Yet another Penn State and Ohio State matchup lived up to its billing Saturday, with the Buckeyes pulling off two perfect scoring drives late to win, 27-26.
Ohio State and Penn State have now played 3 straight instant classics
The last three years of this series couldn’t have been better or bigger. Is the Big Ten’s pecking order of big games changing?
Matthew O’Haren-USA TODAY Sports
The series isn’t the most historic in the Big Ten, but in the last few years, it has trended toward being the best on the field — both because of what’s happened in these games and what hasn’t in others. That continued in 2018, when both teams entered in the AP top nine and played each other tooth and nail, adding to the case that this is one of football’s best on-field rivalries of the moment.
The Ohio State-Penn State series is one of three major Big Ten East series that historically hasn’t been that lopsided.
The all-time records for the division’s biggest rivalry games, entering 2018:
- Ohio State is 31-15 (.674 winning percentage) vs. Michigan State
- Michigan is 69-36-5 (.650) vs. Michigan State
- Michigan is 13-8 (.619) vs. Penn State
- Ohio State is 18-14 (.563) vs. Penn State
- Michigan is 58-49-6 (.535) vs. Ohio State
- Michigan State is 16-15-1 (.516) vs. Penn State
Reasonable people can disagree about what constitutes a RIVALRY GAME, but these meetings all have big hype and stakes every year now.
But over the last few years, a bunch of the East’s series have faded in quality.
- Michigan still holding the all-time series lead on Ohio State is mainly funny at this point. The Wolverines have won three times since 2000 and none of the last six.
- Michigan-Michigan State is still competitive, but the games are usually rock fights, and it’s not that exciting any more to watch MSU annually beat its more hyped in-state rival. It did, of course, have the wildest finish to a game in recent memory in 2015.
- Ohio State-Michigan State has produced some good games and some total duds. Even the best of those recent games was memorable primarily for Ohio State’s running back ripping his own coaching staff minutes after it ended.
Meanwhile, the last three years, Penn State and Ohio State have a) been the Big Ten’s best teams and b) played its best games.
Their 2016 meeting in Happy Valley was an inflection point on Penn State’s road back to being an elite program. The Nittany Lions won 24-21 on a blocked field goal touchdown runback started by Marcus Allen, and they held on to win the East on a tiebreaker.
After that season, the NCAA passed a rule that made it illegal to block a kick by charging forward at the line and jumping, as PSU’s Marcus Allen had done to beat the Buckeyes. That made that game the last huge one ever to end quite like that.
The 2017 meeting in Columbus was just as good. That was a 39-38 Buckeyes win after they trailed from the opening kickoff (a Saquon Barkley 97-yard return) until 1:48 remained and J.T. Barrett found Marcus Baugh for the go-ahead, game-winning TD.
And in 2018, the Buckeyes had to crawl back late once again, facing a 26-14 deficit when they got the ball back with eight minutes to play. Penn State built its lead with big plays, including a 93-yard touchdown reception by KJ Hamler, but Ohio State was finally able to neutralize Penn State’s defense with screen passes. The game ended with a questionable fourth down call by James Franklin.
All three games featured big swings and jaw-dropping moments.
The ESPN win probability chart from Saturday’s game is hard to comprehend.
The ‘16 game finished No. 24 on Bill Connelly’s list of the top 100 games that year. The ‘17 game finished No. 4. No matchup treated us to a better pair of games those years. Right now, the ‘18 game seems like a safe bet to finish high among this season’s best games, too.
The quality of play in this series is as good right now as you’ll find anywhere, and the stakes here are as high as they can get.
Both teams remain top 10 in S&P+, despite Penn State’s loss. Our bowl projections recently had both teams making the Playoff, and it’s still not off the table. Penn State lost, but it could still finish the season 11-1, and if that happens and Ohio State goes on to win the Big Ten, the Playoff should still be a possibility for the Nittany Lions.
That makes three years in a row that the result of the regular-season matchup should have significant national ramifications.
With big plays, nail-biter finishes, and the highest stakes, the Ohio State-Penn State rivalry has given us even more than we could have hoped for. We can’t wait to watch again next year.
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