Penn State Football Game Balls, MVP From 26-25 Escape Against Minnesota
Penn State Football kept its College Football Playoff hopes alive Saturday, squeaking by Minnesota by one point to avoid a potentially disastrous second loss.
Instead, the Nittany Lions find themselves one win away from the program’s first College Football Playoff berth, and with some help from Michigan on Saturday, a chance at making the program’s first Big Ten Championship Game appearance since 2016.
While the win wasn’t pretty, surviving and advancing is the name of the game in November in college football. Here are Nittany Central’s game balls and MVPs for Penn State’s win over Minnesota.
Offensive Game Ball: Drew Allar
While Penn State quarterback Drew Allar did not play to the same insane level as he did against Purdue a week ago, Allar played well enough to help push Penn State over the Golden Gophers Saturday.
Allar finished the game with a 75 percent completion percentage with 244 passing yards and a touchdown and added an eight-yard rushing touchdown on the ground as well. Allar helped boost the Nittany Lions out of a few bad spots against the Golden Gophers on Saturday.
After finding themselves down 10-0, Allar responded on Penn State’s fourth drive, finding Omari Evans for a deep 45-yard touchdown to bring Penn State back into the game.
Just before halftime, Allar led Penn State on a six-play, 75-yard drive to seemingly tie the game at 17, however after a blocked PAT, the Nittany Lions took a three-point deficit into the half. In the second half, Allar and the offense did just enough to squeeze out the win, Scoring on two out of the Nittany Lions ‘ second-half drives and icing the game with a 12-play, 72-yard drive to run out the clock.
On the final play of the game, Allar completed a pass to Tyler Warren on fourth and one to end the game for the Nittany Lions.
Defensive Game Ball: Zane Durant
In a game where Minnesota ran the ball better than most had expected coming in, Zane Durant still was able to make plenty of plays for the Nittany Lions.
Durant finished the game with five tackles and 2.5 tackles for a loss, leading the Nittany Lions in the second category. Durant has been one of Penn State’s best players in run defense this season and was again good for the Nittany Lions Saturday night.
MVP: Luke Reynolds and Fourth Quarter James Franklin
Penn State head coach James Franklin called one of the boldest drives of the season on Penn State’s final drive Saturday. With the Nittany Lions up by 1 point, Franklin called a fake punt to true freshman tight end Luke Reynolds from Penn State’s own 34-yard line that Reynolds ran for 32 yards to continue the Nittany Lions icing the clock.
Twice more on the final drive, James Franklin and company went for fourth down to see the Nittany Lions keep the ball and finally run out the final 5:48 of the game.
Situational playcalling has not always gone in James Franklin’s favor over the years, but Saturday, he made the perfect situational playcalls for Penn State to end the game on their terms.
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