Penn State football entered Saturday afternoon’s game against Maryland on a three-game losing streak. While it was not pretty at times, the Nittany Lions got the job done, defeating the Terrapins 31-14 on the road.
Maryland played tough throughout and tied the game at 14 early in the fourth quarter. However, it was Penn State who scored the last 17 points to pull away.
As it has been the case most of this season, the Nittany Lions relied on their passing game and their bend but not break defense to win this one. The rushing attack looked competent at times but still could not gain much traction. This is against Maryland who has one of the worst rush defenses not only in the Big Ten but all of FBS.
The Penn State defense did give up 419 yards total offense, most of it through the air. They seemed to have problems with Maryland’s up-tempo offense at times. But in the end, the Lions clamped down when they had to, came up with some timely turnovers, and only gave up 14 points. The defense has played well all year and they did exactly what they had to do on Saturday to make sure the team came out with the victory.
Despite the up and down performance at times, Penn State has to be happy to come away with a win for the first time since Oct. 2. There were some great performances by individual Nittany Lions on Saturday. Here are three players deserving a game ball.