He Ohio State Buckeyes and quarterback Will Howard were able to achieve a close victory yesterday over the Penn State Nittany Lions by a final score of 20-13.

While it wasn’t the prettiest win, Ohio State got the job done. With the victory, they are very well prepared to reach the College Football Playoffs.

Howard, who personally wanted to win the game because Penn State passed him over in the recruiting process, didn’t have his best game of the season. However, he was able to do enough to lead his team to victory.

He ended up completing 16 of his 24 pass attempts for 182 yards, two touchdowns and one interception. Howard also had 24 yards rushing.

After the win, Howard spoke with a bold statement about his team getting the win.

“It wasn’t pretty,” Howard said. “I probably played my worst game of the year. (That’s what I’m thinking) right now, just coming off the field. But man, I mean, we wanted that game. We talked about it earlier in the week, man. We said, ‘Let’s go have to work hard to win this game. There’s no way we can lose this.’ And that’s how we played, man.”

After watching the game, Howard is absolutely right. The Buckeyes may not have dominated the game as they expected, but they made the plays necessary to return home with a victory.

Defensively, Ohio State frustrated Penn State’s offense time and time again. They made big plays, forced a turnover in the end zone and kept the Nittany Lions from making big plays themselves. That’s exactly what they had to do.

Offensively, they didn’t move the ball consistently, but they were able to gain time of possession and do enough to win.

This is a big win, both for now and for the rest of the season. A win over the Nittany Lions has given the Buckeyes a lot of confidence. They will maintain that confidence for the rest of the season.

Hopefully, this is just the first big step toward winning a national championship. Howard and company showed that they can win the big game. They should be proud of that effort.