{"id":68805,"date":"2024-11-23T20:57:33","date_gmt":"2024-11-24T01:57:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/?p=68805"},"modified":"2025-11-07T09:21:58","modified_gmt":"2025-11-07T14:21:58","slug":"penn-state-survives-with-a-path-to-the-big-ten-title","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/2024\/11\/23\/penn-state-survives-with-a-path-to-the-big-ten-title\/","title":{"rendered":"Penn State Survives with a Path to the Big Ten Title"},"content":{"rendered":"

After a game that was a lot closer than it should have been, Penn State survives against Minnesota and can see a path to the Big Ten title.\u00a0 Penn State defeated Minnesota on the road, winning the Victory Bell Trophy, by a score of 26-25.\u00a0 \u00a0After the most complete team win of the season last week against Purdue<\/a>, this game was a nail-biter.\u00a0 Penn State moves to 10-1 (7-1 in the Big Ten) on the season and has a potential path to the Big Ten title game.\u00a0 Head coach James Franklin and special teams coordinator Justin Lustig effectively won the game with an aggressive play call, and Penn State’s largest star shone brightly in the Minneapolis evening.<\/p>\n

Not surprisingly, the fate of Penn State’s Big Ten results is closely linked to the Ohio State Buckeyes.\u00a0 With Ohio State’s 38-15 win over Indiana, there are three teams tied for second place in the conference behind undefeated Oregon.\u00a0 Ohio State, Indiana, and Penn State all sit at 7-1 in the conference.\u00a0 Nittany Lions fans now potentially cheer for Michigan to beat Ohio State next week.\u00a0 Why potentially?\u00a0 If Michigan wins that game and Penn State defeats Maryland, they’ll play for the Big Ten title.\u00a0 However, it is debatable if a potential matchup with Oregon to earn a first-round College Football Playoff (CFP) bye as Big Ten champ is better than having the week of the Big Ten title game off.\u00a0 In that scenario, Penn State would likely host a first-round CFP game.<\/p>\n

Key Takeaways: Penn State Survives with Path to Big Ten Title<\/h2>\n

In their 26-25 win over Minnesota, Penn State kept their CFP hopes alive.\u00a0 Additionally, with Ohio State’s win over Indiana, there is a path to the Big Ten title game.\u00a0 However, it is debatable if that is the better alternative for Penn State, compared to not facing Oregon in the Big Ten title game, and resting for a CFP first-round home game.<\/p>\n

Where’s Warren?<\/h3>\n

Whenever quarterbacks Drew Allar<\/a> or Beau Pribula<\/a> drop back to pass, their first thought is likely, “Where’s (Tyler) Warren<\/a>?”\u00a0 Quite frankly, it is fitting that it would be their first thought as he is a quarterback’s prototypical security blanket.\u00a0 Warren was a star in this game, as he has been for many contests this season.\u00a0 He further cemented his resume for postseason awards such as the Mackey Award, and should even garner some consideration for the Heisman.\u00a0 In this matchup, he had a crucial catch on fourth down with less than a minute left in the game.\u00a0 That conversion ended the game and preserved the Penn State victory.\u00a0 Warren finished the game with eight receptions for 102 yards.<\/p>\n

It was also a historically significant game for Warren.\u00a0 He set the record for the most yards from scrimmage for a Big Ten tight end in a season.\u00a0 Additionally, Warren became Penn State’s all-time leader in receiving yards by a tight end.\u00a0 His conversion on fourth down to seal the victory was a fitting end for the leader of Penn State’s offense this season.\u00a0 In Inspector Gadget-like fashion, Warren not only lined up at tight end.\u00a0 Similar to other games this season, he also took direct snaps and ran out of the Wildcat formation.\u00a0 In this contest, he also had a punt to his credit.<\/p>\n

Putting the Special in Special Teams<\/h3>\n

Of the three phases of football, Special Teams is the easiest to overlook.\u00a0 In fact, it is mostly talked about when there are material errors that impact the outcome of a game.\u00a0 That was almost the situation for Penn State in this game.\u00a0 However, a gutsy call by Franklin and Lustig totally redeemed the special teams corps and propelled the team to the win.<\/p>\n

In the first half, it appeared that Special Teams could, and potentially would, cost Penn State the game.\u00a0 In the first half, the calamities started with a partially blocked punt by Minnesota.\u00a0 The Golden Gophers then converted the ensuing drive, scoring a touchdown.\u00a0 Later, toward the end of the first half, Penn State was within an extra point of tying the game after scoring a touchdown.\u00a0 However, Minnesota blocked the extra point and returned it to the endzone for two points to take a 19-16 lead into halftime.<\/p>\n

