But that wasn’t easy after this one.
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The Nittany Lions’ erratic final drive late in the fourth quarter saw redshirt junior wide receiver DaeSean Hamilton drop a certain touchdown pass. “What he’s been through, what he’s still going through and the way he prevailed, not many people can do that”. But players said the team came out of locker room “flat”.
Today we focus on running back Saquon Barkley.
It was, of course, hardly all on Hamilton. It’s a group made up of players talented enough to avoid redshirts when they arrived as freshmen. The ostensible objective of his message was to announce to Panthers fans they still could get a ticket to the game without involving StubHub or RazorGator or SeatGeek.
They surrendered an 84-yard kickoff return to set up what proved to be the winning touchdown in the fourth quarter.
Pitt used a 28-14 lead heading into the half to stave off a late-game scare from Penn State. Rather than play for overtime, however, McSorley tried to win it.
“What we have to do is eliminate turnovers”, Franklin said. “We all went up to him and told him that it doesn’t”.
The Lions converted a 4th-and-16 to stay alive, but on 2nd-and-9 from the Pitt 31, Penn State quarterback Trace McSorley’s pass into the end zone was intercepted by Lewis.
Penn State coach James Franklin’s grandmother once lived a few blocks from the former Pitt Stadium.
Narduzzi emphasized the rivalry, saying, “this is a different game, and that’s what I want (the players) to know”.
“After James put the ball on the ground … our guys went out and put up a a three and out”, Narduzzi said.
“Jason played Mike linebacker, and I had played Mike linebacker”, Wartman-White said. “I’ve gotta run faster”.
Henderson said he’s been unsafe in the open field for his “entire life”. Everybody needs to be held accountable on that play.
I’m not sure if it was only due to the game flow, but the Panthers seemed scared to throw downfield.
Pitt’s resurgence helped deepen Penn State’s schedule to the point the Lions were able to win a national championship at 11-1 in 1982, an honor denied to three prior undefeated PSU teams. The Panthers will hope to crack Penn State’s offensive line, which allowed just one sack last weekend (down by nine from theiseason-opener a year ago at Temple).
On Wednesday, Pitt athletic director Scott Barnes said that 70,000 tickets have been made available for the game, which could set a sporting-event attendance record in Pittsburgh. “I think it’s just the things you work on in practice, the little details, wrapping up, just being physical, flying to the ball, taking good angles”. The Penn State line has been rebuilt by new assistants Joe Moorhead and Matt Limegrover – Pittsburgh natives – and gave a promising effort last week.
Who happened to be Hall of Famer Tony Dorsett.
Secondary: Missed tackles were an issue for this group, although to be fair, many were on James Conner, who is a very tough runner. The Illini, who allowed almost 250 yards rushing in each of its last three games in 2015, are No. 1 nationally against the run this week after FCS Murray State netted minus-10 yards.
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“It’s Steelers-Browns, it’s Alabama-Auburn, it’s Michigan-Michigan State”, he said. “That’s big. When you get into a sudden-change situation and your defense goes three and out … for us to hold them to three points, that’s the game right there”. “They can say that this year”, said Barkley, whose five scores felt nearly like a footnote on a weird afternoon. While Franklin opted to regard it like any other game so his players would remain level-headed – and they did, as they almost rallied from a three-TD deficit – Narduzzi embraced this game as much as the fans.
