Blue White Illustrated

Temple Postgame

Penn State Sports Magazine

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this game," said head coach James Franklin. They needed all 6ve of them. Locked in a battle of ineptitude on of- fense in the 6rst half that included a fumble and interception for the Nittany Lions and 6ve three-and-outs for the Owls, Sam Ficken's two 6eld goals were enough to give Penn State a 6-3 edge. Holding the Owls to just two 6rst downs and 49 yards total oBense, the Nittany Lion defense would need to do more. Enter Amos, stage le5. Taking a 20-6 lead on an 8-yard Bill Belton touchdown carry following Amos' interception, Penn State picked oB Walker again before the end of the third quarter. This time it was true freshman cornerback Christian Campbell, 6lling in for absent starter Trevor Williams, who made the play, ending the Owls' try to tie the 20-13 game with just 2 minutes, 31 seconds le5 in the quarter. Though the Nittany Lions would be forced to punt just four plays later, little time would pass before Walker would get burned again by the Penn State second- ary. Airmailing his third-and-4 pass straight into the arms ofDtrue freshman cornerback Grant Haley, the Atlanta na- tive weaved through traEc, utilizing a vicious Mike Hull block to 6nd his way into the end zone to give the Nittany Lions a 27-13 lead. In the meantime, Penn State's running game 6nally found its groove. Exploding for 65 yards on two carries between Bel- ton and Akeel Lynch midway through the third quarter, the dominoes started to fall as starting le5 tackle Donovan Smith and 65h-year senior Miles DieBenbach played more and more through the course of the game. Lynch, who had 18 carries for 130 yards and a touchdown against the Owls, said, "It's great. Miles brings that senior lead- ership and Donovan is just massive and great at what he does. I never take that for granted. To just have those guys back and being able to rotate guys as well and keep those guys fresh too, it's amazing when you have your top two guys back." For the game, the Belton-Lynch duo would 6nish with 222 yards and a pair of touchdowns on the ground on 37 com- bined carries. Penn State's defense, however, still was not 6nished. Though corner Jordan Lucas would get burned on a 75-yard touchdown comple- tion between Walker and Owls' wideout Jalen Fitzpatrick, the connection amounted to Temple's last big pass play. In succession between the conclusion of the third quarter and the end of the game, 6ve consecutive Owls' oBensive drives ended with an interception, inter- ception, fumble, interception and turnover on downs. Combined with its seven tackles for a loss and a sack, the forced turnovers changed the complexion of the game. Said defensive tackle Austin Johnson, "It de6nitely played a big part. The score tells that. Five turnovers is very good. We need to keep doing that and be consistent." With the win, the Nittany Lions will get three more chances to show that im- provement. Securing the necessary sixth win to turn their sanction-less fortunes into actual bowl-eligibility, Franklin and the Nittany Lions acknowledged the signi6- cance of what has been, to this point, an ignored topic. "We love the fact that we were able to 6nd a way to get a W, but it does mean something a little bit more special [due to] the fact that we had 49 seniors who stayed around this program when this university and community and football program needed them the most," Franklin said. "The fact that we are going to be able to send them out the right way and be able to continue our season and to keep our family together for a month or so a5er the regular season ends is special and I'm really happy for those guys." Having taken a mandatory two-year break from the postseason due to the NCAA's sanctions against the program following the Jerry Sandusky scandal, many of the Nittany Lions who have been key to the accomplishment were unable to explain the magnitude of the milestone. Beyond the obvious sense of pride and feeling good, the future impact was an uncertainty. Said Lynch, "Honestly, I've never been to a bowl game, so I wouldn't know. I think I'm just glad that we have the op- portunity and now we are getting these two games to hopefully improve our chance to go to a better bowl." The Nittany Lions (6-4 overall, 3-4 Big Ten) return to action next weekend in Champaign, Ill., to take on the Fighting Illini (4-6, 1-5). SCORING SUMMARY 1ST 8:01 PSU Ficken, Sam 29-yard field goal 12 plays, 64 yards, TOP 6:59...................................................................... 3-0 3:13 TU Jones, Austin 31-yard field goal 7 plays, 33 yards, TOP 2:21........................................................................ 3-3 2ND 0:00 PSU Ficken, Sam 50-yard field goal 9 plays, 55 yards, TOP 0:53........................................................................6-3 3RD 6:52 TU Jones, Austin 25-yard field goal 4 plays, 8 yards, TOP 2:06.......................................................................... 6-6 6:13 PSU Lynch, Akeel 38-yard run (Ficken, Sam kick) 2 plays, 75 yards, TOP 0:37.......................................................................13-6 5:19 PSU Belton, Bill 8-yard run (Ficken, Sam kick) 1 play, 8 yards, TOP 0:03..........................................................................20-6 5:08 TU Fitzpatrick, Jalen 75 -yard pass from Walker, P.J. (Jones,Austin kick) 1 play, 75 yards, TOP 0:11......................................................................20-13 4TH 13:57 PSU Haley, Grant 30-yard interception return (Ficken, Sam kick)...................27-13 10:36 PSU Ficken, Sam 21-yard field goal 6 plays, 20 yards, TOP 2:26.................................................................... 30-13 N O V E M B E R 1 5 , 2 0 1 4 B L U E W H I T E O N L I N E . C O M 2

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