Penn State Football Owned The Trenches in Fiesta Bowl | 3 Key Takeaways
In a survive and advance game Tuesday night in Glendale Arizona, Penn State Football became the first team to punch their ticket to college football’s final four with a 31-14 win over No. 8 ranked Boise State in a game where the Nittany Lions had to overcome some self-inflicted mistakes, penalties and miscues to ultimately overtake the Broncos with some timely second-half takeaways, totaling four for the game.
Here are my three takeaways from Tuesday night’s Fiesta Bowl win by the Nittany Lions.
Penn State Football Owned The Trenches
The game on the gridiron usually comes down to who wins the line of scrimmage and Penn State did that in dominating fashion on Tuesday night, on both sides of the ball.
The Nittany Lions enormous offensive line opened holes for a ground game that racked up 216 yards on 41 attempts. Boise State did record four sacks and seven tackles for loss, but Penn State eventually wore down the Broncos’ aggressive defense.
On the other side of the ball, Penn State’s front seven pretty much had their way with the Boise State offensive line recording nine tackles for loss. But most importantly they went into the game with one mission and they accomplished and executed it to perfection as they held Heisman finalist Ashton Jeanty to just 104 yards on 30 carries and held the Broncos’ overall ground game to just 2.8 yards per rush.
The Nittany Lions stopped Jeanty from breaking the single-season all-time rushing record set by Oklahoma State’s Barry Sanders back in 1988 by just 28 yards.
“We had it in our mind that ‘Oh, he’s going to try to break the record on us tonight,” Penn State defensive tackle Dvon J-Thomas said after the game. “That’s not going to happen.” And guess what? It didn’t.
The Kaytron Allen Show
It’s hard to spotlight just one offensive star who stood out for the Nittany Lions Tuesday night because there were many. Quarterback Drew Allar threw for three touchdowns, two of them to his go-to tight end Tyler Warren and running back Nick Singleton had a breakaway 58-yard touchdown burst to ice the game late in the fourth quarter.
But running back Kaytron Allen laid the foundation for the Nittany Lions most of the night, even without a touchdown to his credit.
When it was all said and done, Allen finished with 134 yards on 17 carries and was fabulous from start to finish, especially for his contribution in getting the ground game off to a fast start.
Allen’s first four runs of the game all went for a first down, including a huge 23-yard gain on Penn State’s first possession. He also had a huge 50-yard pickup that was called back because of a penalty …
A Big-Time Win for James Franklin
The struggles of Penn State’s head coach James Franklin against top-10 teams have been well-documented, and for good reason.
Franklin was 3-24 against AP top-10 teams all time, entering Tuesday night’s game posting the worst winning percentage (.111) of any head coach since 2000 in that category (a minimum of 25 games).
So, the win over Boise State will go along way to perhaps start changing the narrative on Penn State’s leading man. It was a big win for Penn State, and it was a big win for James Franklin.
I get it.
It wasn’t a win over Ohio State, or Michigan, but the Broncos had only lost one game this year coming into Tuesday night’s game, to undefeated and top ranked Oregon, and by just three points.
Penn State will finish among the top four in the rankings, top-five at worst. They destroyed SMU, beat up Boise State, and now after failing to even get to the CFP in the ten seasons of the four-team format, they now have two playoff wins and are just one win away from the National Title game.
More Penn State Football News from NittanyCentral:
- Nick Saban a ‘Believer’ in Penn State After Two College Football Playoff Wins
- Drew Allar Urged to ‘Reconsider’ NFL Draft Decision, by NFL Insiders
- Very Latest on Abdul Carter’s Injury
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It was at PRISM where Staszak produced live games and began his career as an on-air reporter.
After a couple of brief stints with CBS-3, WB-17 and WGAL-8 in Lancaster, PA, Staszak began a 12 year stretch at FOX 29 where he became the lead sportscaster in 2007. It was there that Staszak found himself in the middle of Philadelphia Phillies World Series Championship coverage that earned him an Emmy nomination for best sports reporter in 2008.It was one of five Emmy nominations that Staszak earned over the course of his career.
All told Staszak covered three World Series, two Stanley Cup Finals, an NBA Finals and one Super Bowl during his television run.
Staszak left the TV business for 97.5 The Fanatic in 2013, where he enjoyed eight years bloviating his beliefs on how a professional football team should be run.In 2018 when he fortunate enough to be the first sports talk host in the city, along with cohort Zach Gelb, to provide post-game coverage of the first Super Bowl Championship for the city’s beloved Philadelphia Eagles.
Staszak was also a writer for 97.5 The Fanatic along with 4 Philly Sports and now covers Penn State athletics for NittanyCentral.com.
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