Xs and Os breakdown after Ohio State's big win at Penn State

As a former high school football coach who coached for 15 years, I watch film breakdowns of high school and college football every day. So, for this article, I am going to give you my thoughts on watching the Ohio State football game live and then going back and watching it from the All-22 perspective. Here are my thoughts.

The offensive line comes to life

Ohio State's offensive line struggled badly last week in their win against Nebraska. Facing a crisis because their top 2 tackles were hurt, Ohio State moved Donavan Jackson to left tackle and started last year's starting center, Carson Hinzman, at left guard.

Overall, the performance was excellent. Penn State did have three sacks, but for the most part, they kept Will Howard clean in the pocket. Plus, they ran for 176 yards, including finishing the game on a long drive to ice the clock. This was a positive performance for Ohio State's offensive line.

Ohio State was down 10-0 and driving. Chip Kelly called an option play. Josh Fryar does a good job of blocking the linebacker coming downhill to seal him off and Quinshon Judkins did the rest. Great play design and execution from the Buckeyes.

Chip Kelly called a great game

Chip Kelly did a great job scheming stuff up for Ohio State during the game. The two plays below are prime examples. In both plays, he runs a tight bunch set. It looks like they are going to run the ball. Instead, Chip Kelly sneaks out Emeka Egbuka and Brandon Inniss all the way across the field for touchdowns.

Egbuka is not surprising, but Inniss is not a household name. Inniss is a talented wide receiver but is currently a backup. Most people in the program know how talented a player he is. He showed it on this play. Chip Kelly called a great game and these two touchdown plays were prime examples.

Goal-line defense was outstanding

Penn State was down 14-10 late in the 1st half. They were driving to take the lead, and Drew Allar threw to the end zone, and Davison Igbinosun made the play of the year. He was in a great position in coverage and then picked off the pass by taking the pass from the Penn State wide receiver. An unbelievable individual play. Fast forward to later in the game, Ohio State is winning 20-13, and Penn State is inside the 5. They ran it 3 times and threw it on 4th down to turnover on down.

This has been a theme for the Ohio State defense this year. They stopped Oregon at the goal line at the end of the game. They also stopped Nebraska on a goal-line stand after a Will Howard interception. This shows good ability by the defensive players, excellent coaching by Defensive Coordinator Jim Knowles, and grit and toughness of the defensive unit.

Will Howard played better after a few costly turnovers

On Will Howard's first pass, he threw an awful interception that was returned for a touchdown. It looks like Howard thought it was man-to-man coverage, and then he misread it, and the interception happened. He responded and came back to throw two touchdown passes.

Then he had a great run down the sideline, and he was about to score but fumbled it for a touchback. Both mistakes cost Ohio State 14 points. He played better in the 2nd half, including the last drive by icing the game with his rushing, but he needs to do a better job protecting the ball.

It wasn't pretty at times, but Ohio State showed toughness and grit with a nice win against a top-five road opponent. This is the type of game you expect from an Ohio State football team as talented as this team is. At a school like Ohio State, you expect wins like this, and this is exactly what Ryan Day's team did.