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other, pressured freshman quarterback Christian Hackenberg into one of the tougher games of his young career and more or less had its way with its undermanned opponent. The final score was Ohio State 63, Penn State 14, and it really was that lopsided. "They're a good football team, no question about it," Penn State coach Bill O'Brien said afterward. "They deserve all their rankings and all the things that are coming for them. They're gonna be tough to beat. They've got good speed, they've got good athletes. They played better than us, and they coached better than us tonight." For Penn State, which fell to 4-3 and 12 in the Big Ten, the statistics were every bit as grisly as the final score. Where to begin? How about with the defense, which surrendered 686 yards. The Buckeyes hit Penn State with a little bit of everything: swing passes, screen passes, handoffs, option plays. They ran what looked to be a pretty sizable chunk of their playbook, and all of it worked. Quarterback Braxton Miller had a career-high 252 yards passing and 68 rushing, while tailback Carlos Hyde ran for 147. Penn State's offense didn't fare much better. Hackenberg completed 12 of 23 for 112 yards with one touchdown and two interceptions before leaving in the third quarter with a shoulder injury. Bill Belton ran for 98 yards on 22 carries, but Zach Zwinak had a tough night in limited duty, gaining only 8 yards and fumbling for the second week in a row. Known as a second-half team, the Buckeyes didn't wait until after the halftime break to lay waste to Penn State's defense. They began carving it up on their very first play, a 14-yard completion to Hyde. Of the seven plays it ran on its first drive, three covered 10 or more yards. Hyde ended the impressive 75yard march with a 2-yard touchdown run. Eager to respond on their first drive, the Nittany Lions maneuvered into scoring position but couldn't finish it off, as Hackenberg threw an interception in the end zone on third-and-5 from the 12yard line. O'Brien took responsibility for the turnover. "I probably could have called a better play," he said. "It would o c t o b e R SCORING SUMMARY 1ST 13:00 OSU OSU 4:12 PSU 3:16 OSU 0:03 OSU 8:52 OSU 4:01 OSU 8:24 OSU 7:33 4TH OSU 8:24 3RD OSU 1:10 2ND 12:43 PSU Hyde, Carlos 2-yard run (Basil, Drew kick) 7 plays, 75 yards, TOP 2:17........................................................................ 7-0 Miller, Braxton 39-yard run (Basil, Drew kick) 10 plays, 88 yards, TOP 4:22.....................................................................14-0 Miller, Braxton 6-yard run (Basil, Drew kick) 7 plays, 52 yards, TOP 2:20.......................................................................21-0 Fields, Chris 3-yard pass from Miller, Braxton (Basil, Drew kick) 8 plays, 60 yards, TOP 3:04.......................................................................28-0 Felder, Brandon 12-yard pass from Hackenberg, Christian (Ficken, Sam kick) 11 plays, 79 yards, TOP 4:07.....................................................................28-7 Hyde, Carlos 39-yard run (Basil, Drew kick) 2 plays, 45 yards, TOP 0:45.......................................................................35-7 Brown, Corey 25-yard pass from Miller, Braxton (Basil, Drew kick) 6 plays, 84 yards, TOP 0:52.......................................................................42-7 Wilson, Dontre 26-yard pass from Miller, Braxton (Basil, Drew kick) 2 plays, 33 yards, TOP 0:45.......................................................................49-7 Guiton, Kenny 2-yard run (Basil, Drew kick) 7 plays, 72 yards, TOP 3:01.......................................................................56-7 Guiton, Kenny 11-yard run (Basil, Drew kick) 13 plays, 79 yards, TOP 7:28.....................................................................63-7 Robinson, Allen 65-yard pass from Ferguson, Tyler (Ficken, Sam kick) 2 plays, 70 yards, TOP 0:45.....................................................................63-14 have been nice to have a touchdown there." Later in the first quarter, Miller sprinted 39 yards for a touchdown to make it 14-0, and the Buckeyes were only getting warmed up. They scored 28 points in the second quarter, 14 in the third and seven in the fourth. Penn State scored only twice: on a 12yard reception by Brandon Felder in the second quarter and a 65-yard catchand-run in the fourth by Allen Robinson in which he reversed field and weaved through the entire Buckeyes defense. But other than that, it was all Buckeyes. They were so good and the Nittany Lions so outmanned that players dismissed questions in the media room afterward about whether Ohio State had run up the score. "They've gotta do what they gotta do," linebacker Mike Hull said. "They're trying to get to a national championship, and that stuff happens. It's sports. You've gotta expect that. " Penn State will look to regroup next week against Illinois. It's a fortuitous bit of timing, as the Illini look eminently 2 6 , 2 0 1 3 2 beatable after a 42-3 loss at home to Michigan State. They were outgained by 349 yards, managed only eight first downs and had an 18-minute disadvantage in time of possession against the Spartans. Purdue, at 1-6 overall and 0-3 in the conference, appears pretty vulnerable, too, but the other three opponents on Penn State's remaining schedule – Minnesota, Nebraska and Wisconsin – look a lot tougher, at least from this vantage point. They sport a combined record of 15-6, and if Penn State fans were feeling confident about the trip to Minneapolis in two weeks, they're probably feeling a little less so after the Gophers stunned the Cornhuskers, 34-23, earlier Saturday. But O'Brien has talked often of his players' resilience, and he said he expects them to display it again this week. "We've got great kids in that locker room," he said. "They'll put it behind them. They'll learn from it. We'll remember some things and then we'll get ready to play Illinois. " b l u e w h i t e o n l i n e . c o m

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