Penn State did something in its 35-6 win over Washington Saturday night that it hadn’t done in a long time.
For whatever reason when Penn State loses its first game of the season, it comes out the next week and either:
A. Loses
B. Almost loses
C. Wins convincingly but starts slow.
In 2017 and ‘18, Penn State lost its first game of the season to Ohio State and followed that up with losses to Michigan State.
The next year, Penn State lost to Minnesota and then lost to Ohio State one week later.
In the COVID-shortened 2020 season, Penn State lost Week 1 at Indiana and proceeded to drop the next four. 2021 happened and Penn State lost at Iowa, then came out of a bye and lost to lowly Illinois in nine overtimes.
Penn State finally broke the cycle in 2022, losing its first game at Michigan and responding with a 45-17 drubbing of Minnesota. But Penn State started that game slowly, trailing 3-0 at the end of the first quarter.
Last year, Penn State lost to Ohio State and then almost lost at home the next week to an Indiana team that was weeks away from firing Tom Allen, now Penn State’s defensive coordinator, as head coach.
Saturday night was different.
THE BEST 30 MINUTES?
Photo by Matt Lynch, Nittany Sports Now: James Franklin
Penn State’s first half was magnificent all the way around. Defensively, it shut out Washington. Offensively, it scored touchdowns on all four of its drives. After the game, James Franklin was asked (by me) if that was the best half the team had played all season.
“Yeah, I’m not sure about that,” Franklin said. “You guys can determine that. We’ll watch the film tomorrow. I thought we played very well in the first half, like I mentioned, on third down we were seven for seven. I think after seven yards per play on offense and holding them to no points on their opening drive, and the end of the half, how that ended, the stop and the two minute drive, but I’ll let you guys decide if that was the best half we’ve played.”
YEAH, IT KINDA WAS
Photo by Matt Lynch, Nittany Sports Now: Penn State QB Drew Allar
For Penn State QB Drew Allar, it was the best half of football the offense has played. Allar ended the night 20 of 28 with 220 yards and a touchdown. He wasn’t as pleased with how the second half went— tight end Tyler Warren fumbled and a pass ruled incomplete stalled another drive.
But the first half was just about flawless.
“I think it’s our best, complete half,” Allar said after the game. “We’ve had our moments this year but I think we really put it together in that first half. The second half, I think we would have done better things again, but obviously the turnover happened and then we were driving down the field and obviously they called that one play incomplete. But other than that, we were scoring on every drive. So it was just two things (that went wrong) today. Obviously, we’ll get those things cleaned up. But we had a really good execution day overall.”
D IS FOR DOMINANCE
Penn State’s Kobe King with a tackle of Ohio State’s Quinshon Judkins.
This Penn State team has been known to struggle in the first half. Coming into Saturday night, the team was dead even in the first half for point differential (not counting lowly Kent State) was dead even.
Saturday night, it was plus 28.
Why did that happen?
“I just sense the urgency after something we didn’t expect,” LB Kobe King, who had seven tackles and a sack, said after the win, “which was a loss last week. We’ve learned from that, we’ve grown from that and we’ve got better from that. And I would say guys took that on the chin.”
So what did the Ohio State loss lead to?
“Guys being more intentional,” he said. “Guys being dialed in. We have practice then we have walk throughs and draw throughs. Just guys being more locked in. Feet, alignment, pad level, things like that. I definitely think it just has to get emphasized every day as always because why not? We just have to keep getting better.”
I then asked King if he felt Penn State played with a “mean streak” after losing to Ohio State.
“It would seem like that,” he said, “and I would say so but my real answer is we approach every week the same and it was just like a different energy today. So I credit it to that, credit it to the White Out, to the fans. (It was a) great win.”
Penn State takes on 1-8 Purdue on the road at 3:30 next week on CBS.