A fateful play call in the fourth quarter redeemed the Special Teams.\u00a0 On a fourth-and-one from the Penn State 34-yard line, Penn State sent out the punt team.\u00a0 In a move that would help clinch the win, with Riley Thompson<\/a> in punt formation, Luke Reynolds<\/a> received the snap and ran for 32 yards.\u00a0 From there, it became a matter of running out the clock to preserve the win.<\/p>\n

By the Numbers: Penn State Survives with a Path to the Big Ten Title<\/h2>\n

Offense<\/h3>\n

Passing:\u00a0<\/strong>Penn State threw for 244 yards, compared to 175 for Minnesota.\u00a0 Allar completed 21 of 28 for 244 yards, with one touchdown and no interceptions.\u00a0 For Minnesota, Max Brosmer<\/a> completed 15 of 23 for 175 yards, with one touchdown and one interception.\u00a0 His interception followed a streak of five games without throwing one.<\/p>\n

Rushing:\u00a0<\/strong>Penn State had 117 yards, compared to 106 yards for Minnesota.\u00a0 Nick Singleton<\/a> led Penn State, and all players, with 63 rushing yards on 13 carries, and a touchdown.\u00a0 Courtesy of his carry on the fake punt play, Reynolds finished with 32 yards on the one carry.\u00a0 Allar had the other Penn State rushing touchdown.\u00a0 Minnesota was led by Darius Taylor<\/a>, who had 58 yards on 27 carries.\u00a0 Marcus Major<\/a> rushed 10 times, gaining 37 yards and a touchdown.<\/p>\n

Receiving:\u00a0<\/strong>Warren led Penn State with a game-high 102 yards on eight catches.\u00a0 Omari Evans<\/a> had a receiving touchdown, as part of his 51-yard game over two catches.\u00a0 For Minnesota, Daniel Jackson<\/a> led the team with six receptions for 90 yards.\u00a0 Jameson Geers<\/a> had one catch for 21 yards, which was Minnesota’s only receiving touchdown.<\/p>\n

Defense\/Special Teams<\/h3>\n

Defense: <\/strong>Jaylen Reed<\/a> led Penn State defenders with 10 tackles.\u00a0 Kobe King<\/a> had nine tackles, while Tony Rojas<\/a> contributed six tackles and the only sack for Penn State.\u00a0 Penn State’s two turnovers were courtesy of Dom DeLuca<\/a> (interception) and Zakee Wheatley<\/a> (fumble recovery).\u00a0 Cody Lindenberg<\/a> led Minnesota with a game-high 14 tackles, while Koi Perich<\/a> added 13.<\/p>\n

Special Teams:\u00a0<\/strong>For Penn State,\u00a0Ryan Barker<\/a> converted both field goal attempts, including a season-long 45-yarder.\u00a0 He also converted two out of three of his extra-point attempts, with the miss mentioned above (which resulted in two points for Minnesota). \u00a0Thompson punted two times, averaging 39.5 yards per punt.\u00a0 Warren was credited with a 16-yard punt.\u00a0 For Minnesota, Dragan Kesich<\/a> converted all three of his field goal attempts, as well as both extra point attempts. Mark Crawford<\/a> punted three times, averaging 40.3 yards per punt.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Photo Credit: Matt Krohn-Imagn Images<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

After a game that was a lot closer than it should have been, Penn State survives against Minnesota and can see a path to the Big Ten title.\u00a0 Penn State defeated Minnesota on the road, winning the Victory Bell Trophy, by a score of 26-25.\u00a0 \u00a0After the most complete team win of the season last […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5172,"featured_media":68814,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"1","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5,2,35610],"tags":[34344,493,32771,837,33941,5653,167,309,5520],"class_list":["post-68805","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bigten","category-featured","category-penn-state-nittany-lions","tag-2024-college-football-playoff-rankings","tag-awards","tag-heisman","tag-james-franklin","tag-justin-lustig","tag-mackey-award","tag-minnesota-golden-gophers","tag-penn-state-nittany-lions","tag-victory-bell"],"modified_by":"Michael Kovacs, ADMIN","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68805","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5172"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=68805"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68805\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":80191,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68805\/revisions\/80191"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/68814"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=68805"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=68805"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=68805"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}