If you’re going to beat Ohio State under coach Urban Meyer, then you better do it regulation.
The Buckeyes’ 30-23 overtime win at Wisconsin on Oct. 15 illustrated that lesson one more time. Meyer, who is 56-4 at Ohio State, improved to 4-0 in overtime with the Buckeyes and 7-0 for his career.
That’s a history that dates to his first overtime game as a head coach with Bowling Green on Oct. 19, 2002. The Falcons beat Western Michigan 48-45 on a short TD run by Josh Harris. He also led Utah to a 45-43 triple-overtime victory Nov. 1, 2003, and Florida to a 34-31 win against Georgia on Oct. 30, 2010. Meyer won his fourth overtime game with Ohio State last week, and now the No. 2 Buckeyes take a 6-0 record to Penn State on Saturday.
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That process for success happens well before regulation ends.
“We do spend a lot of time in spring practice and summer training camp putting the ball on the 25-yard line,” Meyer said on the Big Ten teleconference Tuesday. “That’s, in our estimation, that’s the money areas where we don’t like to kick field goals.
“If we have a chance to score, then go score,” Meyer said. “It’s the same thing on defense because of that; they get a tremendous amount of work defending the red zone as well.”
In those seven overtime games, the Meyer-coached team has had 10 possessions. They’ve scored nine TDs, and the only field goal was the game-winner against Georgia when Meyer was at Florida. It doesn’t matter if they have the ball first or last. Meyer has the script to win.
In the four overtime games with Ohio State, the Buckeyes scored a TD first in the deciding overtime period. That happened on the first possession against Purdue in a 29-22 win on Oct. 20, 2012, and later that season on Nov. 17 against Wisconsin in a 21-14 win, and then last week. The Buckeyes also beat Penn State with back-to-back TDs in double overtime for a 31-24 victory on Oct. 25, 2014.
Which brings us to Saturday’s game against the Nittany Lions. It’s the return trip to Happy Valley. In 2014, Penn State took a 24-17 lead in overtime on a short touchdown run by Bill Belton.
“We didn’t play particularly well,” Meyer said. “They did, and actually took the lead in overtime right in front of their students, and I always tell people that the script was written. That game was over. We found a way to finish it off and win the game.”
J.T. Barrett, however, scored back-to-back TDs, and Joey Bosa closed Penn State out with a highlight-reel sack. That game proved to have a carryover effect and helped propel the Buckeyes to the 2014 national championship.
Last week, Barrett hit Noah Brown for a 7-yard touchdown to start overtime, and the Buckeyes — this time with the help of Nick Bosa, Tyquan Lewis and Sam Hubbard — closed out the Badgers. Are there parallels?
“The same thing happened at Wisconsin,” Meyer said. The script was pretty well written. We were down by 10 in a tough environment against a very good team.
“The common denominator is J.T. had a lot to do with it,” he said. “J.T. and Pat Elflein are constants that were involved in offense, and Billy Price, and pretty much everyone else is new.”
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Everyone except Meyer. He knows how to write that overtime postscript. That a message to the rest of the Big Ten.
If you’re going to beat these Buckeyes, then you better finish the game in regulation.
