Penn State vs. Ohio State Preview

Audio/Story posted October 15, 2015 in CommRadio, Sports by Sports Staff

PODCAST:

Ryan Berti, Zach Green, Brandon Pelter, and Dan Correa preview this week's Big Ten matchup between Penn State and No. 1 Ohio State. ComRadio's coverage of the game starts at 6:00 ET on Saturday.

Penn State travels to Columbus Saturday night to take on the top-ranked Ohio State Buckeyes. Ohio State enters this game undefeated at 6-0, while Penn State comes in at 5-1 with their only loss coming at the hands of Temple. Last week, the Buckeyes managed to pull away from Maryland 49-28, while the Nittany Lions beat Indiana 29-7.

This is a classic matchup of conference rivals. The all-time record between these two teams is 16-13 in favor of the Buckeyes. Ohio State has won the past three matchups between these two teams, including last year’s double-overtime thriller which saw Ohio State walk out of Beaver Stadium with a 31-24 victory.

Penn State coach James Franklin knows that they are in for a grueling Big Ten matchup against Ohio State.

“They wear people down. People are able to sustain them, and then over time, their good players, their depth, their size wears people down,” Franklin said at his weekly press conference in regards to how the Buckeyes play.

Penn State’s defense turned in another outstanding performance against Indiana, limiting the Hoosiers to only 234 yards of offense and only giving up seven points in the process. They also benefitted from a John Reid interception on a tipped pass, which was his second interception of the year.

Christian Hackenberg lived up to the hype last week racking up 283 total yards of offense as well as four touchdowns. He showed the ability to tuck the ball and run when pressure and tight coverage forced him out of the pocket, resulting in two rushing touchdowns for him on the day.  One of those touchdown runs was capped by a spectacular dive between defenders to put the Lions up by 19.

Last week, Ohio State hosted the Maryland Terrapins in a conference clash. The Buckeyes came away the victor with a final score of 49-28. That score does not tell the full story though, as Ohio State struggled early dealing with the 2-4 Terrapins. Maryland would score first and ultimately ended up tied at 21 during the third quarter. This is not the first time Ohio State has started slowly; in fact they have trailed in half of their games this year.

Ohio State has used two quarterbacks this year and both have been very impressive. Cardale Jones and J.T. Barrett have split the snaps so far this year and pose quite a problem for teams trying to set a game plan for their defense.

During his press conference, Franklin said, “there's a little carry over in preparing for Ohio State QBs as last week versus. Indiana.” He is referencing the fact that last week, Penn State had to prepare for both Nate Sudfeld and Zander Diamont as they did not know if Sudfeld would be ready to play.

Ohio State enters this matchup as a 17-point favorite over the Nittany Lions and the over/under is set at 47 points.

Kickoff is set for 8 p.m. at Ohio Stadium. ComRadio will have coverage beginning at 6:00 p.m. with the Opening Drive, followed by the ComRadio Football Pregame Show.

Zach Green is a sophomore majoring in broadcast journalism. To contact him, email zag5035@psu.edu