Ohio State Not About to Fade, 21-20

Falling backward in the corner of the end zone, Michael Jenkins caught a five-yard touchdown pass from backup quarterback Scott McMullen with 1:35 left in Ohio State’s 21-20 victory over Penn State Saturday.

Lucky catch?

“We’ve been working on that in practice; it’s called a fade-jump,” McMullen said. “Mike kind of makes a kind of fade, and then a hard jump. Most of the time the defensive player, he doesn’t really have his eye on me, so Mike sees the ball.”

With another close victory, No. 8 Ohio State (8-1, 4-1 in the Big Ten) kept its conference title hopes alive as well as a berth in a bowl championship series game.

The loss gave the Nittany Lions (2-7, 0-5) their first five-game losing streak since Joe Paterno came to Penn State as an assistant coach in 1950. He’s in his 38th season as head coach.

Penn State had a chance to win, but David Kimball’s 60-yard field-goal try on the final play of the game was just short and wide right.

The Nittany Lions held the lead for nearly 42 minutes after Alan Zemaitis intercepted a Craig Krenzel pass and returned it 78 yards for a touchdown.

Krenzel left the game late in the second quarter after a hard hit and didn’t return. McMullen completed 12 of 17 passes for 112 yards.

Penn State’s Zack Mills completed 27 of 42 passes for 253 yards in his first start since he sprained his left knee against Minnesota on Sept. 27.