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College Football

Unable to shake last week’s loss to Ohio State, Penn State is now out of the Playoff picture

Garrett Kroeger

By Garrett Kroeger

Published:

The Penn State-Michigan State had the perfect recipe to have a crazy, playoff affecting college football game.

Two top-25 ranked teams, two teams still vying for a division title, a lighting delay, big time plays and big time turnovers. And for the No. 7 Nittany Lions, they were on the wrong side of this recipe as they suffered defeat 27-24 to the No. 24 Spartans.

For the second straight week, Penn State’s performance fizzled as the game progressed.

The Nittany Lions started out hot against the green and white. They were making the Michigan State defense look foolish. On Penn State’s second touchdown of the day, receiver Saeed Blacknall took a fourth and eight reception 32 yards for a score. And en route to the end zone, Blacknall juked out three Spartan defenders.

But then came the weather delay. Midway through the second question, action stopped. It actually stopped for nearly three and half hours. After play resumed, the Nittany Lions fell apart piece by piece.

For the second straight week, Penn State was getting picked apart. Last week, Ohio State quarterback J.T. Barrett had a career day after completing 33-of-39 passes for 328 yards and four touchdowns. On Saturday, Michigan State signal caller Brian Lewerke also had career day after completing 33-of-56 attempts for 400 yards, two touchdowns and an  interception. The normally conservative Spartans went full air raid in a game that some would think they would ground and pound but, they only ran for 74 yards and improbably threw for 12.1 yards per completion.

Do play remember when the Nittany Lion secondary was one of the best in the nation? That seems like a long time ago.

But that wasn’t the only thing the Penn State defense did on the day that costed its team a victory. Late in the game, the Nittany Lions committed a roughing the passer penalty that helped extend the Spartans’ game-winning drive 15 yards. Michigan State kicker Matt Coghlin would then proceed to boot the game winner.

While the defense certainly didn’t do Penn State any favors, so did the offense.

There is a reason why the Heisman trophy doesn’t get handed out in September. It’s hard to live up to anything after that month for some players. One of those players, as of late, is Nittany Lion running back Saquon Barkley.

Barkley spent the first month of the season dazzling voters with big numbers. But since then, has been underwhelming his last two games. And that’s being nice about it.

One week after totaling a mere 44 rushing yards on 21 attempts in a crushing loss to Ohio State, Barkley again put up blah numbers, with just 63 rushing yards on 14 rushes (at halftime he had six carries for 0 yards), and three catches for 33 yards. But Barkley wasn’t the only Penn State offensive star to have a rough week for the second straight week in row. Quarterback Trace McSorley was blah too. On the day, McSorley completed 55.3 percent of his passes for 381 yards, three touchdowns and three interceptions.

Now, you can easily chalk this one up to the stellar play of Lewerke. One week after setting a Michigan State single game record with 445 passing yards in a triple overtime loss at Northwestern, he had a career day to lead the Spartans to an upset victory. However, this loss was because of Ohio State.

Yes, that may be weird to read. How is it the Buckeyes fault the Nittany Lions lost? It’s simple. Ohio State provided a blueprint to defeat Penn State.

Both the Buckeyes and the Spartans focused on eliminating Barkley’s presences in the game. They both forced McSorley to win the game for the Nittany Lions. Plus, Ohio State and Michigan State relied on its quarterbacks as the game progressed. So essentially, the blue and white suffered the same exact defeat two straight weeks in the row. A win looked like it was in the bag, only allowing their opponent to come back and win.

Not only did the Buckeyes provide a blue print, but they got into coach James Franklin’s head. In years past, Franklin always stressed the challenge ahead. This week, it was “Michigan State, Michigan State, Michigan State.”

But it was different on Saturday. Franklin’s team was hung up on the Ohio State loss. It shook their confidence and the Spartans were the furthest thing from the Lions’ mind. Because of that, that affected Penn State’s play on Saturday.

Now, with this loss, Penn State’s B1G Championship and College Football Playoff hopes look slim to none. It would need both Michigan State and Ohio State to suffer defeats and then some. But that seems unlikely. So thanks to the Buckeyes, the Nittany Lions are fighting for a decent bowl bid this year instead of New Year Six of playoffs like the hopes were entering this season.

Garrett Kroeger