Penn State head coach James Franklin accepted the blame for running the ball on 4th-and-5 from the Ohio State 45-yard line with 1:16 remaining in Saturday night's 27-26 loss to the Buckeyes at Beaver Stadium.
"We obviously didn't make the right call in that situation," Franklin said, according to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette's Dave Molinari. "That's on me."
The call followed consecutive timeouts by Ohio State and Penn State as the two sides tried to scope out each other's tactical preferences with the game on the line.
The Nittany Lions settled on a dive play to running back Miles Sanders, and the result was a two-yard loss that allowed the fourth-ranked Buckeyes to improve to 5-0.