Key Takeaways: Penn State to Play for Big Ten Title After Beating Maryland 44-7<\/h2>\n
In beating Maryland 44-7, the Penn State Nittany Lions punched their ticket to the Big Ten Championship in Indianapolis.\u00a0 Penn State’s star tight end set a few records, while the defense stepped up as needed.<\/p>\n
May the Record Show<\/h3>\n
It was a record-setting day for tight end Tyler Warren<\/a>.\u00a0 Warren recorded his 76th catch of the season to set the Big Ten single-season record for tight ends.\u00a0 He then set another record, with his 17th career receiving touchdown setting the school tight end record.\u00a0 Additionally, Warren set the Penn State tight end record with 130 career receptions.\u00a0 He is five yards short of the Big Ten tight end single-season receiving yards record.<\/p>\n Warren’s talents were on full display in this matchup.\u00a0 As he has done all season, Warren was the main security blanket for quarterback Drew Allar<\/a>.\u00a0 Additionally, Warren ran the ball out of the Wildcat formation.\u00a0 He even threw the ball and completed a pass for nine yards.\u00a0 Warren continued to do it all for coordinator Andy Kotelnicki’s offense.<\/p>\n At this point, Warren should have the Mackey Award clinched.\u00a0 Still open for discussion is if he gets any consideration in the Heisman conversation.\u00a0 Regardless, Warren has left his mark on the Penn State football program.\u00a0 His production, football IQ, and leadership will be sorely missed. Warren is the main reason that Penn State might be moving from Linebacker U to Tight End U<\/a>.<\/p>\n The defense<\/a> has been a constant all season for Penn State.\u00a0 With talents like Abdul Carter<\/a>, Zane Durant<\/a>, and Jaylen Reed<\/a>, that is not a surprise.\u00a0 Coordinator Tom Allen, in his first season in Happy Valley<\/a>, has done well in getting solid production from his charges.\u00a0 As head coach James Franklin said while exiting the field at the end of the first half, “Our defense has been playing lights out all year.”<\/p>\n Against Maryland, the defense was stout.\u00a0 That type of performance was needed in order to set the tone, as the offense started soft.\u00a0 In a repeat of the formula seen a lot through the early part of the season, the defense held firm until the offense caught up.\u00a0 After Singleton fumbled on the first offensive play of the game, first-time Maryland starting quarterback MJ Morris threw a touchdown on their first offensive play.\u00a0 From there, the Penn State defense clamped down.<\/p>\n Carter entered the game leading the Big Ten with 17.5 tackles for loss.\u00a0 In this contest, he added six tackles and two sacks.\u00a0 His production was representative of the entire defense.\u00a0 Maryland produced only 97 yards in the first half when the game was still somewhat in question.\u00a0 To help the offense hit their stride, Penn State’s first-half defense had three sacks and two interceptions.\u00a0 They finished the game with six sacks and three interceptions.<\/p>\n In anticipation of facing a high-powered Oregon offense in the Big Ten title game, the defense seems ready.\u00a0 Allen, along with leaders like Carter, Durant, and Reed, will need to put their best forward to win the Big Ten.\u00a0 From there, the tests will continue in the CFP.<\/p>\n Passing:\u00a0<\/strong>Penn State threw for 193 yards, compared to 122 for Maryland.\u00a0 Allar completed 17 of 26 for 171 yards, with one touchdown and no interceptions.\u00a0 Beau Pribula<\/a> completed two of three passes for 13 yards with a touchdown and no interceptions.\u00a0 Warren completed his only pass attempt, for nine yards.\u00a0 For Maryland, MJ Morris<\/a> completed 14 of 24 for 112 yards, with one touchdown and three interceptions.\u00a0 Champ Long<\/a> completed one of two attempts for 10 yards, with no touchdowns or interceptions.<\/p>\n Rushing:\u00a0<\/strong>Penn State had 219 yards, compared to 72 yards for Maryland.\u00a0 Singleton led Penn State, and all players, with 87 rushing yards on 13 carries, and two touchdowns.\u00a0 Allar and Pribula had the other Penn State rushing touchdowns.\u00a0 Maryland was led by Roman Hemby<\/a>, who had 64 yards on 13 carries.\u00a0 Nolan Ray rushed nine times, gaining 51 yards.<\/p>\n Receiving:\u00a0<\/strong>Warren led Penn State with a game-high 68 yards on six catches including a touchdown.\u00a0 Tyseer Denmark<\/a> had the other Penn State receiving touchdown.\u00a0 For Maryland, Tai Felton<\/a> led the team with four receptions for 27 yards.\u00a0 Kaden Prather<\/a> had one catch for 25 yards, which was Maryland\u2019s only touchdown.<\/p>\n Defense: <\/strong>Carter led the Penn State defense with six tackles and two sacks.\u00a0 Reed had five tackles.\u00a0 Dani Dennis-Sutton<\/a>, Zion Tracy<\/a>, and Jordan Mayer<\/a> had one sack each, with Durant and Amin Vanover<\/a> contributing a half-sack each.\u00a0 Penn State\u2019s three turnovers were courtesy of interceptions by Tony Rojas,<\/a> Dejuan Lane<\/a>, and Audavion Collins<\/a>.\u00a0\u00a0Daniel Wingate<\/a> led Maryland with a game-high 13 tackles, while Ruban Hyppolite II<\/a> added 11.<\/p>\n Special Teams:\u00a0<\/strong>For Penn State,\u00a0Ryan Barker<\/a> converted one of two field goal attempts (the miss was blocked), including a season-long 49-yarder.\u00a0 He converted all five of his extra-point attempts.\u00a0 Riley Thompson<\/a> punted four times, averaging 42.5 yards per punt.\u00a0 For Maryland, Jack Howes<\/a> converted his only extra-point attempt. Bryce McFerson<\/a> punted seven times, averaging 42.0 yards per punt.<\/p>\n In a somewhat unexpected turn of events, Penn State will play for its first Big Ten title since 2016 this coming Saturday against Oregon after beating Maryland 44-7.\u00a0 With Michigan beating Ohio State in a 13-10 thriller, the stage was set for Penn State to claim their spot opposite Oregon.\u00a0 They accomplished the feat with […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5172,"featured_media":69369,"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":[5,10906,35610,2056],"tags":[34344,32817,493,837,5653,695,309,1073],"class_list":["post-69323","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bigten","category-cfb","category-penn-state-nittany-lions","category-top-25","tag-2024-college-football-playoff-rankings","tag-andy-kotelnicki","tag-awards","tag-james-franklin","tag-mackey-award","tag-maryland-terrapins","tag-penn-state-nittany-lions","tag-tom-allen"],"modified_by":"Michael Kovacs, ADMIN","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69323","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=69323"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69323\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":80188,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69323\/revisions\/80188"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/69369"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=69323"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=69323"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=69323"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Championship Defense<\/h3>\n
By the Numbers: Penn State to Play for Big Ten Title After Beating Maryland 44-7<\/h3>\n
Offense<\/h3>\n
Defense\/Special Teams<\/h3>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2024\/11\/USATSI_24882006_168400562_lowres-300x200.jpg\")