Therapeutic. Cathartic.
Whatever that was, it was needed.
In a White Out, Penn State provided some much needed stress relief in a relatively stress-free victory over Washington.
In fact, there wasn’t much to stress about. There wasn’t a moment that felt like this one was going to get uncomfortable. Penn State was dominant for much of the evening that there really wasn’t much to worry about.
This felt like a change of pace.
After last year’s first loss of the season – also to Ohio State — the Nittany Lions struggled with Indiana before sealing a victory late on a deep throw from Drew Allar.
And entering 2024’s first post-loss game, an underlying anxiousness lingered that Washington might not make it easy for Penn State.
Yet that anxiousness was proven unfounded.
Allar looked confident and poised as he helped Penn State march down the field, scoring four times on four possessions before halftime. There were strong throws. There were cohesive drives. There were even short goal-to-go conversions featuring snaps to Tyler Warren, the play that might have turned last weekend’s outcome different.
Repeatedly, Allar connected with Harrison Wallace as the wide receiver many projected to be the No. 1 looked like the No. 1, racking up 85 yards across five catches. Julian Fleming, the once-highly-sought-after-recruit-turned-Ohio-State transfer, finally scored his first touchdown in Beaver Stadium, too.
On offense it was a confident effort that seemed to be a correction from last week’s dilapidated attack.
In total, Penn State picked up 486 yards, including 266 on the ground. Plagued by third down conversions a week ago, Penn State went 10-for-13, including 7-for-7 last week. It served as a much more rounded performance.
Penn State’s defense, too, complimented those anxiety-reducing efforts, stifling the Huskies to just 193 yards.
The Huskies never greatly threatened to score, either, as Penn State forced three field goal attempts, including a tone-setting doink and miss on the game’s opening drive.
Individually, linebacker turned defensive end Abdul Carter has fully settled into his role as promising defensive end, recording two sacks and four tackles for a loss.
It was a confident effort from a team needing that confident effort for a multitude of reasons.
While last week’s loss to Ohio State felt like a setback, there’s still much left on the table for Penn State, and even if it is a misnomer over recent years, Penn State teams haven’t risen to the occasion after losses.
Further, Penn State has not put together a clean, mostly full effort against more challenging opponents in a while. Sure, Washington is not the Washington of last year but Washington also isn’t Kent State. If you’ve bought into the theory that Penn State has taken care of business when it’s supposed to, it’s nice to see a resounding effort in one of those situations.
After all, that’s what good teams do.
Penn State has seemingly been stuck in this general purgatory where it can’t fix its problems right now. But it can make them worse. It didn’t and instead, that leaves chances to fix those opportunities on the table, too.
As Penn State enters the final quarter of its regular season, it’ll be challenged to do so three more times in order to keep those big picture goals in place – and continue to keep your nerves calm.
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