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Third down struggles doom Penn State in 20-12 loss to Ohio State

Mug-Shot 4x4by:Ryan Snyder•10/21/23•

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Ohio State defenisve coordinator Jim Knowles (Credit: Ryan Snyder | Blue White Illustrated)

Penn State offensive coordinator Mike Yurcich and his squad came into today’s game against Ohio State averaging over 44 points per game. Even if you remove the 126 points they racked up against Delaware and UMass, the Nittany Lions were still averaging 35 points per game against the four Power Five opponents they played leading into today’s showdown in Columbus.

There are multiple reasons that Penn State had the success they did on offense during the first half of the season, but one area that was a strength for the Lions was their ability to convert on third down. Coming into today’s game, Penn State ranked 20th out of 130 teams at the Football Bowl Subdivision level on third down, converting 48.3 percent of the time. Only Michigan ranked higher in the Big Ten.

But when faced with its toughest test of the season Saturday at Ohio State, that was a much different story, with the Nittany Lion offense going just 1 for 16 on the day. That one they did convert came at the very end of the game, as quarterback Drew Allar found wide receiver Liam Clifford for a seven-yard gain on 3rd and 6. Penn State was able to score two plays later, but by then it was too late.

“To me, really the story of the game came down to third down,” Franklin said during his opening statement following the game. “We weren’t able to stay on the field on third down on offense, which was the biggest difference in the game, in my opinion. So give Ohio State a ton of credit.”

The Penn State head coach later went on to add, “Obviously, on third down, we’ve got to be better. We’ve done a pretty good job of that all year long. We did not do a good job of that today. They played some zero hold [coverage] on us and we got to be willing to throw it over their heads in those situations and take some shots and be aggressive. But you gotta give them credit, too.”

Tight end Theo Johnson was also asked about the offense’s lack of success on third down. He added that the team put an emphasis on that in practice.

“It’s tough because we put a lot of emphasis on third downs In practice, third down periods where literally just every play is third down in practice,” Johnson said. “So it’s definitely frustrating and an area that we definitely need to improve on.”

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