Three Takeaways From Penn State Football’s 34-27 Win Over Bowling Green

The Nittany Lions [did stuff] against Bowling Green, who started the game pretty well. After the first half, however, the Lions took over. Here are your takeaways.

1: A game to forget

Bowling Green came out guns blazing in their first drive, and immediately scored a touchdown to open the game. The Falcons didn’t even try to run the ball in that first series, and caught the defense napping in the early kickoff. The Lions began to settle in the second quarter, but some ill-timed penalties on the Nittany Lions allowed Bowling Green to get a field goal, then a touchdown. All of a sudden, Bowling Green was up 17-7 early in the second quarter, and would go into the half up four, 24-20.

Halftime adjustments took effect and the Lions held the Falcons to three second half points, allowing them to build enough of a lead finally put the game away in the fourth.

2: Defensive differences

For the last two seasons, the biggest complaint against Manny Diaz’s attacking style was that, while they created a lot of negative plays, they were susceptible to to a big play at any point, most often on critical downs. This defensive approach won’t give up many big plays, instead opting to make teams drive the field. But, watching opponents get first down after first down as they march down the field could become tiresome.

3: What a world we live in

As Bowling Green did almost everything they wanted on offense, we could rest assured that the Nittany Lions own offensive outfit would keep them in the game. That’s not something we would have said last season.

BONUS: Win your clunkers

As frustrating as that performance was from the defense, Penn State clamped down in the second half and finished the game strong. This had all markings of an “anything that can go wrong will go wrong” type of game —penalties, a muffed punt that nearly cost Penn State, defensive breakdowns, you name it. Yet, Penn State found a way to win, and that’s all that matters.