No. 3 Ohio State Looks Like No. 1 Against Penn State

A week after a little mystique-crashing of Notre Dame in South Bend, Ind., Ohio State returned home Saturday to knock another legendary program off its moorings.

Under cloudless, blue skies and with the faint scent of a national title in the air, No. 3 Ohio State reduced No. 4 Penn State to Punt State, running back Curtis Enis from Heisman hopeful to plodder and Coach Joe Paterno from mastermind to mind-boggled in a 38-7 Big Ten Conference victory before a crowd of 94,241 at Ohio Stadium.

It’s one thing to beat a team convincingly, quite another to treat a program that notched its 700th victory last week like the scout team in an intrasquad scrimmage.

It was an act of mercy that the Buckeyes (4-0) ran out the clock inside the Nittany Lions’ five-yard line so as to spare Paterno of equaling the worst margin of defeat--38 points, twice--in his 30 seasons at Penn State.

It was “only” the fifth-worst of Paterno’s 73 losses, and the most one-sided since a 44-7 defeat to Notre Dame in 1984.

“They got their rears kicked in and they’ll learn from that,” Paterno said of his players. “I’m not down at all about the team. We just got licked. There’s nothing I can do about it. I can’t even second-guess myself.”

No, there was not much time for that.

Not with the Buckeyes running up and down the field unchecked and the Nittany Lion offense working to find open slivers in Ohio State’s defensive front.

Not with Buckeye Dimitrious Stanley running uncovered down the right sideline in the first quarter, and quarterback Stanley Jackson nervously launching a 42-yard touchdown pass to his receiver.

“When a guy’s that wide open, that’s one of the hardest passes to throw,” Jackson said.

Second-guess? Second-guess what?

Josh Jackson’s 30-yard, second-quarter field goal to make it 10-0? Jackson’s beautiful touch pass to Matt Keller for a 24-yard score with 9:03 left in the half to make it 17-0? Backup quarterback Joe Germaine’s 34-yard scoring pass to Stanley, effectively rendering the game over with 6:26 left before the halftime show?

It’s hard to second-guess an avalanche; hard to be a coaching legend when your team punts on all seven first-half possessions, does not cross midfield until 13:30 remains in the third quarter, does not score a touchdown until 6:03 remaining, long after the Ohio State starters have left the field.

“I don’t know if we can play much better than that,” Ohio State Coach John Cooper said.

The Buckeyes, who may have played well enough to unlock No. 2 Florida State from its present grip--maybe Florida from No. 1--certainly did not play like America’s third-best team.

Ohio State did not commit a turnover.

Ohio State outgained Penn State (5-1), 565 to 211, and held the Nittany Lions, a team that averaged 230.8 rushing yards a game, to 68.

The Buckeye defense, playing a scheme to stop the run, choked off Enis from the start, holding the standout sophomore to 34 yards in 11 carries. He had been averaging 137.5 a game.

The Buckeyes dared quarterback Wally Richardson to beat them, and Richardson (14 for 30, 105 yards) couldn’t.

Enis, a former Ohio high school star who defected to play for rival Penn State, had bad-mouthed the Buckeyes’ recruitment of him earlier in the week, claiming the first letter they mailed to him was labeled “Chris” Enis.

The Buckeyes didn’t miss Enis on Saturday.

They had a tailback named Pepe Pearson, who rushed for 141 yards in 28 carries and scored on a one-yard run in the third quarter to put Ohio State up, 31-0.

They didn’t get Enis, but they got a quarterback named Jackson, who completed 11 of 22 passes for 169 yards with two touchdowns and rushed for 53 yards in eight carries.

The Buckeyes landed enough blue-chip recruits to have arrived at a point in the season where they are afraid to ponder what lies ahead.

“It’s almost scary,” Jackson said. “It’s a scary thought to think how good we can be.”

Naysayers will remind that Ohio State has been here before. The Buckeyes were 10-0 last season before a crippling November loss to Michigan ended their national title hopes.

Are the Buckeyes better?

“Defensively, yeah,” said junior cornerback Shawn Springs, who limited Penn State standout receiver Joe Jurevicius to one catch for 12 yards. “We’re a lot better defensively.”

This Ohio State team is not lacking of confidence. When asked what he thought of Northwestern’s 17-16 upset of arch-rival Michigan on Saturday, Cooper blurted, “Big deal.”

Springs was equally blunt.

“Doesn’t bum me out at all,” he said. “I’m glad they got beat.”

The Buckeyes are taking on their demons one at a time.

Cooper, the coach who supposedly couldn’t win the big one, has now defeated Lou Holtz and Paterno on successive weekends.

“It doesn’t get much better than that,” Cooper said.

Ohio State, the team that was supposed to slink back to its cave after last season’s busted dream, is now content to beat all comers and let the rest of the country grovel over its worthiness.

“I thought last year when we played them they should have been No. 1,” Paterno said. “I don’t know what it takes to get past somebody from the state of Florida.”

Maybe it took Penn State.