The Good, The Bad & The Ugly: Reviewing Penn State’s 28-21 White Out win over Michigan
Two weeks ago, Penn State running back Ricky Slade told reporters he was “not sure” he had a high point to the season.
On Saturday night, after Penn State’s 28-21 win over Michigan, Slade smiled when asked if he had one now.
“Yeah, I guess I do,” the sophomore said, grinning throughout his answer.
This isn’t the start to the season that Slade envisioned, but his performance Saturday night offered at least a slight reprieve. In the previous six games, after managing just 59 yards on 28 carries, Slade broke out against the Wolverines with three carries for 48 yards — including a clutch 44-yard run in the first quarter that set up a touchdown to increase the lead to 14-0.
It wasn’t a 100-yard game and, no, he didn’t break any records. But it was an important first step for a back that flashed his ability last season and has fallen short of expectations this season.
“Ricky Slade had a good night tonight,” James Franklin said.
With any luck, this is the turning point Slade needed to boost his confidence and get back to the quick all-purpose back fans watched last season. At the very least, Slade was able to relax and smile with reporters Saturday night, something he couldn’t do earlier this month.
“It felt good,” Slade added. “It really just felt good to get back out there running, more than 5-yard carries, 8-yards a carry. And the hole was actually pretty huge; it was humongous.”
Good
KJ Hamler lights it up: He may not be the tallest or the biggest receiver on the roster — he stands at 5-foot-9 and 176 pounds — but good luck finding a more electric wideout in the Big Ten right now.
Hamler did everything asked of him Saturday night in front of a national TV audience. He caught all but one of his seven targets, recorded a game-high 108 receiving yards, scored two touchdowns — and he even iced the game with a key third-down run that allowed Penn State to line up in the victory formation.
On that 4-yard carry, on third-and-3, he lowered his shoulder and picked up some hard-earned yards. And even Penn State’s defense appreciated that effort.
“The way he finished the game like that is electrifying,” linebacker Micah Parsons said. “He boosted me. He boosted everyone on the team. He’s a great player, and that’s how you make a big play for your team.”
Every Penn State fan knows just who Hamler is. But, after that game, the rest of the nation has been put on notice, too.
Incredible White Out atmosphere: There’s nothing in college football — nothing — that matches the intensity of this annual spectacle.
The press box swayed so much that some reporters grew unreasonably nervous. A wall of noise surrounded the field, so much that Michigan was forced to call its first timeout before the game’s first offensive play. And the all-white scene couldn’t get national analysts and experts to stop talking.
We could choose from literally hundreds of quotes to back this all up. But we’ll leave you with the parting words from ESPN analyst and former Ohio State quarterback Kirk Herbstreit, who said this in the waning moments of Saturday night’s game.
“Every chance we get to come to State College and come to this stadium and see this White Out, I just want to tell Penn State and their fans,” he said, “this is the best student section in the country by far, best game ops in the country. They do an incredible job here and every time we get a chance to come here, it’s one of those games you circle in the preseason and look forward to it.
“They didn’t let us down this year.”
They never do.
Ball security: Sure, the offense has been wildly inconsistent, often starting hot and finishing cold. But one thing that has been steady — the lack of turnovers.
The Nittany Lions finished with just 182 passing yards and 101 rushing yards, but they made sure to protect the ball by not once turning it over. That proved to make all the difference; Penn State won by a touchdown — and it forced one turnover, which it got seven points from.
“The best thing we are doing right now offensively is protecting the football,” James Franklin said in the postgame. “We are getting turnovers on defense, not a bunch, but we are getting enough of them. We are protecting the ball on offense, which I think is one of the most important things you can do is to win the turnover battle.”
Penn State is tied for No. 10 nationally, in terms of offensive turnovers. It’s committed just six so far this season. No Big Ten team has fewer.
Goal-line stand and LB Micah Parsons: Penn State’s defense couldn’t be blamed if it grew a little tired in the final quarter; it was on the field for 15 minutes longer than the offense. But it still came away with a crucial stop.
On Michigan’s final offensive drive, the Wolverines found themselves in a first-and-goal situation at the 7-yard line. Safety Garrett Taylor limited Michigan to a 2-yard run on first down, Cam Brown and Tariq Castro-Fields helped push QB Shea Patterson out of bounds on the next play for 2 yards, and safety Jaquan Brisker pressured Patterson on third down and forced him into an incompletion.
That set up the crucial fourth down, where sophomore wideout Ronnie Bell dropped the would-be touchdown pass. It’s easy to point to that, say that was on Michigan — and not Penn State — and discount the impact of the PSU defense. But the Nittany Lions forced their opponent into the fourth-down play, and they’ve really clamped down inside the 10 this season.
