Ohio State is National Team of the Week

October 2, 2018 by Courtesy FWAA

The Ohio State Buckeyes rallied from 12 points down in the final eight minutes to win at Penn State, 27-26, in a battle of Big Ten unbeatens. For that effort in front of a record crowd of 110,889 at Beaver Stadium, Ohio State is the Reveal Suits National Team of the Week for games of the weekend of September 27/29.

The award is sponsored this season by Reveal Suits.

This is the fourth time for Ohio State (5-0) to earn the honor, which dates to the 2002 season, and its first since 2014.

Trailing 26-14 midway through the fourth quarter, Ohio State quarterback Dwayne Haskins connected for two of his three touchdown passes to fuel the rally. The Buckeyes covered 75 yards in just three plays to get within 26-21 when Haskins found Binjimen Victor for a 47-yard weaving catch-and-run. OSU forced a punt and took over at its own 4-yard line to set up the dramatics. The Buckeyes got a big play at the start of the drive with a 35-yard pass from Haskins to J.K. Dobbins. Haskins would later find K.J. Hill in the flat, and Hill would sprint down the sideline to the end zone for the go-ahead score, closing an eight-play, 96-yard march that took just over two minutes. Haskins finished 22-of-39 passing for 270 yards with three touchdowns and an interception.

Penn State got to the Ohio State 43 with 1:22 left, but on fourth-and-five following a series of three timeouts from both teams, Ohio State defensive end Chase Young stopped Miles Sanders for a two-yard loss to seal the win. Young finished with two sacks and three tackles for loss in the game.

"Hats off to the defense. They kept us in the game as bad as the offense was in that first half," Ohio State coach Urban Meyer said. "The halftime adjustments – give the coaches credit, they did a good job. We are an offensive-line-driven program and they controlled the game after we got going."

The only other National Team of the Week nominee for the weekend of September 27/29 was:

Notre Dame (5-0): Ian Book threw four touchdown passes and Notre Dame remained undefeated by ending a three-game losing streak to Stanford with a convincing 38-17 win in South Bend. Book finished with 278 passing yards, much of it to Miles Boykin, who posted career highs in receptions (11) and yardage (144). The Irish held Stanford's Bryce Love to 73 yards on 17 carries before he left the game with an apparent injury with 11 minutes left.