No. 7 Penn State looking for first win in Columbus since 2011 as game with No. 3 Ohio State looms

STATE COLLEGE, Pa. — The first half of the season went about as well as it could for Penn State. It’s about to get much tougher.

If the seventh-ranked Nittany Lions (6-0) want to maximize their chances of playing for a Big Ten championship, they will need to do something they haven’t done in more than a decade — beat Ohio State in Columbus.

They’ll have their shot against the No. 3 Buckeyes (6-0) on Saturday in the Horseshoe, a place where Penn State hasn’t won since 2011.

“It is another top-10 opponent,” defensive end Adisa Isaac said. “Obviously we’ve been battling these guys for years and years, so this is a great test for us.”

There weren’t many of those in the first half of the season, when the Nittany Lions found different ways to blow out every opponent they faced.

Sophomore quarterback Drew Allar carved up West Virginia in the opener and still hasn’t turned the ball over. Running backs Nick Singleton and Kaytron Allen helped the offense run over Illinois, Iowa and Northwestern. Special teams lifted the Nittany Lions to their latest win with a pair of punt return touchdowns in the rain that jump-started them against UMass.

Meanwhile, coordinator Manny Diaz’s defense has been nearly perfect as the Nittany Lions sit atop the country’s total defense rankings and at No. 2 in scoring defense through six games.

Except for its 17-14 victory over then-No. 9 Notre Dame, Ohio State has had an equally easy time with its schedule.

“I feel really good about the team,” Allar said. “I think we’ve done a great job of improving our process each week and just focusing on ourselves and correcting the mistakes we’ve made so far. We’ve just got to keep building on…