Penn State Sports Magazine
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/904027
N A T E B A U E R | N B A U E R @ B L U E W H I T E O N L I N E . c O M Saquon Barkley produced a 65-yard touchdown just three plays into Penn State's 56-44 win over Nebraska Satur- day night at Beaver Stadium. Amidst a downpour that surely had an effect on the actual number of a re- ported 106,722 fans, the No. 10-ranked Nittany Lions then went oddly dor- mant. Taking advantage of a botched punt return that glanced off the leg of redshirt freshman Zech McPhearson, the Cornhuskers scored their first points just 3 minutes, 29 seconds later on Drew Brown's 27-yard field goal. AAer a three-and-out and another special teams error, this time in the form of an 18-yard shanked punt by Blake Gillikin, the Nittany Lions again surrendered points to the visitors. With Cornhuskers quarterback Tanner Lee running the show and a short field in front of him, he moved his offense 36 yards in just three plays, finding the end zone when Devine Ozigbo pushed through the line for a 1-yard TD carry. Having spotted the visitors a 10-7 lead, the Nittany Lions responded. Starting at their own 34-yard line, the Lions produced their first first down on the day when Trace McSorley con- nected with DaeSean Hamilton on a broken play to pick up 7 crucial yards. From there, it was off to the races. Completing a 43-yarder to wideout Juwan Johnson over the middle, the Nittany Lions needed only three more plays to find the end zone and take a 14- 10 lead that they wouldn't relinquish. The Lions went on to score five con- secutive times without a response from the Cornhuskers. Closing out the half with a 42-10 advantage, a dominant 439-77 edge in total yardage, and an ef- ficient 9 yards per play on the back of nine explosive plays, Penn State was comfortably ahead. It was enough. Coming back out in the second half with the mindset of trying to balance keeping a lead and substituting in back- ups so as to not run up the score, the Nittany Lions allowed the visitors to produce 34 second half points to their own 14. "We obviously didn't play as well coming out of the half on offense or de- fense, and then we made some substi- Lions overcome sloppy start in high-scoring victory 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 11 G A M E N O T E B O O K