Penn State Football: Week Nine Review and Week 10 Preview

Week Nine Review

In their closest game of the season, Penn State earned their first win in Columbus as a member of the Big Ten conference on Saturday.  They couldn’t have picked a better time to finally win one at Ohio State, as this win solidified the Nittany Lions as an indisputable national title contender.

Penn State showed the ability to come from behind, overcome a key injury, force key turnovers, and win in a hostile environment all in one game as they defeated the Buckeyes by a score of 13-6 in front of a national audience.

I had originally predicted PSU to lose this game by a score of 27-12 in my article at the beginning of the summer.  I then modified this prediction last week to have Penn State losing by only a margin of 31-27.  Luckily, both of my predictions were way off.

In my analysis for my Week Nine preview last week, I mentioned that the game would probably come down to which team would get a key turnover at the end of the game.  Since Ohio State was the home team with lots of experience everywhere except the quarterback position, I figured that it would be Penn State turning the ball over in a key situation.

However, it was exactly the opposite.

With Penn State trailing by a score of 6-3, Ohio State had a third and short in their own territory close to midfield.  The Buckeyes turned to their athletic and highly touted freshman quarterback Terrelle Pryor to run to the edge for the first down.

However, he was met behind the line of scrimmage by Nittany Lion safety Mark Rubin, who simultaneously wrapped up Pryor and poked the ball loose.  The ball bounced around in the Buckeye backfield as the PSU defense saw their opportunity to take a victory in a game they had played so well in.

Penn State players blocked out Ohio State players and batted the ball until finally big-play linebacker Navarro Bowman successfully recovered the fumble.

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