Bowl bid up next after win by Lions
TE Johnson snags 2 TD receptions
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Tight end Theo Johnson set a new career-high with two touchdown catches as Penn State earned its 10th win of the year in a 35-16 victory against Michigan State on Saturday evening at Beaver Stadium.
“Our tight ends had a big night for us,” James Franklin said postgame. “That’s kind of been a theme pretty much all year long.”
Johnson’s first touchdown catch, which was his third of the year, was made possible by blown coverage by the Spartans’ secondary, came on a 3rd-and-8. Quarterback Sean Clifford had a number of open receivers to choose from and elected to throw to Johnson for an 11-yard score in the first quarter.
Johnson’s second touchdown catch came on a trick play in the second quarter; Clifford threw a backward pass to wide receiver KeAndre Lambert-Smith, who played some quarterback in high school. Lambert-Smith then delivered a 48-yard strike downfield to Johnson, who waltzed into the end zone untouched. Clifford was impressed by LambertSmith’s throw and called his form “superb.”
“I was like ‘Dude, I already have the other quarterbacks on me, they’re trying to take my job,’” Clifford said while holding back a
laugh. “You don’t have to join them.”
Just before halftime, Michigan State got on the board with a 51-yard field goal.
Fellow tight end Tyler Warren had a great sequence halfway through the third quarter. He recovered a fumble by Spartans wideout Jayden Reed on a punt return and two plays later, Clifford connected with Warren for his second receiving touchdown in as many weeks.
Michigan State tight end Maliq Carr was on the receiving end of quarterback Payton Thorne’s sole touchdown pass of the night in the waning seconds of the third quarter, linking up for a 9yard score.
After Thorne capped off an 11-play drive with a 2yard rushing touchdown that trimmed Penn State’s lead to 21-16, Clifford led Penn State on an 11-play, 75yard drive that burned more than six minutes of clock and ended with Clifford and running back Nicholas Singleton connecting for a 12yard touchdown pass.
Cornerback Kalen King’s interception was followed by Clifford throwing his fourth touchdown pass of the game to Lambert-Smith to put the game on ice.
“I’m proud of him,” Franklin said of LambertSmith, who had a team-high five catches for 83 yards in addition to his touchdown. “It hasn’t always gone easy for him, but he’s really been resilient and battled through it.”
Fourth-down forte
Penn State has gone for it on fourth down more often than most teams in the country this season, doing so a whopping 29 times. But instead of going for it on Singleton’s touchdown, Penn State could have kicked a field goal to up its lead to eight points with less than five minutes to play. Kicker Jake Pinegar had already missed two field goal attempts, though, with one being from 37 yards and the other from 28 yards out. “Going for it on 4th-and-2, I don’t know if necessarily the coaching manual would have said that that was the right thing to do,” Franklin said. “But, kind of how the game was playing out and missing some field goals early in the game, I just thought that was the right thing to do, to be aggressive there.”
The Nittany Lions finished the regular season 21 for 29 on fourth down conversions, good for a 72.4%
success rate.
Up next
Penn State’s regular season concluded, which means the next time the Nittany Lions will be in action will be for their bowl game, wherever it will be. Due to the result in Saturday’s Michigan-Ohio State game, which ended in a 45-23 win by the Wolverines, and Clemson’s 31-30 loss to rival South Carolina, Penn State has an outside shot at the Rose Bowl if both participants of “The Game” make the College Football Playoff.
Should the Buckeyes, who were ranked No. 2 in the latest College Football Playoff rankings, fall outside of the top four, though, Ohio State would likely secure a berth in the Rose Bowl. In that scenario, Penn State’s remaining options for a bowl game include the Citrus Bowl, Cotton
Bowl and Orange Bowl, with the Citrus Bowl being the mostlikely of the three.
Taking place in Orlando, the Citrus Bowl would pit Penn State against a team from the SEC. Among the squads the Nittany Lions could face in a hypothetical CitrusBowl are Ole Miss, LSU and Mississippi State. In the current world of college football where some bowl games outside of the College Football Playoff have lost their significance, Franklin believes many of them still serve a purpose.
“I think it’s still important to go to the biggest and the best games you possibly can in the postseason,” Franklin said. “Whether that is a New Year’s Six bowl game or whatever,there’s still value in it.”