Ohio State football: 2014 national championship 10-year anniversary, OSU vs Penn State

Posted by Admin October 25, 2024 Football

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This year marks the 10th anniversary of the 2014 national championship season, when the Ohio State football Buckeyes went 14-1 and captured the first College Football Playoff title. We’ll relive that remarkable year by sharing the game stories from that campaign as they appeared in the pages of The Columbus Dispatch.

Now up: Ohio State’s overtime win over Penn State.

Buckeyes overcome struggles

Celebration is of relief, not exhilaration

October 25, 2014

STATE COLLEGE, PA. — For the first time this season, Ohio State played against a credible defense and a truly hostile crowd.

It showed.

The Buckeyes squandered a 17-0 halftime lead before prevailing 31-24 in double overtime over Penn State in front of a white-out Beaver Stadium crowd of 107,895.

After Penn State scored on a 1-yard run touchdown run to open overtime, the No. 13 Buckeyes (5-1, 3-0 Big Ten) answered with touchdown runs by quarterback J.T. Barrett of 5 and 4 yards.

The second score was aided by a personal-foul penalty on Penn State linebacker Mike Hull for jumping the pile on the game-tying extra-point kick that ended the first overtime. That let Ohio State start at the Nittany Lions’ 12 instead of the 25.

Ohio State then stopped Penn State (4-3, 1-3) on its ensuing possession. On fourth-and-5, Buckeyes defensive end Joey Bosa overpowered running back Akeel Lynch, driving him into Nittany Lions quarterback Christian Hackenberg, who fell, resulting in a game-ending sack.

“When you have as a good a player as Joey Bosa, you probably expect him to make a play in a big situation,” coach Urban Meyer said.

The Buckeyes poured onto the field after the sack, more in relief than exhilaration. This was much tougher than they expected against a Penn State team with a patchwork offensive line that had lost its previous two games.

Ohio State, a two-touchdown favorite, had scored 50 points and gained more than 500 yards in its previous four games. But all were against suspect defenses. Penn State was ranked sixth nationally in scoring and total defense and first against the run, though it hadn’t played a team with an offense nearly as potent as Ohio State’s.

The Nittany Lions got the better of the matchup in regulation. The Buckeyes gained only 293 yards, including only 80 in the second half. Until the overtime, Barrett resembled the redshirt freshman he looked like in the loss to Virginia Tech more than the polished, poised player he had been lately. Meyer said Barrett played with a sprained knee in the second half.

With the play-calling unusually conservative, Barrett passed for only 74 yards. The Buckeyes seldom tested Penn State’s secondary deep and were often content to run between the tackles. It worked early, but wasn’t sustained.

Ohio State’s only possession deep into Penn State territory in the final 30 minutes of regulation ended on a missed 41- yard field-goal attempt by Sean Nuernberger in the third quarter.

When OSU did turn to the air, the results were sometimes disastrous. Penn State defensive tackle Anthony Zettel intercepted Barrett and returned the ball 40 yards for a touchdown on the Buckeyes’ first possession of the second half to begin the Nittany Lions’ comeback.

Barrett was picked off again early in the fourth quarter when he was off-target to Evan Spencer, and Hull caught the ball. The Nittany Lions drove 60 yards, the final 28 coming on a touchdown pass from Hackenberg to Saeed Blacknall, who outleaped Eli Apple for the ball to make the score 17-14.

Penn State then tied the score on a 19-play drive that ended with a 31-yard field goal by Sam Ficken with 9 seconds left.

When Penn State scored on a 1-yard run by Bill Belton after the Nittany Lions overcame a holding call on its first play of overtime, the Buckeyes looked to be in deep trouble.

But the offense awoke from its slumber just in time. Barrett ran 17 yards on a keeper, and then scored on the next play for a tie.

Ohio State got the ball first in double overtime. After a 2-yard run by Ezekiel Elliott, Barrett scrambled for 6 yards and then bulled in for the final 4.

Then the Buckeyes’ defense did what it couldn’t do in the fourth quarter: shut Penn State down when it needed to.

HISTORY LESSON: Looking back at the 2014 College Football Playoff Championship 10th anniversary

The Buckeyes caught breaks from the officiating on their first two scores. On Penn State’s game-opening possession, safety Vonn Bell was credited with an interception, although replays showed the ball touched the ground. Later, it was announced that the replay officials

got the wrong feed from ABC. OSU made it 10-0 on a 49-yard field goal by Nuernberger on which the referees did not notice that the play clock expired.

Penn State coach James Franklin said: “I’d love to come in here and tell you how I really think, but that would be inappropriate with some of the other things that went on.”

brabinowitz@dispatch.com

@brdispatch