The Penn State Nittany Lions are on their strategy to the Faculty Soccer Playoff semifinals because of a 31-14 Fiesta Bowl win over the Boise State Broncos on Tuesday night time.
They now await the winner of Wednesday’s Georgia Bulldogs vs. Notre Dame Combating Irish sport, which they may face within the Orange Bowl subsequent week.
Listed here are 4 takeaways from Penn State’s win on Tuesday night time.
1. Penn State’s protection did its job
Particularly towards Boise State operating again Ashton Jeanty.
The field rating will say Jeanty had 104 yards on 30 carries, which is a really respectable quantity.
However that can also be a bit of deceptive.
He gained 26 of these yards on one keep on a third-and-long when Penn State’s protection was taking part in deep off the road, and he was restricted to simply 78 yards on 29 carries. That’s simply 2.6 yards per carry. That was by no means going to be adequate for Boise State to win, and Penn State’s protection deserves a ton of credit score for limiting the very best operating again within the nation.
Together with principally conserving him verify, additionally they pressured two Jeanty fumbles (one in every of which was recovered by Penn State) and intercepted Boise State quarterback Maddux Madsen within the fourth quarter on a pivotal drive within the sport.
What makes that efficiency much more spectacular is that Penn State’s finest defensive participant, Abdul Carter, didn’t play a lot of the sport as a result of damage.
2. Faculty kickers will all the time be an journey
Boise State kicker Jonah Dalmas has had an excellent profession with the Broncos, making over 87% of his kicks in 5 years.
He had a fully depressing night time on Tuesday. Lacking two area targets performed an enormous position in taking momentum away from the Broncos.
The primary got here on Boise State’s first drive of the sport when the Broncos drove down the sector with an opportunity to strike first, solely to have Dalmas miss.
Within the fourth quarter, with Boise State down by 10, he missed a 40-yard area purpose simply off to the precise after they had an opportunity to chop it to a one rating sport.
Faculty kickers, even the very best ones, are notoriously unreliable. It was the worst potential night time for Dalmas to lose his contact.
3. Boise State ought to have loads of regrets
Together with coming away empty on its opening drive, Boise State had two second-half drives that basically helped put the sport out of attain.
Trailing by 10, the Broncos had back-to-back sequence of 13 and 12 performs that ended with zero factors.
The primary of these drives initially appeared to have a landing that was going to chop the deficit down to a few factors, solely to have it known as again on an unlawful palms to the face penalty. The drive ended with an interception on third-and-long.
After getting a cease on Penn State’s subsequent sequence, Boise State once more moved the ball down the sector solely to take a sack on first down contained in the 15-yard line and finally need to accept one in every of Dalmas’ two missed kicks.
They moved the ball. They merely couldn’t end.
4. Penn State did what was anticipated. Now the true problem begins
Getting by means of to the semifinals has to really feel good for Penn State head coach James Franklin given all the warmth he takes for not profitable huge video games,
Playoff video games, by their very nature, are huge video games. He now has two wins.
They have been additionally two wins his staff was anticipated to get.
When the playoff bracket got here on the market was a consensus that Penn State had one of many best potential paths to the semifinal, getting a house sport towards SMU and a neutral-site sport towards Boise State. They have been decisive favorites in each video games and received each simply.
They won’t be as huge of a favourite of their subsequent sport, whether or not it occurs to be towards Georgia or Notre Dame.
In the event that they win that sport, then the narrative round Franklin and Penn State will actually begin to change.
