The Good, The Bad & The Ugly: Reviewing Penn State’s 28-7 win over Michigan State
Jayson Oweh needed this game.
The Penn State defensive end, a raw redshirt freshman with limited experience and unlimited upside, told reporters that the “emotions came after me” following Saturday’s 28-7 win over Michigan State. Finally, after a season of ups and downs, he broke through with a two-sack performance.
The backup — who made Bruce Feldman’s annual list of college football “freaks” — boasted the best game of his career Saturday night. He had two strip-sacks, the second of which came at the start of the fourth quarter and put a halt to any unlikely Sparty comeback. Linebacker Ellis Brooks recovered it.
“I worked really hard this offseason, as hard as I ever have,” Oweh said. “I watched more film than I ever have, and I needed the results to come. So the emotions came after me, and I was really happy with the results.”
Oweh picked up the sport of football later in life, as a high school junior. In a lot of ways, he’s still learning the position. But as a 255-pound end who can run a 4.33-second 40-yard dash, his athleticism is among the nation’s elite.
Entering Saturday night’s game, he had two sacks on the season. And, in 2018, he opened his career with a two-sack game against Kent State before going quiet in his final three contests.
His Saturday performance against Michigan State was the breakout game he’s been waiting for since August.
“I knew all the work I put in this offseason and what I wanted to do this season,” he said. “It just all came over for me, so I’m happy for this game.
“I needed this game.”
Good
Defense, defense, defense: Where do we even start? Michigan State was so frustrated that it plugged in two other quarterbacks, Rocky Lombardi and Theo Day, and later switched out Day for starter Brian Lewerke in the middle of a fourth-quarter drive.
None of them had success. Sparty’s offense was as close to helpless as it got. And Penn State’s defense showed no mercy.
The Nittany Lions’ defense forced three turnovers. They limited the Spartans to 118 yards in the first half. They held the running game to 83 yards on 31 carries. And they dominated the backup QB, Lombardi, so much that he finished with a negative QB rating of minus-9.7.
“We never could really get anything going on the offensive side of the ball,” Mark Dantonio said.
When the Penn State offense sputtered, the defense stood firm. James Franklin has said for several weeks now that Penn State is playing championship-caliber defense, and we couldn’t agree more.
Maybe Penn State isn’t elite quite yet, but this defense sure is. And Franklin couldn’t have asked for much more from this unit Saturday.
Defensive depth: We won’t belabor the point here. But Penn State’s young cornerbacks deserve a special shoutout, and we don’t want to forget them.
Fifth-year starter John Reid went down early in the game with an injury and didn’t return. Then, backup CB Trent Gordon — who missed the last game — suffered an injury and also didn’t return.
That meant true freshmen Marquis Wilson and Keaton Ellis saw plenty of snaps at corner, and neither skipped a beat. Wilson came away with his first career interception, and Sparty couldn’t find success picking on Ellis early.
Michigan State finished with a 44 percent completion rate.
“They played great,” starter Tariq Castro-Fields said, referring to Ellis and Wilson. “When their time was called, they delivered. So I’m super proud.”
Pat Freiermuth’s career game: Friday was Freiermuth’s 21st birthday, and Sunday is known as “National Tight End Day” — so it was pretty appropriate for the sophomore to go off on Saturday.
Freiermuth reeled in five catches (not bad) for 60 yards (that’s good) — for three touchdowns (unprecedented!). No other Penn State tight end has ever before caught three scores in a single game, and that performance tied Freiermuth with former Nittany Lion Mike Gesicki for most career touchdowns (15) by a tight end. And Freiermuth reached that milestone in 25 fewer games.
Twenty-five fewer games!
We wrote this after the game, but it bears repeating: Freiermuth has already catapulted himself into the conversation as one of Penn State’s best-ever tight ends. His production is virtually unmatched. Already.
And his second touchdown Saturday was one for the highlight reel. On a 19-yard TD pass, Freiermuth was surrounded by three defenders at the 4-yard line — and plowed through them all for the score.
“I was kind of having flashbacks to Iowa, not going to lie, with the knee down and everything,” Freiermuth said. “So I was like, I have to get in this time. So I got in.”
First-half offense: You can probably guess where we inserted the “second-half offense.” But, in the first half, complaints were few and far between.
Despite the steady rain, QB Sean Clifford went into halftime 12-of-17 passing for 127 yards, three touchdowns and no interceptions. (Even more impressive was the fact he posted great numbers despite two of his longer passes being spot-on but dropped.) He also led the team in rushing, with four carries for 23 yards.
Overall, at halftime, the offense averaged nearly 4.6 yards per rush and nearly 6 yards per play. It converted a key fourth-and-1 play — thanks to RB Journey Brown — and it scored touchdowns on three of its five drives. The offensive line also didn’t surrender a single sack before halftime.
