Penn State hosted its first B1G opponent of the year last night in Rutgers, and here’s how it went:
0 sacks allowed
330 rushing yards
28 points on the board
In other words.. It was a pretty good night to be a Nittany Lion and the Stripe out was pretty cool.
The offense manufactured four scoring drives, all rushing scores (2 by Barkley, 1 by Lynch, 1 by Thompkins). The defense was stellar only giving up a fourth quarter field goal while punishing Rutgers QB Chris Laviano who was sacked 5 times and intercepted twice.
Freshman running back Saquon Barkley backed up his impressive performance last week with an even better one this week. The frosh rushed for 196 yards and 2 TDs, seemingly single handedly beating Rutgers. The youngster will be exciting for years to come if he keeps up this pace. Junior Akeel Lynch wasn’t half bad either rushing for 120 yards with a 75 yard touchdown run.
Quarterback Christian Hackenberg was given plenty of time in the pocket last night and did look more comfortable. He was 10-19 for 141 yards with a pick. Hackenberg just can’t get the ball into the end zone and last night it didn’t hurt the team because of the success of the running backs and it was pouring rain for 3 quarters of the game. His passes did look more crisp and Daesean Hamilton had 5 catches for 86 yard.
The defense did allow 250 passing yards, but they had constant pressure and suffocating run defense. Carl Nassib and Austin Johnson both had big games while John Reid and Grant Haley both had picks.
Penn State wins 28-3
Overall it was a pretty solid first conference win for the Nittany Lions and hopefully they continue to improve against SDSU next week.
The Kicker:
Saquon Barkley was once a Rutgers commit.
Add The Sports Daily to your Google News Feed!
