Shelbee’s Sunday Morning Quarterback #11: The Offense Sells the Tickets, but the Defense Wins the Games

#14 Penn State Nittany Lions 20 – Rutgers Scarlet Knights 7

Welcome to the eleventh episode of Shelbee’s Sunday Morning Quarterback! Yesterday was the first Saturday this season that I had the opportunity to just lounge around and watch the game with my husband. And I enjoyed every moment of the “doing nothing.” Turning it over now to my husband, Shelbee’s Sunday Morning Quarterback.

The Offense Sells the Tickets, but the Defense Wins the Games

With the end of college football season not far away and Penn State currently sitting just outside the rankings of a New Year’s Six bowl game, a showcase performance was needed against lowly Rutgers, along with some help from the teams ranked ahead of us. We would get some of that help from losses by #12 Syracuse and an upset win by Oklahoma State over #9 West Virginia. My Maryland friends were so close but the 2 point conversation pass was just wide of the receiver against #10 Ohio State, resulting in another Ohio State win. I truly was pulling for you, Maryland, although I’m not sure that I wanted a Maryland team next week in Happy Valley fresh off an upset win over Ohio State to close out our season.  These losses and a few losses next week should be enough to help Penn State sneak it’s way into a New Year’s Six bowl game. Now all they have to do is win…

Penn State entered the game a four touchdown favorite but by the end of the day wouldn’t even score four touchdowns in total. Certainly not the kind of showcase performance you wanted to display against a Rutgers defense that ranks 84th in the country. Starting with Rutgers receiving the opening kickoff, the teams would combine for five straight 3 and outs and a total of 14 yards of offense halfway through the first quarter before the Lions would get on the scoreboard. Beginning at their own 25 yard line, using Miles Sanders as the work horse, and aided by a pass interference penalty, Penn State would drive to the Rutgers 4 yard line before the drive would stall and result in a Jake Pinegar 22 yard field goal and a 3-0 lead. Rutgers would start their next drive, and on 3rd and 11, Micah Parsons would sack quarterback Arthur Sitkowski causing a fumble. But an unsportsmanlike penalty by Shareef Miller would give the Scarlet Knights a first down. Here we go again with bad penalties on good plays that help the other team. Rutgers would continue to move the ball to the Penn State 41 before a 4th and 2 pass would fall incomplete, turning possession back to Penn State. The Lions wouldn’t be able to move the ball and punted back to Rutgers. On the following drive, an overthrown Sitkowski pass would land in the arms of John Reid for the first of three turnovers for the Scarlet Knights. Penn State would be unable to do anything with the turnover and punted back to Rutgers. The next series would see Sitkowski throw his second interception on a screen pass and would end his playing time for the day. McSorley would make them pay on this one though, engineering a 4 play 28 yard drive culminating in a 6 yard touchdown pass to Pat Freiermuth and a 10-0 lead. Rutgers would go 3 and out on their next possession giving the Nittany Lions the ball with 1:05 left in the half. McSorley would lead them to the Rutgers 2 yard line with :20 to play but wouldn’t be able to punch it in instead settling for a 19 yard Jake Pinegar field goal and a 13-0 halftime lead.

The Nittany Lions would start the second half with the ball but would punt to Rutgers after five plays. Giovanni Rescigno would lead them on their best drive of the day, a 15 play 82 yard drive. On 4th and goal from the Penn State 2, Rutgers would run “The Philly Special” but a wide open Rescigno would drop the pass in the end zone giving the Lions the ball. McSorley would be intercepted on the next series by Isaiah Wharton, setting Rutgers up on their 24 yard line. The Penn State defense would come through again with Robert Windsor forcing a fumble that Daniel Joseph would recover for the Lions at the Rutgers 46. McSorley would need eight plays before he would again find Freiermuth again for an 18 yard touchdown pass and a 20-0 Nittany Lion lead. Rutgers wasn’t finished though as Rescigno would lead down the field on a 9 play 65 yard drive with Raheem Blaskshear scoring from two yards out to cut the Nittany Lion lead to 20-7. The teams would trade punts on their next two possessions before the Lions would take over near midfield with 6:57 to go. Here’s the opportunity to run out the clock and put this game away, Penn State would fail. Miles Sanders would fumble the ball at the Rutgers 18 yard line, giving the ball back to Rutgers with 1:17 to go. Rescigno would miss on his next four pass attempts giving Penn State the ball and McSorley the chance to run out the clock by taking a knee.

Thankfully the defense showed up today forcing three turnovers, four sacks, eleven tackles for losses and held Rutgers to 46 passing yards. The offense looked in disarray for most of the afternoon as McSorley missed wide open receivers, receivers dropped passes, and Miles Sanders being held to under a 100 yards rushing (compared to a 159 yards last week against a much stouter Wisconsin defense). McSorley would finish with 17/37 for 183 yards, once again bad numbers against a bad defense. On a more positive note, Trace McSorley is now the all-time winningest quarterback in Penn State history notching his 30th win as a starter. So big congratulations to him for that impressive achievement.

Even with a floundering offense,

We Are…

Keeping it on the edge,

Jeff (and Shelbee)

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