Penn State defeats Rutgers on Senior Day 27-6
Following the Nittany Lions' offense opening the game with a three-and-out, the Scarlet nights offense
Penn State shut the gates on Beaver Stadium for the season on Saturday afternoon with a 27-6 win over the Rutgers Scarlet Knights.
Rutgers' opened the scoring on Saturday afternoon with an impressive first drive that took the Scarlet Knights deep into Penn Sate territory, getting as close as the Nittany Lions' eight yard line. A holding penalty on Rutgers would push the Scarlet Knights' back to the Penn State 17 yard line and the Nittany Lions two plays later would force the Scarlet Knights to settle for a 35-yard field goal from Jai Patel. The Scarlet Knights were able to take nine minutes off the clock with their 14-play opening possession.
The Nittany Lions' offense would answer back with a long drive of their own, going 75 yards across 15 plays, evaporating eight minutes off the clock in the process. The drive was capped off by a Kaytron Allen rushing touchdown from two yards out, its the fifth touchdown of the season for Allen, giving him 15 for his career with the Nittany Lions.
Penn State would get the ball back just less than a minute later after Dani Dennis-Sutton recovered an unforced fumble from Rutgers quarterback Gavin Wimsatt. The Nittany Lions' offense was unable to take advantage of the turnover, garnering 28 yards on five plays before having to settle for a chip shot field goal by Alex Felkins to take a 10-3 lead.
A few possessions later, Penn State looked to be potentially have the opportunity to take a two score lead, flipping the field possession on their first few plays but a Nicholas Singleton fumble at the Rutgers 36 yard line would end the Nittany Lions' chances of doing so. The Penn State defense was able to bail Singleton out and force a three-and-out following the fumble.
Prior to halftime, Rutgers would cut Penn State's lead to four with a 28-yard field goal from Jai Patel.
The second half for Penn State would start forcing a Rutgers three-and-out, the fourth in five drives for the Nittany Lions defense. On the ensuing drive, Penn State would face their first major injury scare of the season on the offensive side of the ball. Drew Allar on a quarterback scramble would take a big hit to his shoulder and while he would stay in the game immediately afterwards would check out of the game a few players later, handing the reins of the offense to Beau Pribula.
The redshirt freshman would make an instant impact on a quarterback keeper that took the Nittany Lions deep into Rutgers territory and into the redzone. Opting to go for it on fourth and short but Pribula would be stuffed on the attempt, turning the ball over on downs inside their five yard line.
The Nittany Lions defense would force another three-and-out following the turnover on downs. After a poor Rutgers punt, Penn State would take over on the Scarlet Knights side of the field but were unable to have success on Pribula's first full drive of the game, going just nine yards on four plays. Faced with another fourth and short, the Nittany Lions this time chose to take the field with Alex Felkins hitting a 48-yard attempt to extend Penn State's lead to 13-6.
After a Chop Robinsonstrip sack of Gavin Wimsatt, Penn State would add their second touchdown of the day early in the fourth quarter with Kaytron Allen picking up his second score on a three-yard run to extend the Nittany Lions lead to 20-6.
Following an interception by Kevin Winston Jr. in the middle of the third quarter, Penn State was put in great field position and ended up punching it once again with a Beau Pribula run from the one-yard line to seal the game.
WHAT'S NEXT?
Penn State will head to the road to take on Michigan State in the annual Land Grant Trophy game next weekend for the program's regular season finale. However this game will be played a neutral site as opposed to being on one of the schools campuses, the two teams will instead face off inside of Ford Field, the home of the Detroit Lions.
Kickoff is slated for 7:30pm and the game will be televised on NBC.
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