College Football Playoff 2017: Case for the Penn State Nittany Lions

Case against Penn State

Penn State’s biggest problem right now is their schedule. They had the opportunity for a big quality win and let it slip. Now they have to rely on things out of their control to get into the playoff.

Their out of conference schedule does not have a quality win. As it stands now, Akron, Pitt and Georgia State are a combined 13-12. If Northwestern and Michigan keep winning, those wins will look better but those are big ifs with the teams remaining on their schedules, especially Michigan.

Notre Dame, Oklahoma and other one loss teams will all be compared to Penn State. Many of those teams have quality wins already under their belt and the Lions do not.

A lesser problem, but something to keep an eye on is how the team looks in games. The playoff committee is looking for the four best teams in the country. While Penn State had been blowing most teams out, when it came to their biggest game, both the offense and defense sputtered. The defense, which had been allowing the least amount of points per game in the country, got shredded by J.T. Barrett and Ohio State’s offense. The offensive line and the play calling were terrible down the stretch. The Lions could not put the game away when they had several opportunities to do so.

Maybe this was an aberration, but is Penn State really the most complete team when they have a game like that? It will be interesting to see how the Lions look in the remaining four games.