Penn State Sports Magazine
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/408409
In more than 20 years of coaching, James Franklin said he had never seen anything like it before. AAer the opening coin toss prior to kickoff, Mary- land's captains refused to shake hands with Penn State's. Said Franklin, "That's their prerogative." There was a scuffle, too, and the referees hit the Terrapins with an unsportsmanlike penalty, which spotted PSU 15 yards on the opening kickoff. Four quarters of back-and-forth play followed, and the penalty ultimately had little effect on the outcome, a 20-19 win for Maryland. But it did rekindle the tone of an old rivalry, one that hadn't been played since 1993, and one in which, before Saturday, Maryland had only once finished on the winning side. Once tempers settled down – aAer a double personal foul penalty against two Nittany Lion defensive backs – Penn State got the ball for the first time and drove 36 yards on nine plays, put- ting the first points on the board with a 47-yard field goal from senior Sam Ficken. The defense forced a punt on the next drive, and when the offense retook the field for its second P O S T G A M E R E P O R T W E E K 8 M A R Y L A N D 2 0 , P E N N S T A T E 1 9 N O V E M B E R 1 , 2 0 1 4 B L U E W H I T E O N L I N E . c O M THE GAME AT A GLANCE GOOD NEWSPenn State's defense was stout, surrendering only 20 points to an offense that went into the game averaging 31.6. And Sam Ficken had a great day, going 4 for 4 on field goal attempts. BAD NEWS Same old same old. The offen- sive line has been PSU's Achilles heel all season, and things went from bad to worse with Donovan Smith inactive due to an injury. The Lions rushed for 42 yards and gave up five sacks. THE TAKEAWAY A poor offensive show- ing cost PSU another winnable game. It still needs two victo- ries to get itself bowl eligible and is run- ning out of chances. The Lions' next three games are against In- diana, Temple and Illinois. You'd like to think there are two wins lurking in there, but given all the problems on offense, and the sideline ten- sion those problems are creating, there are no sure things. 1 HIGH PRESSURE SYSTEM Mary- land totaled five sacks in its vic- tory over the Nit- tany Lions. Photo by Steve Manuel T I M O W E N | O W E N . T I M . B W I @ G M A I L . c O M All shook up Offense continues to struggle in loss to Terps