Penn State nearly had another goal-line stop earlier in the fourth quarter. Michigan scored on a fourth-and-goal play only after an unusually long delay by the officials, where the Penn State crowd began celebrating after what many thought was a stop — only to reverse course when the ref signaled a touchdown.
On that stand, Micah Parsons had back-to-back tackles. And, overall, he still deserves a special shoutout here. He had a career-tying 14 tackles, and he was all over the field Saturday night.
Special teams: We failed to give punter Blake Gillikin the credit he deserved last week. So we couldn’t go another “Good, Bad, Ugly” without mentioning his second straight impressive performance.
Gillikin, who was last week’s Big Ten Special Teams Player of the Week, had another clutch performance with eight punts that averaged 44 yards a boot. Half of them were downed inside the 20, and another two traveled more than 50 yards.
But it wasn’t just Gillikin who fared well on special teams. KJ Hamler returned two kickoffs for 40 and 25 yards, respectively. (His 100-yard kick-return TD was also called back because of two holding calls.) And the kick/punt coverage teams couldn’t have done much better, either; Michigan returned five punts for a combined 12 yards and had one 10-yard kick return.
New coordinator Joe Lorig has proved to be just the upgrade the Nittany Lions needed this season.
Bad
Offensive letup/inconsistency: For every explosive play by the Penn State offense early in the game, there was a three-and-out later in the game.
Penn State scored touchdowns on three of its first five drives en route to a 21-0 lead. But, on the last eight drives, it managed just a single score. In a period of 24:07, between KJ Hamler’s first-quarter touchdown and his fourth-quarter touchdown, the offense managed just 42 yards.
Nearly half of Penn State’s offensive drives — six of 13 — were three-and-outs. We don’t mean to get too number heavy here, but the numbers really hammer home the issue. Here’s one more set: In the five drives after Hamler’s first-quarter TD, Penn State didn’t have a single drive last 2 minutes, it punted five straight times, and it garnered just a single first down.
We’ve said this before, but it’s worth repeating again: The ceiling of this offense is among the highest in the nation. But its floor is also among the lowest. If there’s one attribute keeping Penn State from “elite” status, this is it. Which brings us to ...
Lack of RB Noah Cain: What. The. Heck.
We’ll get to our point in a minute. But first: In the previous two games, true freshman RB Noah Cain combined for 34 carries, 207 rushing yards and two touchdowns. Not only is he the only back to surpass 100 yards against Iowa this season; he’s the only RB to gain more than 55 yards vs. the Hawkeyes.
He’s the most consistent part of this inconsistent Penn State offense. He gains a handful of yards with every carry, and he’s a first-down machine.
And he didn’t appear to be a big part of the Penn State gameplan on Saturday.
Cain had no carries in the first half, and he had just five carries in the second. On Penn State’s final possession, on first-and-10 from its own 3-yard line — when everyone in the stadium knew what was coming — Cain still picked up 5 yards.
We feel like we’re preaching to the choir here. Cain may not have the home-run speed of the other backs, but he’s the player that can put together sustained drives when Penn State is struggling. Instead, he was underutilized Saturday — and the Nittany Lions nearly failed to protect their lead.
James Franklin didn’t exactly offer a lot of answers when he was asked about his decision-making process with Cain after the game.
“I think he did have opportunities late in the game,” Franklin said. “We have four guys we have a lot of confidence in.”
What. The. Heck.
Jim Harbaugh’s decision to attempt a 58-yard FG: We’re sure Pitt coach Pat Narduzzi loved this play. But it was nonsensical and deserves to be highlighted.
With 56 seconds left in the first half, Michigan was in a fourth-and-6 situation on the Penn State 41-yard line. The choices appeared to be: Go for it, or punt it and pin Penn State back to take a two-TD deficit into halftime.
Instead, the khaki-loving coach eschewed convention and decided to go for a 58-yard field goal. Oh, and did we mention kicker Jake Moody’s career long was 48 yards? (Quinn Nordin is inconsistent but has the better leg.)
Moody’s attempt fell predictably short, which gave Penn State great field position. It couldn’t capitalize. But there was a reason #FireHarbaugh was trending on Twitter before halftime.
Ugly
Traffic patterns leaving the stadium: We hope Athletic Director Sandy Barbour has someone prepared to help read the avalanche of fan letters she’s about to receive.
Traffic was at a virtual standstill once the game ended. According to one alum, who parked in the IM Fields, traffic on Park Avenue wasn’t allowing vehicles to exit — so it took nearly two hours just to get out of the lot.
We get it. Big games at big stadiums are going to create big traffic backups, but this was much, much worse than usual. One would think, after Penn State paid a consultant this offseason to improve traffic patterns that, you know, the traffic would’ve improved. Not gotten worse.
