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The big talk of this game was the field. We'll address that in a minute. But let's not forget that Penn State pulled out a win against one of the best teams in the SEC. A nice accomplishment for sure. Onto the recap...
Football field or cow pasture?
Before we talk about the actual game, allow us a moment to say something about the field. We're pretty sure there's a guy who's in charge of the field and who makes decisions such as whether or not to cover the field before the game during a monsoon. Well, in our opinion, this dude should be fired. That field was an absolute disaster, and that's a gross understatement. Did the field help Penn State? Probably. Did it render the game nearly unwatchable? Unquestionably. A terrible effort by whatever clown is in charge at the Cap One Bowl. Anyway...
1st Quarter
Penn State took the ball off the opening kickoff, and not surprisingly, the action was extremely slow and tentative early on. The Penn State D was dominating the LSU offensive line, to the point where we were yelling at the TV about missed holding calls.
This probably wasn't called.
But Penn State couldn't get much going on offense either. Each team started the game with three drives where pretty much nothing happened. Passes were being misfired and dropped left and right. Six punts. Great stuff.
Despite the lack of action, the Lions actually managed to jump out to a lead in the field position battle and with 3:22 left in the first, they started their drive at their own 42. After another drop by Moye and a rush for no gain, PSU faced a third and ten, and third down conversions were pretty hard to come by up until this point. But on this third down, Graham Zug leapt and made a fantastic catch for a 21-yard gain to keep the drive rolling.
And on the next play, DC rolled out to the left and lobbed one to Moye. This time he caught it. That's six.
We would all feel better if he looked at the ball when he's trying to catch it.
7-0
2nd Quarter
On the ensuing kickoff, the coaches called for a short kick. We know they were trying to keep the ball away from Holiday, but in a game that was obviously a battle of field position, why give the ball to the team near mid-field to start a drive?
Anyway, it looked like LSU would do nothing with the good position, but on third and long, Jordan Jefferson hit Brandon LaFell for a 36-yard pickup, down to the PSU 11.
The Penn State D buckled down after that though, and held the Tigers to a field goal.
7-3
The Lions got the ball back but couldn't get anything rolling, and they had to punt. LSU could do no better and the Lions got the ball back at their own 45. On a third and seven, Clark hit Quarless for a huge 24-yard gain. Quarless was big all day, and LSU had a tough time stopping him.
Penn State got the ball down to the LSU 9, but the drive stalled and they settled for a Colin Wagner field goal.
10-3
LSU went three and out next, highlighted by an intentional grounding-forcing sack by Jared Odrick:
Domination.
PSU couldn't capitalize though, going three and out themselves. But on the first play of the ensuing drive, A.J. Wallace made a nice pick on a pass that deflected off the intended receiver. The Lions took over at the LSU 23.
Royster took the first play for a 17-yard gain down to the LSU 6. This is where things got rough. Three plays and PSU couldn't get into the end zone, but a holding call on LSU gave them a new set of downs from the 3. But two rushes for zero yards and an incompletion forced another field goal from Wagner. This was the first of two drives that almost lost the game for the Lions.
13-3
-Halftime-
3rd Quarter
The second half started out with back-to-back punts from LSU and then PSU. Penn State managed to recover from being pinned inside their own 5 and marched it out to the LSU 41.
Ollie Ogbu forced a fumbled on 2nd down of the next LSU drive -- Sean Lee with the recovery.
Starting at the LSU 20, the closest the Lions could get to the end zone was the three yard line. Collin Wagner made his way out on to the field and kicked another one through.
16-3
LSU's next drive took all of 2 minutes to end. Normally we would think that meant that they were stuffed by the Penn State D and, the way the game had gone to this point, we may have been correct on most days.
After a short kickoff was returned to the PSU 47, Jordan Jefferson hooked up with Terrance Toliver on back to back plays and moved the ball to the Penn State 24 yard line.
One more play and it was in the end zone when Brandon LaFell hauled in the catch.
Woah. There's a game here.
YEAAAHHHH!!!
16-10
4th Quarter
Penn State's next drive last 45 seconds and it ended with a punt. Trindon Holliday returned the punt 37 yards on that crap field and gave LSU the field position they needed to get their drive going.
This time it only took LSU 1:32 to get into the end zone.
Holliday rushed for 11 on first, Toliver pulled in a 39 yard catch on 3rd, and then Stevan Ridley had to go all of one yard to put LSU on top.
16-17
There was nothing going for PSU when they got the ball back, and things were looking pretty grim as time became the enemy.
The defense came up with a stop when they got back out onto the field and secured the Nittany Lions pretty good field position after an LSU punt.
Penn State started the drive at their own 31 with 6:54 to play. Everyone knew it was now or never.
The first play was a penalty against LSU for pass interference. That's a quick 9 yards.
Clark to Drake picked up 12 yards, then Clark ran for 5 more. Zug picked up a couple of catches along the way and before you knew it, the ball was at the LSU 20. On most nights, we'd feel pretty good about what was happening, but the field conditions made us quite nervous.
LSU started using their timeouts so they would have something to work with should PSU score, and the Lions were just trying to get the ball positioned somewhere on the field that would make things easier Collin Wagner.
With 00:57 seconds left, Collin Wagner walked to make the kick. It looked close, but it was through the uprights.
Penn State 19, LSU 17
When LSU got the ball back, you shouldn't have felt safe. They had scored twice on very quick drives. They only had to go 59 yards this time, so it was entirely possible.
Then you remembered how well they handle the clock and probably chuckled a little bit when they wasted half their clock time after the second play.
They game ended with LSU making an attempt at the hook-and-ladder play.
Game.
19-17
Three Big Stat Lines:
- Daryll Clark: 18-35, 216 yds, 1 TD
- Andrew Quarless: 8 rec, 88 yds
- Penn State D: 41 rush yards allowed
Our Quick Thoughts On The Game:
- Rough start for Moye, but at least he hauled in the touchdown catch.
- The third down offense early on was terrible.
- Sweet interception by Wallace.
- For Clark to complete over 50% of his passes in that weather is a pretty solid accomplishment.
- We'll never figure out why it takes so long for teams to figure out the zone defense. It seems like a good coach/QB combo would pick it apart all day. Kind of like Carroll/Sanchez last year.
- You could see the LSU comeback coming from a mile away.
- There's a lot of talk about the refs making calls that helped Penn State, but how many holding calls did they let go for LSU?
- That was the kind of performance Quarless is capable of when he feels like playing. A strong finish to an extremely volatile career.
Penn State Player of the Game: Daryll Clark
In crap conditions Clark played well. He completed over half of his passes and protected the ball well -- both in the air and when he kept it himself for an option play.
It was a good way for Clark to end his career at Penn State and should solidify himself as one of the better quarterbacks in recent memory. He never really got that big signature victory, but he was still a good player and represented the school well.
LSU Player of the Game: Jordan Jefferson
Jefferson went 13-24, 202 yards with 1 interception and 1 TD.
Not an amazing statistical day, but still solid when you consider the conditions. The two LSU touchdown drives were almost entirely completed through the air as well, so you have to give him credit for being a big part what almost turned into an LSU victory in the second half.
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