Blue White Illustrated

"We obviously didn't play as well com- ing out of the half on offense or defense," Franklin said. "And then we made some substitutions. … I told the coaches [in the locker room aAer the game], I don't think we played up to our standard in the second half. But I'm fighting the ten- dency to not be happy and enjoy wins. There are too many miserable coaches across the country who aren't happy aAer wins. Same thing with players in the locker room. We're going to enjoy the wins around here." It was Penn State's first victory over Ne- braska since 2002, bringing an end to a four-game losing streak. Of more impor- tance, it improved the Lions' record to 9- 2 overall and 6-2 in the Big Ten. For Nebraska, it probably added to the likeli- hood of an off-season coaching change, as the Cornhuskers (4-7, 3-5) gave up more than 50 points for the third time this sea- son. In addition, they were eliminated from bowl contention with the loss. Here's a look at the good and the bad: THE GOOD • Barkley got taken off of special-teams duty, as Brandon Polk was deep for the opening kickoff. Whether that had any- thing to do with what happened on the first series is debatable, but Barkley cer- tainly looked fresh on his initial carry of the game – a 65-yarder for a touchdown on Penn State's third play from scrim- mage. Barkley finished the game with 224 all- purpose yards, including 66 receiving yards on six catches. He was facing a Ne- braska defense that had been gutted by most of its Big Ten opponents, ranking last in the conference in rush defense at just over 200 yards per game, and he did quite a bit of damage despite giving way to backup Miles Sanders in the second half. • Penn State did a beautiful job of spreading the ball around to all of its of- fensive playmakers. Ten players had at least one catch for the Lions, a list that included everyone from Juwan Johnson (five catches, 105 yards) to Mike Gesicki (four catches, 47 yards, two touchdowns) to backup quarterback Tommy Stevens (two catches, 22 yards). McSorley was responsible for most of that productivity, as he completed 24 of 36 passes, but Stevens also had a few nice moments in a rare extended appearance. • Stevens, Sanders and a number of other young understudies got an oppor- tunity for extended playing time and were able to take advantage. Stevens passed for 21 yards and rushed for 31, while Sanders rushed for 28 yards on only four carries. Backup tight ends Tom Pancoast and Nick Bowers both caught passes, including a 15-yard touchdown reception by Bowers. As it turned out, surprisingly, the Lions needed most of those points. Which brings us to… THE BAD • Penn State gave up its share of chunk plays, mostly deep completions by Tan- ner Lee to his fleet of outstanding re- ceivers. It was unclear whether Lee was even going to play aAer having to leave last week's game against Minnesota with an impact-related migraine. But he started the game and threw for 399 yards, leading Nebraska to five second- half touchdowns. Included in that total were completions of 51 yards to Stanley Morgan Jr., 31 yards to J.D. Spielman and 22 yards to De'Mornay Pierson-El. Three of those scores were in the final seven minutes, by which time the Lions had begun emptying their bench. But as Franklin noted, "The second half leaves a little bit of a bad taste in your mouth, on both offense and defense. I don't think we played up to our standard there at the end." SCORING SUMMARY 1ST 14:03 PSU Barkley, Saquon 65-yard run (Davis, Tyler kick) 3 plays, 74 yards, TOP 0:57..........................................................0-7 9:18 Neb. Drew Brown 27-yard field goal 8 plays, 23 yards, TOP 3:29......................................................... 3-7 6:17 Neb. Devine Ozigbo 1-yard run (Drew Brown kick) 3 plays, 36 yards, TOP 1:09........................................................10-7 2:40 PSU Barkley, Saquon 1-yard run (Davis, Tyler kick) 7 plays, 66 yards, TOP 3:30..................................................... 10-14 2ND 11:53 PSU McSorley, Trace 9-yard run (Davis, Tyler kick) 8 plays, 85 yards, TOP 3:22..................................................... 10-21 9:23 PSU Gesicki, Mike 9-yard pass from McSorley, Trace (Davis, Tyler kick) 5 plays, 67 yards, TOP 1:27.......................................................10-28 4:36 PSU Barkley, Saquon 8-yard run (Davis, Tyler kick) 10 plays, 65 yards, TOP 4:24.................................................. 10-35 1:19 PSU Thompkins, DeAndre 15-yard pass from McSorley, Trace (Davis, Tyler kick) 7 plays, 78 yards, TOP 1:45......................................................10-42 3RD 6:40 Neb. Mikale Wilbon 24-yard run (Drew Brown kick) 8 plays, 90 yards, TOP 4:12..................................................... 17-42 2:34 Neb. D. Pierson-El 22-yard pass from Tanner Lee (Drew Brown kick) 4 plays, 79 yards, TOP 2:13..................................................... 24-42 4TH 13:59 PSU Gesicki, Mike 17-yard pass from McSorley, Trace (Davis, Tyler kick) 10 plays, 79 yards, TOP 3:29.................................................. 24-49 10:13 PSU Bowers, Nick 15-yard pass from Stevens, Tommy (Davis, Tyler kick) 6 plays, 75 yards, TOP 2:31.....................................................24-56 6:32 Neb. Stanley Morgan 8-yard pass from Tanner Lee (Drew Brown kick) 7 plays, 75 yards, TOP 3:41...................................................... 31-56 1:20 Neb. Mikale Wilbon 1-yard run (Drew Brown kick) 7 plays, 97 yards, TOP 3:12..................................................... 38-56 0:00 Neb. Jack Stoll 3-yard pass from Tanner Lee 7 plays, 54 yards, TOP 1:20.................................................... 44-56 N O V E M B E R 1 8 , 2 0 1 7 B L U E W H I T E O N L I N E . c O M 2

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