Ohio State 38, Penn State 14: The Curious Case of Matt McMorelli
If last week’s game was a tale of two halves, then this was part 2 of that story. But unlike last week’s chapter, when Penn State rallied from a 21-point deficit to win going away, well, this was the exact opposite. This time it was Penn State going up early, then imploding in the second half, unable to move the ball or stop the opposing offense. Last week, it was Penn State finishing the game with 35 unanswered points. This week, it was their opponent doing the exact same. The roller coaster came to an end.
After an initial drive ended with a three-and-out, McGloin went to work–leadng Penn State to back-to-back touchdown scores, and I do mean leading. Unlike last week’s second half, this one wasn’t about the run game, this was about Matt McGloin throwing dart after dart–down the field, to the sidelines, over the middle. Frankly, you would’ve guessed that he was the highly recruited stud out of high school, especially as Terrelle Pryor struggled. He started the game by completing 11 of his first 13 passes–13 of his 18 in the first half–and his success was infectious. The offensive line blocked for him, the receivers hauled in passes, and Penn State took a 14-3 lead into the half–and it would’ve been more, had Joe Paterno settled for a 37-yard field goal instead of going for it on 4th and 1 from the Ohio State 20–the only 4th down attempt of the three they tried in that first half that failed to pick up a new set of downs.
But few could complain–we were up, after all, and we’d scored more points–14–than we ever had in the Big Ten era at Ohio State. And that first half wasn’t predicated on big plays or lucky bounces–Penn State absolutely dominated all facets of the game.The defense bent, but didn’t break on the first series–holding the Buckeyes to a field goal after a 50-yard bomb got them inside the 10. But after that, Ohio State didn’t even threaten. The drives either picked up 1 first down, or went three-and-out.
We were riding high. It was hard to believe that we’d collapse so thoroughly.
But that’s exactly what happened in the second half. Penn State got the ball to start the 3rd quarter and made a decent drive out of it, getting to midfield before punting–and Anthony Fera pinned Ohio State inside their 5. A false start penalty pinned the Buckeyes back to their 2. The most optimistic among us were thinking safety. Ohio State was thinking touchdown. A 3rd and 4-dump off to Boom Herron simply embarrassed Bani Gbadyu in space–a good open field tackle would’ve forced a punt. But Bani, as he always seems to be, was incapable of making the stop. Ohio State picked up 19 yards and a first down, and that opened the floodgates. Eight plays later, Ohio State had their first touchdown of the day.
But hey, we were still leading. And McGloin had moxie and poise, and all those other adjectives people use to describe a quarterback who’s winning when they really can’t compliment his athletic ability. But his luck ran out on the 4th play of the ensuing drive–an out route was picked off by cornerback Devon Torrence–who McGloin had been throwing at all day–and he took it down the sideline for a touchdown. All of a sudden, Ohio State was up, 17-14. And things just got worse–as you could’ve guessed, given the final score. Terrelle Pryor lobbed a deep ball on 2nd and 23 that was tipped away from DeVier Posey–but right to Dane Sanzenbacher, who caught the luckiest 59-yard touchdown in history. Down by 10, Penn State got the ball back, needing a score, but Anthony Morelli Matt McGloin threw another pick-6, effectively ending the game.
This wasn’t all on McGloin–the quarterback always gets far too much credit for a win and far too much blame for a loss. But the numbers speak for themselves–he was a disgusting 2-12 in the second half–completing as many passes to Buckeye defenders as Penn State receivers. Staring down your receivers works against the Michigans and Northwesterns of the world, but Jim Tressel started to realize that McGloin wasn’t making multiple reads. Defenders sat on the short routes, and threw McGloin off his game. His 2 touchdown passes were canceled out by the pair of pick-sixes.
In the first, he carved up the Ohio State defense, and looked comfortable doing it–in the second, the run game was stifled, the offensive line overwhelmed, and the receivers shaky. In other words–he got the Rob Bolden treatment, and looked worse than Bolden ever did during the Iowa or Alabama games. I sincerely hope that this is the end of the Matt McGloin experiment–we saw what he could do against a real defense, and not-exactly-shockingly, it’s not quite the same as what he could do against Michigan or Northwestern.
We might’ve predicted it would go like this–generally speaking. That Ohio State would come out sluggish, off the bye, that Penn State would stick around early and fall apart late. That Matt McGloin’s luck would run out. But I’m not sure any of us expected it to come crashing down quite so hard. The defense–playing without Mike Mauti, who left the game with an apparent arm (?) injury–got bullied at the point of attack, and failed to wrap up at the second level. Ohio State was marching down the field at will, running for 315 yards in the game–and that was without the benefit of an impressive performance from Terrelle Pryor. Evan Royster and Stephfon Green both left the game with injuries, and learned that Silas Redd isn’t ready to be the man just yet–despite a pair of breathtaking runs, he finished the game with just 41 yards on 12 carries.
Don’t let anyone fool you–this is far from the end of the world. Despite a near-perfect 1st half, Penn State simply isn’t on the same level as Ohio State–not now, at least. Few could’ve expected us to win this game, and we performed about as well as an unbiased observer suggested–the Vegas sportsbooks, who put the Nittany Lions as 18-point underdogs. There are still two more games left in the regular season–one next week against an Indiana team that just lost by 63 to Wisconsin–we’ll chalk that one up as a win. And Sparty isn’t unbeatable–especially at Beaver Stadium, where they’ve never won.
But for now, expect all the discussion to center around the quarterback position, where Penn State once again has a controversy. You can be sure Joe Paterno won’t name a starter until the middle of the week, but I’ll be, at least privately, hoping it’s Rob Bolden. Matt McGloin is easy to root for–and when he’s on, boy is it fun. But Bolden is still the future of this program, and plenty of former McGloin supporters are surely jumping off that bandwagon after it turned out that his “moxie” could only go so far.
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