Penn State vs. Ohio State Position Grades

Oct 17, 2015; Columbus, OH, USA; Ohio State Buckeyes running back Ezekiel Elliott (15) carries the ball as Penn State Nittany Lions cornerback John Reid (29) and safety Jordan Lucas (9) defend in the second quarter at Ohio Stadium. Mandatory Credit: James Lang-USA TODAY Sports

Secondary:

It’s hard to fault this unit when they weren’t given too many opportunities to defend passes.  They only gave up 114 yards, but Ohio State was effectively running the ball all night.  They did give up two fourth quarter touchdown passes, but it was all Ohio State by that point.

When two safeties lead the team in tackles, it usually means there are either a lot of passes or the opposing running backs are getting to the second level.  Saturday night it was the latter.  Jordan Lucas led the team in tackles with nine and Marcus Allen was right behind him with eight.  Allen’s tackle for loss was a nice play where he didn’t let Braxton Miller break contain and tackled him for a big loss.

Cornerbacks Grant Haley and John Reid both had four tackles each with Haley also recording a pass breakup that nearly was intercepted.

Summing up the defense as a whole, they played decent enough.  Penn State did not lose because of the defense.  At the end of the night, they were completely gassed.   If Urban Meyer would have started J.T. Barrett, this would have been a lot closer to the 63-14 Buckeye rout from 2013.

Grade: B

Next: Special Teams