Blue White Illustrated

O C T O B E R 2 8 , 2 0 1 5 B L U E W H I T E O N L I N E . C O M 17 Two main storylines emerged from Penn State's 31-30 victory over Mary- land last Saturday: the offense's success at generating big plays, and the de- fense's inability to stop the Terrapins' option offense until late in the game. Going into the game, Penn State was not getting big pass plays with any regu- larity, and it had not built on its strong showing in the 2014 Pinstripe Bowl, an overtime victory over Boston College in which it passed for 371 yards and four touchdowns. Through their first seven games this fall, the Nittany Lions were ranked 12th in the Big Ten in pass of- fense, averaging only 177.4 yards per game. Christian Hackenberg was com- pleting just 53.1 percent of his passes, and maybe most worrisome of all, the Lions were averaging only 12.8 yards per completion and 6.8 yards per attempt. It was quite obvious that Maryland had taken note of those numbers. With the Nittany Lions having produced only 18 pass plays of 20 or more yards, the Terps deployed a defensive scheme that fo- cused on stopping the run and gambled that their cornerbacks would be able to break up the deep passes that Penn State would be forced to attempt if it were going to move the ball. "They came out and threw the kitchen sink at us," Hackenberg said. "They were doing some funky things that they hadn't shown all year." "They had a good plan," coach James Franklin added. "They basically said 'We're going go high-risk, high-reward, going to go cover-zero on the defense, and always bring one more than you can block, overload the box, and force you to beat us with the vertical passing game.' "Basically, they said, 'Your receivers won't beat us, your quarterback won't make the throws.' I think if you go back and watch film, the amount of cover- zero with man [coverage], no deep safeties or cover-one man with press corners, they hadn't lived on that [all season]. And to be honest with you, usually when you play someone like that and you burn them a couple of times deep, they stop. But they didn't." Indeed, Hackenberg, with the help of Chris Godwin, DaeSean Hamilton and the rest of Penn State's wide receiver corps, made them pay. It wasn't pretty. The Lions didn't compile a high comple- tion percentage, as Hackenberg hit only 13 of 29 passes, but they were highly ef- fective. Penn State threw for 315 yards and averaged an almost unbelievable 24.2 yards per catch, with three touch- down passes and no interceptions. The Lions had nine pass plays of 20 or more yards, half as many as they totaled in their first seven games combined. Godwin ended up with catches of 27, 31, 37 and 40 yards and finished the game with four catches for 135 yards. Hamilton led the team with five catches for 96 yards, with his longest reception going for 38 yards, along with his 20- yard TD reception in the third quarter. Saeed Blacknall had a 38-yard catch, and Geno Lewis had a spectacular 27- yard reception early in the fourth quar- ter that gave Penn State a 31-27 lead. "It's tough to be super successful and go out there and throw a 70 percent com- pletion percentage against that type of look," Hackenberg said. "We knew what we needed to do, we needed to take our shots and we needed to convert on a cou- ple of those, and we were able to do so." Defensively, Penn State was gouged for the second week in a row by a read-op- tion offense. The Terrapins entered the game averaging just 341.3 yards, 12th- best in the Big Ten. But against PSU, Maryland's offense had its best day this season, totaling 466 yards. Quarterback Perry Hills completed 19 of 28 passes for 225 yards with one touchdown and was the Terrapins' leading rusher with 124 yards on 26 carries. "Early on, they had us on our heels," Franklin said. "The mobile quarterback is a pain. The college game with all the run-pass options – we call it R.P.O. – we have to continue to work on it and get better." It really wasn't until the fourth quarter that Penn State's defense started to take charge. Even though Maryland began two of its drives on Penn State's side of the field, the Lions kept it out of the end zone and may have played their best complementary football of the season. "The fourth quarter is our quarter and my quarter," defensive tackle Austin Johnson said. "And I feel that you have to lead by example." That is exactly what Johnson did. He finished second on the team with nine tackles including 1.5 tackles for loss, and he spearheaded a strong performance in the fourth quarter, during which the Lions gave up only 52 yards. Just like their counterparts on offense, the Lions' defensive players were able to make the big play when needed. Grant Haley, Trevor Williams and Malik Golden all posted interceptions, and Penn State's defense totaled five turnovers. Brandon Bell may have made the most dramatic defensive play of the aAernoon when he sacked Hills on a blitz, forcing a fumble that defensive end Garrett Sickels re- turned 36 yards to Maryland's 28-yard line. That sack took place right aAer Nick Scott had fumbled a Maryland kickoff, and it thwarted what could easily have been a go-ahead scoring drive. In many respects, this was Penn State's ugliest win of the season. The Lions were far from consistent on either side of the ball against Maryland. But they made enough big plays on offense and held strong in the fourth quarter on defense and now are blowl-eligible aAer pulling out their sixth win of the season. Penn State's big-play offense returns in narrow victory over Terrapins PHIL'S CORNER

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