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forcing a fumble. Hamilton quickly
gathered in the ball, but the hit was a
wicked one.
BEST EFFORT Murphy eluded
Brad Bars' attempted sack, then aired
out a pass down-
cials missed a wicked clip thrown on
C.J. Olaniyan was inexcusable. The
infraction was blatant. Later in the
game, Adrian Amos saw Hilliman
scamper toward the sideline and, al-
though his hit was a split-second de-
cision, it was late and cost the Nit-
tany Lions an extra 15 yards on a per-
sonal foul penalty.
MOST TELLING MOMENT After
Ficken sent home his winning PAT,
he immediately sprinted to the op-
posite end zone at Yankee Stadium
to avoid an all-out blitz from his
teammates. Also, Penn State left
guard Miles Dieffenbach was carted
off the field early in the second
quarter, a miserable ending for a
player who had undergone a gruel-
ing ordeal just to put himself in po-
sition to return to action this sea-
son.
■
QUARTERBACK This was Christian Hackenberg's best game in a while. Sure,
there were a few underthrown passes here and there, but he looked better than he did
at any point in November. The only things keeping him from an A are those fumbled
snaps, which led to 14 points. Overall, he showed on multiple occasions why people
believe he has NFL potential...............................................................
GRADE B+
RUNNING BACK
Akeel Lynch was a much bigger factor in this game than Bill Bel-
ton, and deservedly so, but he's not a game-breaker and never will be. While the line
didn't open up a lot of holes, Lynch ran hard, didn't turn the ball over and had ar-
guably the best rush of his career at one of the most important moments in the
game..............................................................................................
GRADE B
RECEIVER
Geno Lewis and DaeSean Hamilton both missed some key catches in the
