No. 11 Penn State football lost a home game for the first time in nearly three calendar years when No. 3 Ohio State came from behind to win 27-26.

Although the team’s 16-game home winning streak is officially over and morale is certainly low in Happy Valley, it’s important to put the streak in perspective to see how impressive it was.

By the numbers…

The home winning streak was the Nittany Lions’ sixth-longest in program history, lasting a total of 756 days. Penn State’s total record during the streak was 26-6. Five of those six losses came against ranked opponents. Penn State won the 2017 Fiesta Bowl and a Big Ten championship in between its two most recent losses at Beaver Stadium.

Quarterback Trace McSorley hadn’t lost at home as Penn State’s starting quarterback. He passed for 7,948 yards and 67 touchdowns as the starter before losing a game at Beaver Stadium. True juniors Miles Sanders, Cam Brown, Blake Gillikin, and Connor McGovern all grew into full-time starters and key contributors to the team during the streak.

Saquon Barkley and a stellar senior class of DaeSean Hamilton, Marcus Allen, and Mike Gesicki ended their Penn State careers with a 14-game winning streak at Beaver Stadium. Joe Moorhead never experienced a home loss as the Nittany Lions’ offensive coordinator before leaving Happy Valley for Starkville following the 2017 season.

Other Home Winning Streaks In College Football

Before this weekend, the Nittany Lions’ 16-game home winning streak was the third longest in college football, behind only USC (18 games) and Alabama (22 games). The only other schools with active home win streaks of longer than ten games entering this season were Auburn and Wisconsin. Both teams’ streaks were snapped early this season.

Now that Penn State, Auburn, and Wisconsin’s home winning streaks are over, the only other team in the nation with a ten-game winning streak on home turf is Washington.

As you can see, home winning streaks as long as Penn State’s are few and far between, so it’s important to acknowledge just how impressive the 16-game streak was. USC picked up most of the wins in its streak with a future No. 3 overall NFL Draft pick at a quarterback, and Alabama is, well, Alabama.