Penn State fends off Memphis
LB Parsons engineers a score on a turnover
ARLINGTON, Texas — Penn State needed a stop to halt Memphis’ mounting momentum late in the third quarter Saturday of the Cotton Bowl Classic.
The Nittany Lions had led the game since 11:14 of the second quarter, sometimes by as many as 15 points. Yet, late in the third quarter, Penn State was clinging to a two-point lead with the ball in the Tigers’ hands. The Nittany Lions needed a big third-down play.
Then, just as he had done all game, sophomore linebacker Micah Parsons showed up.
Memphis quarterback Brady White dropped back to pass, and Parsons came buzzing into the backfield, forcing White to try to get rid of the ball with a
backhanded flip pass. It was doomed to fail. The ball found senior safety Garrett Taylor, who scampered home for a 15-yard pick-6 to make it a nine-point advantage.
The 15th-ranked Tigers (12-2) tried to make it interesting late, but No. 13 Penn State (11-2) stayed in front and ran the clock down with little drama the rest of the way to win the 2019 Cotton Bowl, 5339.
“It was special hearing that crowd erupt, getting into the end zone, turning around, not seeing any flags on the field, so I was ecstatic,” Taylor said. “But I also knew that we had to go back out there and win the game, but it felt really good to impact the game.”
It didn’t take long to understand the direction the game was headed. Once Penn State discovered their ground game offensively, things exploded.
But that took a bit longer than one might have thought. Penn State had eight passing attempts in their first nine plays, with mixed results. Most were incompletions or quarterback sacks, resulting in two threeand-outs.
Those were followed by a three-play, 75-yard touchdown drive that included a 12-yard completion to wideout Jahan Dotson and a 31yard pitch-and-catch to wide receiver KJ Hamler. Running back Journey Brown polished it off with a tackle-busting 32-yard touchdown run to give Penn State a 7-3 lead.
By the time Penn State got the ball back for its fourth possession, Memphis had scored twice more to make it 13-7. That’s when the Nittany Lions hit the ground running, literally.
The rest of the first half, Penn State ran for 225 yards and three touchdowns, extending its lead to 28-13 at one point, before trading touchdowns and a Tigers field goal made it 35-23 at halftime.
“I would say our first run, I just seen it open, how open it was and what the coaches were preaching all week and what they were saying all week, that it actually, when you believe in the coaches, they know what they’re talking about,” Brown said. “So since the first run, I would say, I knew that it was gonna be open all game for us.”
The scoring slowed a bit in the second half with Memphis scoring a touchdown to start the third quarter before the Tigers hit two field goals, and the Nittany Lions made one to bring it to 38-36.
Then, Parsons arrived, placing Penn State firmly in control.
Memphis hung around for a bit in the fourth quarter, but an interception by Penn State freshman cornerback Marquis Wilson sealed the game late in the fourth quarter.
The result of a game like this was some impressive stat lines. Each team had more than 500 yards of offense. Brown finished with 202 yards and two touchdowns on 16 carries, setting a school record for the most rushing yards in a bowl game. The team as a whole ran for 396 yards, with all four of its running backs, Brown, Ricky Slade, Noah Cain and Devyn Ford, enjoying highlights.
In a game so littered with offensive explosiveness — Memphis totaled 542 yards of offense with 479 passing yards — arguably the best player in the game was a defender.
Parsons finished with 14 tackles, 2 sacks, 3 tackles for a loss, 2 pass break-ups, 1 quarterback hit and 2 forced fumbles.
“As much as I mature in little things I may do, when I go out there, people know there’s a certain level of competitiveness that’s in me,” Parsons said. “They’d be like, ‘[Parsons] is gonna make that
play.’ You’ve gotta be able to have that on and off switch, and I think there’s elite-level guys who have it, to be able to bring that competitiveness out, so all week I’ve been trying to prepare myself for this, and hopefully it’s starting to trend in the right direction for me.”
All that, and he had the defining play of the game, as his near-sack turned pick-6 gave Penn State the lead it needed.