Penn State grinds out 20-7 win over Rutgers
In front of 44,840 fans — most of them wearing blue and white — Penn State took care of Rutgers. But it wasn’t pretty.
The Nittany Lions held on to beat the Scarlet Knights, 20-7 on Saturday afternoon at HighPoint.com Stadium. The victory was Penn State’s fourth in its last five games and puts the Nittany Lions at 8-3 on the year.
Trace McSorley became the program’s all-time winningest quarterback, Miles Sanders mustered 88 yards on 27 carries, and true freshman tight end Pat Freiermuth snagged two touchdown catches.
Meanwhile, the Nittany Lion linebackers went to work, as Micah Parsons, Jan Johnson and Koa Farmer combined to make 23 tackles. Defensive linemen Shareef Miller, Yetur Gross-Matos, Kevin Givens and Robert Windsor combined for seven tackles for loss.
Player of the game
Shareef Miller: The entire Penn State defensive line deserves credit, from Robert Windsor to Daniel Joseph, for dominating the day. But it was Miller who stood out on Saturday.
Playing an hour away from Philadelphia, the Frankford native showed out in front of family and friends, racking up 7 tackles, 2.5 tackles for loss and a sack. This coming after a two-sack performance against Wisconsin last week.
Miller was called for an unsportsmanlike conduct in the first half, which cost Penn State 15 yards. But outside of that, it was another performance to remember in an impressive campaign for the redshirt junior.
Stat that mattered
7.3: That was Rutgers quarterback Artur Sitkowski’s passer rating.
Sitkowski — the Scarlet Knights’ freshman starter — led the nation in interceptions with 16 entering Saturday, and he added to that total. Rutgers’ signal-caller found Penn State corner John Reid wide open early in the second quarter and later floated one into no man’s land, which was snagged by Nittany Lions safety Garrett Taylor.
The Nittany Lions took advantage of Taylor’s INT, turning it into the team’s lone first-half touchdown.
Mercifully, Sitkowski was benched after his second pick. His final stat line: 3 of 7 passing for 18 yards.
Unsung hero
Pat Freiermuth: All the true freshman tight end does is catch touchdowns. Freiermuth — who had four touchdowns on 19 catches coming into Saturday — snagged a pair of scores, a 6-yard pass in the first quarter and a 18-yarder in the fourth.
On the first touchdown, Freiermuth was patient in his route, allowing McSorley’s play-fake to draw the attention of Rutgers’ defenders before slipping behind his man and creating separation. On the second score, the tight end ran a perfect wheel route, finding the soft spot in the Scarlet Knights’ zone.
Freiermuth’s six touchdowns now leads the team. Not shabby for a kid who was playing Massachusetts high school ball this time last year.
Up next
Senior Day: Penn State may be a young team, but it still has several seniors that will be honored next Saturday at Beaver Stadium. McSorley — the most prolific quarterback in Penn State history — leads the way, but it’ll be an emotional day for Amani Oruwariye, Nick Scott, Koa Farmer, DeAndre Thompkins and more.
It will be more than a senior celebration, though; the Nittany Lions will need to take care of business against Maryland, which hit big play after big play on Ohio State’s defense on Saturday.
Penn State and the Terps kick off at 3:30 p.m. The game will be televised on ABC.
This story was originally published November 17, 2018 at 3:18 PM.