Penn State survives Bowling Green scare: Shaky performance casts doubt over No. 8 Nittany Lions as contender

What goodwill that No. 8 Penn State generated with its dominant season-opening performance against West Virginia took precisely one week to evaporate as the Nittany Lions limped to a 34-27 win against Bowling Green on Saturday — despite entering their first home game of the year as 36.5-point favorites. 

If it wasn’t for some late-game heroics from running back Nicholas Singleton and some timely turnovers forced by a defense that failed to impress overall, the final score would have looked a lot worse. 

Singleton caught a 14-yard touchdown pass from quarterback Drew Allar with just over six minutes left in the third quarter to give Penn State its first lead of the game and then slammed the door on Bowling Green late in the fourth quarter with his 41-yard touchdown run. But he was one of the lone bright spots on a Penn State offense that looked mostly lethargic against what should have been overmatched competition. 

New offensive coordinator Andy Kotelnicki, who turned heads with great play-calling against the Mountaineers, had some questionable play-sequencing. Too many times, Penn State would run on first and second down before falling behind the chains and forcing itself into an obvious passing situation on third down. The Nittany Lions’ average third down distance to go was 8.6 yards. As a result, they converted on just two of their nine attempts. 

Allar looked solid again, completing 13 of his 20 pass attempts for 204 yards and two touchdowns, but he did have one questionable interception while trying to push the ball into the end zone — it could have been miscommunication between Allar and the intended receiver — to end the third quarter. He also wasn’t helped by Penn State’s insistence on forcing itself into…

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Author : Will Backus

Publish date : 2024-09-07 19:40:50

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