Akron vs. Penn State
Recap
UNIVERSRITY PARK, Pa.--
Christian Hackenberg threw for 319 yards on 22-36 and 3 touchdowns. The
Penn State offense put up over 400 yards of offense and the defense held the
Akron offense to just 277 yards and 3 points. That sounds nice and all but the
offense only managed to score 21 points but it was a lazy 21 points. The first
half started off promising and looked like it could be another record setting
day for Hackenberg and the offense but when they would seem to get something going,
it would stutter and either they would have to punt or the sophomore would make
an errant throw for an interception. At times he looked like the best
quarterback in the country, other times he looked flustered. He did make some
good plays however; he found running back Bill Belton late in the first quarter
for a touchdown, which got the scoring going. He would find his tight end Jesse
James twice for a touchdown. He would also find an Akron defensive back for an
interception twice.
The 3 Penn State turnovers are what kept Akron in the game
but the Penn State defense showed up to play and held the Zips to 3 points.
They were able to get to Akron quarterback Kyle Pohl four times and make some
big stops on third down and twice stop the Zips on fourth down. The defensive
line was able to get Pohl out of the pocket and cause him to try and make plays
on the run. The Akron offense would move the ball but couldn’t complete
anything downfield on the Penn State secondary.
It was a hot day in Happy Valley but the Nittany Lions came
away with a win, a lazy win, but a win nonetheless. The defense proved again
that it could get pressure on the quarterback and disrupt the rhythm. The
offense looked great at times, and looked average at times. Coach James Franklin
needs to find his running game, which only had 106 yards on 31 carries, better
than the 56 it had against Central Florida a week prior. The team will travel
to Rutgers next weekend for an 8pm start against the Scarlet Knights. They will
need to correct some mistakes if they want to come away with a win.
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