It has been quite a journey, but 845 days after the NCAA levied heavy sanctions on the Penn State football program, the Nittany Lions clinched bowl eligibility for the first time since 2011 in a 30-13 win over Temple at Beaver Stadium.
The Nittany Lion defense, one of the best in the country, forced five Owls turnovers and a Penn State offense that has struggled all season put up 254 yards on the ground en route to the team’s sixth win of the season.
This wasn’t supposed to happen until (at least) 2016, but in September, the NCAA lifted PSU’s bowl ban and restored the program’s full allotment of 85 scholarships for the 2015 season.
The Nittany Lions, in their first season under James Franklin, looked like they would coast to the six-win plateau early, but offensive struggles caused PSU to sputter to a four-game losing streak. A bowl game was no longer a sure thing. This game featured many of the same offensive woes.
Sophomore quarterback Christian Hackenberg looks like a shell of the Big Ten Freshman of the Year he was in 2013. Hackenberg threw for just 112 yards on 12-of-26 attempts, and his two interceptions allowed Temple, whose last win against Penn State was in 1941, to hang around through the first three quarters.
After the Owls tied the score 6-6 with 6:52 to go in the third, Penn State responded in just two plays. Senior Bill Belton (19 carries, 92 yards) reeled off a 37-yard run to start the drive and sophomore Akeel Lynch (18 carries, 130 yards) finished the job with a 38-yard score to give Penn State a 13-6 lead.
On the second play of Temple’s next drive, quarterback P.J. Walker was picked off by safety Adrian Amos to set up a Belton score and give PSU a 20-6 lead. Walker shook off the interception on Temple's next drive and found Jalen Fitzpatrick behind the defense for a 75-yard score.
Temple seemed to capture the game's momentum after a Penn State three-and-out followed, but the stingy Nittany Lion defense stepped up again. Walker threw the second of his four interceptions on the afternoon, this time into the arms of true freshman cornerback Christian Campbell.
From then on out, it was all Penn State. Another true freshman, Grant Haley, returned Walker’s third interception of the game for a touchdown and senior kicker Sam Ficken booted his third field goal of the game with 10:36 to go, giving Penn State a 30-13 lead it would not relinquish.
Now 6-4 on the year, Franklin’s squad will look to pick up win No. 7 on the road against a struggling Illinois team next Saturday.
Temple, now two games removed from upsetting East Carolina, drops to 5-5. The Owls need a win in one of their two remaining games against Cincinnati or Tulane in order to go to a bowl game.
No comments:
Post a Comment