's the first time I've walked off," Paterno told a media horde that at times seemed to number in the hundreds.

"I had some kind of bug during the week," he added. "I'm not the kind of guy that likes to take pills or see doctors. I thought I'd be fine, but all of a sudden..."

When a couple of quasi-doctors sans-stethoscopes wanted to further pursue, Paterno elicited a bunch of smiles when he indicating he was having none of it with a dismissive "You guys writing for medical journals or what?" You can take the boy out of Brooklyn...

On day when offenses seemed under the weather, too, yards were as precious as gasoline six weeks ago. Rain whipped through Ohio Stadium without regard to organization, race, creed, national origin or Mother Nature; this game was for anybody who remembers the mud-in-your-eye school of football.

It was a day when the Buckeyes defense twice stopped Penn State's gallant, but slightly outmanned offense inside the Ohio State 10, recounting memories of generations of classic Big Ten pound-a-thons, decided as often as not by a couple of the big galoots in the pits executing a key block, pancaking his opponent or coming up with a classic hit or maybe freeing his teammate for the game-deciding touchdown play.

The 28-6 final simply is an atrocious bottom line for this one. Touchdown interception receptions by Malcolm Jenkins (61 yards) and Antonio Smith (55) in the final 2 minutes, 31 seconds, provided the artifical condiments that produced the final score.

But this was one for the bench press boys.

"I think this was the funnest game I've played in so far because of their physicalness and their toughness," proclaimed Buckeyes senior defensive tackle David Patterson (6-feet, 3-inches, 285 pounds)).

"They really challenged our heart and our will."

The score stayed locked at 7-3 into the fourth quarter and the Nitts presented the ever-present threat of Tony Hunt, who burst into the Bucks' secondary a few times en route to a 24-carry, 135-yard day. Barring injury, Hunt, who has 368 rushing yards and two TDs thus far, should rack up a solid 1,000=plus yard season.

But it was the uncomfortable blend of youth and veterans that betrayed the Lions in their upset attempt. "We made some boneheaded plays," Hunt admitted, noting the Lions' three turnovers and lack of fundamental execution at key points.

In fact, the first half's only points came when erratic Lions kicker Kevin Kelly hooked a 26-yarder wide left, only to benefit from a roughing-the-kicker penalty that set up Kelly's 21-yard field goal. Penn State had driven 61 yards to the Bucks' 9 before quarterback Anthony Morelli got caught in a busted play that resulted in a five-yard sack.

A glance at some of the Penn State sideliners told a tale of lost momentum. In becoming the second player to rush for over 100 yards against the Bucks (Northern Illinois' Garrett Wolfe ran for 171 in the season opener), Hunt was a continuing shot of adrenaline for the Lions.

But Ohio State's defense, fueled by the highly-promoted "Sea of Scarlet" that turned the Big Horseshoe into a giant wraparound blanket of scarlet and gray (save a couple of Penn State blue-and-white patches), coninuously stuffed the Nitts' running game when needed most.

It was vintage Paterno power football, but occasionally it produces unhappy endings, as was the case in the 1978 Cotton Bowl when Penn State lost to Alabama after the Crimson Tied stopped the Lions' goalline smashes four straight times,

"It's a question of consistency and discipline," Paterno said. "The kids are used to playing under pressure. I thought we played hard. We were very competitive until the end, when we made those mistakes."

For the Buckeyes, it was a grim survival test for three quarters, one only a bunch of 19-inch bicepped, 52-inch chested linemen could appreciate.

When Troy Smith hit sophomore Brian Robiskie for a 37-yard touchdown with what could only be described as a spectacularly-thrown, perfectly feathered study in concentration on both ends, the Bucks breathed just a tad easier.

Smith spun away from a sack attempt by Lions pass rusher Tim Shaw and on the dead run fired deep to Robiskie, who bearly beat cornerback Tony Davis in the right side of the end zone for tthe 14-3 lead.

"From the start, from the first route, the first read wasn't there," said Smith, who threw his first two interceptions of 2006. "I tried to come back and look to the other side of the field, but it was kind of clogged up and crowded and I just tried to inprovise and keep things going."

And things are doing just that for the Bucks, who take their unbeaten record into the testiest road environment they'll face the rest of the way this Saturday in Iowa City against unbeaten, No. 13 Iowa (4-0).

"Our kids kept playing, they never stopped fighting," said coach Jim Tressel, whose O.S.U. career record is 54-13. "In the Big Ten it is always four-quarter games and we won the four-quarter game."

Talking to a stuffed-beyond-capacity Wolstein Center media crowd, linebacker James Laurinaitis could have spoken for any Bucks defender when he said, "Our whole thing is we can keep our offense in the game. If it's close, we have full confidence in them."

One is reminded of the famous Dick Butkus line from the 1960s, when the struggling Bears offense trudged onto the field after the defense had staged a goalline stand. Butkus lateraled the football toward one of the offensive linemen and shouted, "Here! Hold 'em!"

In the end, it was simply the Buckeyes' staying power that outlasted Penn State (2-2), which hosts Northwestern this coming Saturday.

The Bucks' task is much more daunting, of course. From it will come a clear picture of their real shot at the national title.

With appreciation to The Columbus Dispatch, whose staffers wrestled their way through some some 200-pound weight room refugees to make it inside Wolstein Center.

NOTES — Touching moment. For the second time in three Penn State-Ohio State games in Columbus, former Lions defensive back Adam Taliaferro, who was temporarily paralyzed when he collided with O.S.U. fullback Derek Combs and suffered a major spinal injury, but battled back to regain nearly all of his mobility. He met with Buckeyes punter Tyson Gentry, who suffered a spinal injury last spring and is confined to a wheelchair. "It was great to see how strong he is," said Taliaferro, who had touched base with Gentry several times by phone. "If anyone can get through this, Tyson can." ... The series is tied 11-11, which is a pretty accurate portrayal of the relative strength of two of the nation's top programs. The "Sea of Scarlet," deemed a major success by most, was in response to one of college football's most thunderous crowds ever last fall at Beaver Stadium as Penn State beat won 17-10, dashing O.S.U.'s thoughts of contending for the national title.