Penn State Football: Position grades versus Michigan State

A last second loss against Michigan State dropped Penn State to 4-2 on the season.

After two weeks of trying to analyze what other teams needed to do for Penn State to make the College Football Playoff, the Nittany Lions’ chances to make it moved to 0% on Saturday afternoon.

It all happened almost identically to the 2017 season, and Penn State couldn’t seem to move the needle this season. In 2017, Penn State lost to Ohio State by one point, and then Michigan State by three. In 2018, Penn State lost to Ohio State by one point, and then Michigan State by four.

The main difference, is that in 2018, both games were at home, which makes this even worse. Penn State also had two weeks to prepare for Michigan State this season, which makes this loss so puzzling.

The game plan seemed to be lacking tremendously, and there seemed to be an extremely low amount of energy from the players. That’s not what you expected, especially after what we were hearing from the players and coaches throughout the last two weeks.

It should be an interesting rest of the season, as the Nittany Lions likely need to win out in order to play in a New Years Six Bowl game.