The Funding Zone
 
SAFR: Safer Through Science
 
 
Ville Billys
Centre WISP
 

Penn State Throttles Kent State to Earn Shutout Win

Tagged under: Penn State, Pennsylvania Colleges, pfn

| September 21, 2024

After a bye week, Penn State was back in action this Saturday afternoon as they dominated the Kent State Golden Flashes.

  The last time the Nittany Lions took the field, they just escaped with a win. Bowling Green gave them everything they could handle for 60-minutes. This time around, Penn State was not going to allow an inferior foe to hang around. 

  Entering the game, Penn State was a near 50-point favorite. The expectation was that Kent State could not hang with the Nittany Lions, and they couldn’t. 

  So far this year for Penn State, it’s been up and down. At times, they look like a top 5 team in the nation. Also at times, they look like they don’t deserve to be ranked. Drew Allar drew criticism after a red zone INT against Bowling Green in a close affair. Today, however, he was much more in control and Penn State greatly benefited from it. Entering the game, Penn State was a top-25 unit in both rushing yards per game and rushing attempts per game. It’s been clear Penn State wants to dominate on the ground and did so today. 

  Defensively for PSU, it’s been a Rollercoaster. On one hand, they play like the best defense in the country in sprouts. On the other hand, they give up big plays against Mid-American Conference (MAC) teams. Today, they looked like the great defense they were touted to be.

  Entering the game, Kent State was ranked 134 out of 134 in many eyes based on their abysmal start to the 2024 campaign. They are, however, experienced in traveling to power-4 programs this year. This is their third game at a power-4 team ( Tennessee, Pittsburgh). In those contests, they have been outscored 126-24, including a 71-0 loss last week at Rocky Top. Outside of their tough road games, they also lost to a Saint Francis squad that had never won a game against a D-1 FBS program. Safe to say, gone are the days of Julian Edelman and James Harrison. In are the days of losing, by a lot.

  Whether it be the rain 2 weeks ago, or the expected nice weather today, Beaver Stadium looked more packed than it was 2 weeks ago. As always, the Penn State crowd made noise, affecting the Kent State offense. 

  As Penn State was expecting an easy, no-sweat blowout, they had to earn it today. The game started out with both offenses struggling to get the ball moving. On just the second play of the game, Kent State QB Devin Kargman was walloped. The crowd soon realized the injury was serious. After a few silent minutes, Kargman was rolled off on a stretcher.

   It was not until the 2:38 mark in the 1st quarter that Penn State would find the endzone as Drew Allar found one of the nation’s finest Tight Ends in Tyler Warren for a 16-yard score. 

  Penn State’s defense was stout all first half. Time and again, Kent State was unable to find any success. Just over halfway into the 2nd half, and Nick Singleton caught a pass from Penn State’s starting Tight End Tyler Warren. In the first have, Warren had a receiving TD of his own, and a passing TD, a jack-of-all-trades first half from the potential All-American. 

  With just 1-minute remaining in the opening half, Drew Allar executed a clinical drive and took it in himself to give Penn State a 28-0 lead at half. 

  Everything was flowing right. In the first half, Kent State had just 41 yards of total offense. Penn State’s offense had 396 first-half yards, and they were clicking. Albeit against a poor defense, Allar played one of his best halves of Football as he had 250 yards and 2TDs. 

  To start the 2nd half, Penn State came out swinging. In under 2 minutes, they found the endzone on a 59-yard Drew Allar TD to Omari Evans, 35-0 Penn State. 

  At this point, Penn State had done enough to secure their third win. Once the final horn sounded Penn State had won 56-0. This game also marked the most yards in a single game in Penn State Football history with 718.

  The bye week seemed to do wonders for the Nittany Lions. It’s hard to pinpoint an area of struggle in this game. They were electric on offense all game, in both the run and pass. Defensively, they swarmed Kent State seemingly every play. Speaking on the win, James Franklin said, “ School record 718 yards, 409 yards passing, 309 yards rushing, a school record for first downs. Defense only gave up 67 yards, the 8th fewest since 1947. I love how we managed the clock to end the first half. We were more efficient on offense, I think we were 80% on third down, we didn’t do a great job with the turnover battle, that was probably the one bad thing.” Penn State welcomes in Illinois next week at 7:30 PM EST

  It’s yet another loss for Kent State, and they finish out of conference play at 0-4. They open up MAC play home against Eastern Michigan.

NICHOLAS SINGLETON INTERVIEW

 

PHOTO CREDIT TO PAUL BURDICK

Follow PA Football News on Twitter @PaFootballNews

 
 
QwikCut
 
GoRout
 
Sports Paradise
 
Football Legends board game
 
 
x