No, the offense didn’t remain consistent for the entire game. But, in the first half, it was red-hot and unstoppable. And that proved to be enough against Michigan State.
Special teams: Sure, Jake Pinegar did miss an extra point after a high snap. But that was easily overshadowed by all the good done here by Penn State.
Punter Blake Gillikin should be a candidate for Big Ten Special Teams Player of the Week after five of his eight punts landed inside the 20. Despite the conditions, he averaged 44.2 yards with each boot — 13.2 yards longer, on average, than Michigan State’s punter. Wideout Dan Chisena also recovered a muffed punt return on the Michigan State 6-yard line, which set up Pat Freiermuth’s third touchdown.
And, maybe the most impressive play, defensive end Shaka Toney burst through the line to block a Michigan State field goal. He raised his arms, but the kick ended up smacking him in the helmet — and deflected high up into the air, before freshman Keaton Ellis caught it and returned it another 8 yards.
“When it hit me, I was looking for the ball and I’m like, ‘Where’s the ball at?’” Toney recalled with a laugh. “I’m like Coach (Sean) Spence is going to kill me if I don’t get this ball.”
We’re sure Spencer isn’t going to mind too much after that teamwork. But with the way the Nittany Lions seized the advantage in this phase of the game, even Mark Dantonio didn’t mince words.
“You cannot win a football game playing like that on special teams,” he said.
Bad
Second-half offense: We hate to get too number heavy, but the stats really tell the story here.
In the second half, Penn State was 6-of-15 passing for 62 yards while running 19 times for 31 yards. So, for comparison’s sake, in the first half Penn State ran 35 plays for 209 yards — and, in the second half, it ran 34 plays for 93 yards.
The dynamic of Penn State’s offense is among the most unusual in the country. It has one of the highest ceilings in the nation and one of the lowest floors. It borders on the absurd.
Late in the game, offensive coordinator Ricky Rahne continued to dial up pass plays. And even QB Sean Clifford wasn’t immune to some bad plays; he threw the worst interception of his young career in the third quarter.
“That was honestly, looking back on it — from Pee Wee to now — that’s probably the worst play I’ve ever had in my career,” Clifford said. “I lost my mind on that play. Just thinking about it makes me real angry. Sorry.”
Penn State scored just one touchdown on its final nine drives Saturday — and that score came on a one-play, 6-yard TD drive that occurred after a muffed punt return.
The Nittany Lions can’t get away with this kind of second-half offense against teams like Ohio State. When other teams make adjustments, PSU needs to change things up a whole lot faster. If it wasn’t for the defense, this season could have a much different feel.
Injuries: True freshman running back Noah Cain earned his first career start Saturday, played the first two series — and then suffered an injury and didn’t return to the game. It appeared as if his teammates needed to carry him off the field at the end.
Fifth-year starting CB John Reid was also injured and did not return. Ditto for cornerback Trent Gordon, the No. 3 CB.
James Franklin usually doesn’t discuss injuries, but he remained optimistic during his opening statement in the postgame press conference.
“We had a bunch of injuries, but I don’t think that they’re injuries that will be long term,” he said.
The good news for Penn State is that it’s on bye before playing Minnesota on the road Nov. 9. But, no matter what you look at it, it’s never a positive when good players go down. Cain has repeatedly demonstrated he is the best back of the rotation, and this inconsistent offense needs him as a consistent force.
True freshmen Marquis Wilson and Keaton Ellis are both talented and held their own, but they’re also no Reid. There’s no replacement for his experience or leadership. Especially when Donovan Johnson was on the sideline with his arm in a sling, and Gordon is also injured.
Ugly
Unsportsmanlike conducts: Three such penalties occurred in the fourth quarter alone. It wasn’t pretty — and it got really ugly on the second flag.
Defensive tackle Antonio Shelton was jawing with Michigan State’s center when he appeared to spit toward the player. Officials immediately threw the flag, Shelton was ejected (but will be available in the first half of the next game), and James Franklin was not pleased.
“I’m not happy at all with any of those things,” Franklin said, before adding, ““That’s not who we are, and that’s not who we will be, and it was addressed today. And it will be addressed Sunday after we watched the tape and the team meeting.”
Shelton, who was not made available after the game, apologized via Twitter.
“I would like to apologize for my actions during tonight’s game,” he wrote. “That was extremely selfish behavior. I misrepresented my coach, my school and my team. That’s not who we are and that’s not who I am. I represent more than myself, this won’t happen again.”
Last week Michigan accused Penn State of intentionally gouging QB Shea Patterson’s eyes during a pileup on a 1-yard QB touchdown sneak. So Saturday’s fourth quarter was not a good look for the Nittany Lions, especially Shelton’s actions.
Franklin and Shelton both said the right things after Saturday’s 28-7 win. But the Nittany Lions have to keep cooler heads in their next game, or they’re not going to like what the fan bases from other Big Ten teams will have to say.
