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Penn State Survives a Scare Against Bowling Green

Tagged under: District 6, News, Penn State, Pennsylvania Colleges

| September 7, 2024

Photo Credit: Paul Burdick

Photo Credit: Paul Burdick

Generally, State College is a peaceful mountain town with great outdoor activities. Today, there was a different outdoor activity, Penn State Football.

In week 1, PSU dominated WVU en route to a 34-12 win on the road. After the stellar performance, many fans and media alike believe this year will be different, in a good way. Even in a conference with Oregon, Michigan, and Ohio State, Penn State has aspirations to come out of the BIG 10 and play for a National Championship. Today, however, did not go according to plan for PSU. Although not a conference game this week against Bowling Green, Penn State can not take the Falcons of Bowling Green lightly.

Not many consider the Mid-American Conference (MAC) to be a premier conference in College Football, but there are new opportunities this year. In the 12-team playoff, one Group of 5 team is guaranteed to make the playoff this year. For the first time, a Group of 5 team has a realistic shot to make noise in the playoff. Today, Bowling Green sure made noise

Bowling Green came out strong, marching down the field right away, and scored on their first drive. A once electric atmosphere at kickoff for Penn State was shrunk to a quiet cry. Last week, Penn State trailed 3-0 early but found a way to respond early and were in control of the week 1 contest. This week, it took them a little longer to find a dominant point in the game.

After the Bowling Green score, Penn State did march down and answer themselves. Drew Allar took this run to tie PSU at 7 with Bowling Green.

After one quarter, Bowling Green led 10-7

Typically in these upset potential games, the better team shows why they are the better team and runs away with it in the last three quarters, after a little magic by the underdogs in quarter one. Early into the 2nd quarter, it was clear Bowling Green was not going away. Connor Bazelak, who was poised all day, found Malcolm Johnson and Bowling Green led 17-7. The fans were getting restless. Boos started to rain across Beaver Stadium. Bowling Green had ruined Penn State’s party.

Penn State took the next drive and looked motivated. In just three plays, PSU marched down and scored within a minute. Allar to Evans allowed Penn State to continue to keep up. The Nittany Lions did a great job keeping up with Bowling Green in the first half. The problem, however, is the fact Penn State was the one trying to keep up with Bowling Green, not the other way around.

As the Nittany Lions got a stop, Bowling Green took over and didn’t blink. Jamal Johnson busted through the hole, found a gap, and scored.

Bowling Green led 24-20 at the half. Beaver Stadium was silent. It was an anxious, nervous silence that the possibility of losing as a 4+ TD favorite was in the cards. But unlike Notre Dame, Penn State woke up in the 2nd half.

The First half saw 44 points put up on the scoreboard, there would only be 13 scored in the 2nd half. After the two teams traded possessions, Drew Allar found Nick Singleton for a score and gave PSU the lead.


Penn State used that dominant defense and rode that throughout the 2nd half to squeak out a 34-27 win.

This is a scare, no doubt. Penn State could not stop the run consistently against a non-Power 4 team, that is a cause for concern. Drew Allar made mistakes, including turnovers and dumb sacks, but he stayed poised and delivered big throws when they needed him most. In an era of constant change in College Football, having a third-year QB who has stayed with the same program is a huge advantage. Safe to say, if this was any team Penn State needed to beat down the stretch, this game would’ve been a blowout.

Bowling Green had their way with the Penn State defense throughout the first half. Time and again, the Falcon’s offensive line was dominating the prestigious PSU defensive line. A huge reason for the excess success in the first half was the great 1-st down running to set up favorable down-and-distance. West Virginia had fewer yards in the game last week than Bowling Green had through two quarters. The 2nd half told a different story, as Bowling Green scored just three points, and could not move the ball.

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