Recap: Nittany Lions outlast Michigan, 28-21
For the second week in a row, Penn State ended a game on its terms.
After earning a late first down to finish off Iowa last week, the Nittany Lions did the same to Michigan on Saturday night. K.J. Hamler twisted forward for 4 yards on third-and-3, and the Lions ran out the clock on the Wolverines, winning 28-21 to send the fourth-largest crowd in Beaver Stadium history home happy.
Hamler had supplied the winning points earlier in the fourth quarter, scoring on a 53-yard touchdown pass from Sean Clifford to boost Penn State’s lead back to 14 with just over 13 minutes to play. The Wolverines fought back with a 75-yard touchdown drive and appeared poised to tie the score on their final possession. But on fourth-and-goal from the Lions’ 3-yard line, Ronnie Bell dropped a pass in the end zone, and after taking over with two minutes left, the Lions clinched the victory with Hamler’s first-down run.
“We didn’t play our best in all three phases tonight, but we played well enough to win the game,” James Franklin said afterward. “We played really good complementary football. We made plays when they were needed. We made big plays on defense when they were needed, we made big plays on offense when they were needed, and the same thing on special teams.”
The victory lifted Penn State to 7-0 and 4-0 in the Big Ten, while Michigan fell to 5-2 and 3-2 with a nonconference game against Notre Dame coming up next.
Here’s a look at the good and the bad:
THE GOOD
• The Lions’ success at getting a first down when everyone in the stadium knew they would be running the ball was impressive, and it was emblematic of the improvements that the team has made in this area. Noah Cain got 5 yards on first down and 2 on second down, setting up Hamler’s gutsy run to all but seal the outcome.
“Instead of us just handing the ball off with them overloading the box, we thought we needed to go to one of our read plays where Sean has an opportunity to keep it or K.J. can get it on the perimeter,” Franklin said. “We didn’t feel like we were going to be able to line up with their overloaded box and just hand the ball off again, although we had some success doing that.”
• Clifford was dropping dimes on Penn State’s first-quarter touchdown drive. A 37-yard completion to Jahan Dotson and 17-yard touchdown pass to Pat Freiermuth were perfectly thrown passes of the sort that opponents have no choice but to hit if they’re going to move the ball on Michigan’s high-pressure defense.
Clifford didn’t finish the game with big numbers, completing 14 of 25 passes for 182 yards. But he made just enough of those big plays that Michigan dares opponents to make.
“It really comes down to explosive plays against that defense,” Franklin said. “You’ve got to hit explosive plays. [Michigan defensive coordinator Don Brown] is going to overload you in the box and put his DBs on islands, and you’ve got to win. We missed some tonight, but we won enough of them. I thought that was really the difference in the game.”
• Hamler had a huge night for the Lions. In addition to his game-clinching run and 53-yard touchdown, he had a 25-yard TD catch in the second quarter. He finished with 108 yards on six receptions.
• The Nittany Lions didn’t turn the ball over on offense, and their defense came up with a big takeaway, as Tariq Castro-Fields emerged with the ball when Shea Patterson threw a short pass into traffic in the second quarter. The pick set up a Nittany Lion touchdown.
“The best thing we’re doing right now offensively is protecting the football,” Franklin said. “And we’re getting turnovers on defense. Not a bunch of them, but enough of them, and we’re protecting the football on offense, which is one of the most important things you can do.”
• The raucous White Out crowd appeared to have an effect, at least early on. The Wolverines had to call timeout before their first offensive play, and while they avoided a delay-of-game penalty, they seemed out of sorts for much of the first half. Michigan was whistled for three offsides penalties, two of which occurred inside their own 5-yard line and helped set up a Clifford touchdown run.
THE BAD
• Penn State wasn’t able to get to Patterson very often. The senior quarterback did a nice job of getting rid of the ball quickly and threw for 276 yards on 24-of-41 passing. He was only sacked once by a Nittany Lion defense that had gone into the game averaging 4.5 sacks per game. That sack was by Garrett Taylor on a safety blitz.
• Hamler made a breakthrough play in the kicking game… and it got called back by a pair of holding penalties. A touchdown coming out of halftime would have boosted Penn State’s lead back to 21 points. Instead, the Lions started on their 45-yard line and eventually had to punt. Penn State finished with fewer penalties (five) than Michigan (eight) but lost 58 yards to the Wolverines’ 48.
• Neither team distinguished itself with its decision-making late in the first half. First, Michigan attempted a 58-yard field goal that came up well short and gave Penn State the ball at the 41-yard line with 51 seconds left and three timeouts at its disposal. Then, the Nittany Lions declined to use one of those timeouts after a 7-yard completion to Freiermuth on first down that failed to stop the clock. Later, facing fourth-and-1 at midfield, the Lions did call timeout, forcing Blake Gillikin to punt with 21 seconds left.
“I could have managed that better,” Franklin admitted afterward.
LOOKING AHEAD
Next up: a trip to East Lansing to face a presumably well-rested Michigan State team. The Spartans will be coming off a bye week when they welcome Penn State next Saturday, and that break in the schedule probably couldn’t have come at a better time. In back-to-back games against the Big Ten’s East and West Division leaders, Michigan State wasn’t able to hang tough, losing to Ohio State and Wisconsin by a combined score of 72-10.
The Spartans went into the season with one of the league’s more experienced rosters, especially on defense, and they did manage to hold the Buckeyes to their lowest point total of the season in a 34-10 loss in Columbus. But they weren’t able to do much on offense in that game or in Madison the following week. They finished with 285 total yards against the Buckeyes and 149 against the Badgers.
Still, the Spartans have gotten the better of Penn State in recent years, having won five of the past six games in the series. Lately, they’ve had a way of catching the Nittany Lions after a deflating loss. In 2017, the teams met a week after Penn State had lost a heartbreaker at Ohio State, and Michigan State prevailed in the weather-interrupted game, 27-24. Last year, the Lions were once again trying to bounce back from a loss to the Buckeyes and looked listless against the Spartans in a 21-17 defeat at Beaver Stadium.
This year, though, the Lions figure to be riding high, as they’re still undefeated and firmly in the mix for the Big Ten Championship Game. But even in the aftermath of his team’s thrilling victory over Michigan, Franklin was still emphasizing the need for continual improvement.
“There’s no doubt that we’ve got to get better,” he said. “We all do. But it’s a great win. I couldn’t be more proud of our team, I couldn’t be more proud of our program.”