The memories of a Week 4 collapse against Wisconsin at Beaver Stadium were impossible to keep at bay. Penn State led that one 17-0 before falling 24-20 to start a four-game slide to open Big Ten play.
On Saturday in Week 10, Penn State led Washington 28-6 at halftime before giving up 19 unanswered in the second half. Yet, rather than letting it slip away at the end, Matt Campbell’s Nittany Lions slammed the door shut with a 14-play, 70-yard drive to salt away the final 7:40 and escape Husky Stadium with a 28-25 win.
It wasn’t pretty. After dominating the first half with a balanced and explosive offensive attack, the Nittany Lions spun their wheels. Heading into that drive, they had gained just 41 yards on four second-half drives, punting three times and turning it over on downs once.
While the play-calling, at times, remained aggressive, Taylor Mouser’s offense largely went into a shell, just as it did against the Badgers in Week 4.
But with a reimagined downhill run game and a resurgent Carson Hansen, that approach worked because, for all of its warts, this is a different team than the one that started the forgettable four-game losing streak. And now at 5-4, the path to an 8-4 finish in Campbell’s first year at the helm is easy to see.
That’s a statement about the schedule, undoubtedly, but it’s hard to imagine the team that collapsed against Wisconsin handling a final three-game slate against Minnesota, Rutgers, and Maryland with ease. This team might.
Matt Campbell didn’t coach scared in the second half
You can criticize Campbell and Mouser for getting conservative in the second half after attacking downfield to great success before intermission. But really, they didn’t turtle up nearly as much as they did against Wisconsin.
Quarterback Rocco Becht had multiple passes tipped at the line of scrimmage, a recurring issue for the diminutive veteran QB. Running back Cam Wallace had an untimely drop, and Washington found some answers for the run game temporarily. The result was ugly offensive football, but it was more execution than it was philosophy.
I mean, this team went for it on a fourth-and-seven in the second half and called a hook-and-ladder play. You’ll have a hard time convincing me they coached scared.
When Penn State did get conservative was the final drive, coming on the heels of back-to-back Washington touchdowns and two-point conversions, which pulled the Huskies within three. Penn State ran the ball on nine of the 11 plays before going into victory formation around the goal line. That was right out of the Wisconsin second-half playbook. The only difference was that this time it worked.
Penn State’s run game is the reason it closed the door
Penn State’s bye week self-scout paid major dividends. They settled on a smashmouth run-game identity, replacing much of the zone-scheme runs in Mouser’s playbook with duo and gap-scheme runs. That change has yielded great results.
Against a Washington defense that came in ranked No. 22 in the country in rushing success rate and No. 12 in EPA/rush, Penn State generated 0.20 EPA/rush, a 79th percentile outcome, and managed a 13% explosive run rate. Hansen went for 119 yards on 14 carries with five runs of 10+ yards.
Penn State didn’t have a 10-yard run against a Big Ten opponent all season until its Week 9 win over Purdue after the bye week. That’s real improvement, and it allowed Campbell’s team to close out a gutty win.
Would it have been better if Penn State had simply kept Washington at arm’s length in the second half? Of course. But that fourth-quarter drive was a reminder of how different this team has been after the bye week.
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