The College Football Playoff (CFP) is up next.\u00a0 While a victory and Big Ten title would have resulted in a first-round bye, all is not lost.\u00a0 Penn State will now likely host a first-round game in Happy Valley.\u00a0 Despite picking up the second loss of the season, Penn State is still in good shape heading to the playoffs.\u00a0 Leaving with that momentum is important for the program<\/a>.<\/p>\n #3 Penn State fell to #1 Oregon in the Big Ten Championship Game, 45-37.\u00a0 On the field before the game, Penn State coach James Franklin referred to the game as “a heavyweight, four-quarter game.”\u00a0 The heavyweight bout filter proved to be a good lens through which to look at the game.<\/p>\n There were far too many games this season where Penn State put themselves behind the figurative eight ball, and needed to come back.\u00a0 The Big Ten Championship Game was no different.\u00a0 Penn State was constantly fighting to come back all game.\u00a0 Getting within one score on numerous occasions, they were not able to further capitalize.\u00a0 Oregon jumped out to an early lead and never trailed in the game.\u00a0 This was a one-score game in the fourth quarter, but Penn State was never able to take the lead.<\/p>\n Oregon came out and asserted itself as the #1 team in the nation.\u00a0 With a combination of speed and power, the Ducks jumped out to early 7-0 and 14-3 leads.\u00a0 Penn State did not help its own cause.\u00a0 As mentioned above, falling behind early has been symptomatic of Penn State this season.\u00a0 Additionally, the 65 penalty yards in the first half made the mountain even higher to climb.<\/p>\n Penalties are a part of the game, and as Franklin noted at halftime, two of the four 15-yard penalties were facemasks that happen sometimes.\u00a0 However, special teams are another facet of the game that has been a self-inflicted challenge to Penn State this year.\u00a0 After Sander Sahaydak<\/a> lost the kicking job for the second straight season, Barker has kicked fairly well.\u00a0 However, on the biggest stage that he has been on, Barker missed a field goal on the first drive of the second half.\u00a0 Instead of being Penn State within four points, Oregon took the ensuing drive to the endzone to extend the lead to 14.<\/p>\n In the past, even as recently as last season, Penn State and quarterback Drew Allar<\/a> would have folded when things did not go well early on.\u00a0 Following Allar’s first interception of the game, and his sixth of the year, the game and momentum heading to the CFP were on the precipice.\u00a0 How would Penn State respond?\u00a0 Would Allar become hesitant and more conservative?\u00a0 Would the defense stop playing hard?\u00a0 The answers to both questions were resounding no’s.<\/p>\n Allar’s critical interception was returned to the Penn State one-yard line.\u00a0 One play later, Oregon scored a touchdown to take a 28-10 lead.\u00a0 With a narrative from the past that would have pointed to a blowout, Penn State showed the program’s maturation.\u00a0 Allar did not shy away from throwing the ball.\u00a0 Kaytron Allen<\/a> ran with purpose.\u00a0 After getting banged up in the third quarter, he returned, played very tough, and was a tone-setter for the team.\u00a0 Even the wide receivers contributed more than in most games.\u00a0 The defense continued to compete against the high-octane Oregon offense, though they were exhausted by the tail end of the fourth quarter.<\/p>\n While the outcome is not what Penn State wanted, some positives can be taken from this game.\u00a0 The resolve shown by the Nittany Lions was obvious, and it felt different than years past.\u00a0 This fight and no-quit attitude will bode well for them in the CFP, and in ensuing seasons.\u00a0 Perhaps fittingly, the game was clinched on an Oregon interception on a deep pass by Allar as a result of an aggressive play call by offensive coordinator Andy Kotelnicki.<\/p>\n Passing:\u00a0<\/strong>Penn State threw for 226 yards, compared to 283 for Oregon.\u00a0 Allar completed 20 of 39 for 226 yards, with three touchdowns and two interceptions.\u00a0 For Oregon, Dillon Gabriel<\/a> completed 22 of 32 for 283 yards, with four touchdowns and no interceptions.<\/p>\n Rushing:\u00a0<\/strong>Penn State had 292 yards, compared to 183 yards for Oregon.\u00a0 Allen led Penn State, and all players, with 124 rushing yards on 14 carries, and one touchdown.\u00a0 Nick Singleton<\/a> added 105 yards on 10 carries.\u00a0 Allar had the other Penn State rushing touchdown.\u00a0 Oregon was led by Jordan James<\/a>, who had 87 yards on 20 carries with two touchdowns.\u00a0 Noah Whittington<\/a> rushed 15 times, gaining 82 yards.<\/p>\n Receiving:\u00a0<\/strong>Tyler Warren<\/a> led Penn State with 84 yards on seven catches.\u00a0 Singleton, Harrison Wallace<\/a>, and Omari Evans<\/a> each had a Penn State receiving touchdown.\u00a0 For Oregon, Tez Johnson<\/a> led the team with a game-high 11 receptions, and game-high 181 yards, with a touchdown.\u00a0 Kenyon Sadiq<\/a> had two receiving touchdowns, and Terrance Ferguson<\/a> added another Oregon receiving touchdown.<\/p>\n Defense: <\/strong>Kobe King<\/a> and Zakee Wheatley<\/a> each had nine tackles to lead Penn State.\u00a0 Tysheem Johnson<\/a> led Oregon with a game-high nine tackles, while Devon Jackson<\/a> added seven.\u00a0 Oregon’s two interceptions were by Dontae Manning<\/a> and Nikko Reed<\/a>.<\/p>\n Special Teams:\u00a0<\/strong>For Penn State, Barker converted one of two field goal attempts.\u00a0 He converted all four of his extra-point attempts.\u00a0 Riley Thompson<\/a> punted two times, averaging 47.0 yards per punt.\u00a0 For Oregon, Atticus Sappington<\/a> converted his only field goal attempt, as well as all four extra-point attempts.\u00a0 Additionally, Andrew Boyle<\/a> successfully converted both of his extra point attempts. Ross James<\/a> punted three times, averaging 43.7 yards per punt, and Luke Dunne<\/a> punted once for 42 yards.<\/p>\n In a familiar pattern, mistakes doomed Penn State in their Big Ten Championship loss.\u00a0 The Nittany Lions fell to #1 Oregon 45-37, in a game where the offenses showed up to play.\u00a0 The teams set the record for the most points scored in the first half of a Big Ten title game, combining for 55 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5172,"featured_media":69884,"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":[32817,2897,79,837,277,309],"class_list":["post-69857","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bigten","category-featured","category-penn-state-nittany-lions","tag-andy-kotelnicki","tag-big-ten-championship","tag-college-football","tag-james-franklin","tag-oregon-ducks","tag-penn-state-nittany-lions"],"modified_by":"Michael Kovacs, ADMIN","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69857","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=69857"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69857\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":69886,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69857\/revisions\/69886"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/69884"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=69857"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=69857"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=69857"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Key Takeaways: Mistakes Doomed Penn State in Big Ten Championship Loss<\/h2>\n
Here We Go Again<\/h3>\n
Penn State Punches Back<\/h3>\n
By the Numbers: Mistakes Doomed Penn State in Big Ten Championship Loss<\/h3>\n
Offense<\/h3>\n
Defense\/Special Teams<\/h3>\n
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