Ryan Day knows his offense would like a few plays back from Saturday’s game. However, Ohio State’s defense rose to the occasion against Penn State.

In Saturday’s top-10 battle, the Buckeyes held the Nittany Lions to 12 total points and did not allow a touchdown until the final minute of the game. Ohio State would win 20-12 and held Drew Allar and Penn State off balance.

Immediately following the game, Day pointed to his defense as the reason for Ohio State’s win:

“I thought our defense played unbelievably, lights out. Shouldn’t be putting them in that situation at the end of the game like that,” said Day to FOX’s Jenny Taft. “I thought we did a great job up front, won the line of scrimmage. Our guys on the backend got their hands on passes, kept battling. Defense won the game today and an unbelievable job.”

In the win, Ohio State held Penn State QB Drew Allar to 191 yards on 18-for-42 passing. Nicholas Singleton was also Penn State’s leading rusher with 48 yards on 9 carries.

As for the Buckeye defense, JT Tuimoloau, Caden Curry and Sonny Styles delivered sacks while Josh Proctor led the unit with a pair of pass breakups. The Buckeyes finished with 8 TFLs, 6 pass breakups and 4 QB hits in the dominant showing.