PASADENA – So much for Penn State’s defensive prowess.
The Nittany Lions, their defense ranked fifth in the nation, had the stage (the Rose Bowl in Pasadena) and spotlight (the first Bowl Championship Series game of the season) to show the rest of the nation it belonged among the collegiate football powers.
Instead, the defense folded like a cheap suit, committing costly penalties that allowed USC to run away with a 38-24 win on a picturesque New Year’s Day in the 95 th Rose Bowl.
Entering the game, Penn State had given up only 263.4 yards per game and had allowed no more than 24 points this season (a 24-23 loss to Iowa and a 38-24 victory over Illinois). Furthermore, the Nittany Lions held five teams to 10 points or under and only 168 yards passing.
So what exactly happened?
Penalties, penalties, penalties. Four, to be exact.
USC scored on its last four possessions to end the first half en route to 31 first-half points, all but hammering the final nail in the coffin. USC’s 31 first-half points were the sixth-most in a half of a Rose Bowl game and the third-highest point total in the opening 30 minutes.
In all four scoring drives, Penn State committed crucial penalties that fueled the Trojans’ drive that potentially would have halted them.
There was Aaron Maybin’s offsides call that negated a fumble by Mark Sanchez and recovered by Ollie Ogbu at the Trojans 34. Eight plays later, Sanchez connected with Damian Williams for a 27-yard touchdown pass to give USC a 7-0 lead it would not relinquish. A personal foul on Anthony Scirrotto for pushing USC’s Tony Davis out of bounds after he caught a 10-yard pass that moved the chains.
But not even three straight incomplete passes by Sanchez would stop USC from scoring, padding a 14-7 lead with a 30-yard field goal from David Buehler to make it 17-7.
The long night continued. An offsides call fueled six more plays capped by a 19-yard touchdown pass to Ronald Johnson with 1:24 left in the second quarter, and a face mask penalty on first and 10 at the Nittany Lions 44 moved the ball to the Penn State 20.
That would be all the room Sanchez would need to connect with C.J. Cable to give USC a 31-7 lead at the half.
USC’s offense, as inconsistent as it’s been all season, played well particularly in the trenches which gave Sanchez sufficient time in the pocket to throw precise passes.
“We were playing against what I thought was as good a football team as it was in the country regardless of whether they were playing for the national championship or not,” Penn State coach Joe Paterno said, “and I thought that we were playing against the best. We had to play our best game to be competitive with them. We didn’t play our best game the first half.”
The halftime stats didn’t bode well for Penn State. They allowed nearly 350 yards in total offense to USC who capitalized on its four trips in the red zone. Sanchez completed 28 of 35 passes for 413 yards with four touchdowns and no interceptions. His four touchdown passes was the most given up by Penn State in a bowl game ever.
“I don’t know exactly when you say prepare for the quarterback,” Paterno said. “We tried to get a rush on him, we worked awfully hard to take away some of the routes they had a lot of success on and overall we did a good job on that.
“But we didn’t do enough a job rushing him. (Sanchez) played really well and I thought their offensive line played as well as I’ve seen them play in the pass protection area.”
With stellar running back Joe McKnight sitting out the better part of the first half and the entire second, USC opted for the pass and found success.
“We have all kinds of offense,” USC coach Pete Carroll said. “We did that without Joe (McKnight) in there. I thought you saw the kind of offense we needed to win this football game. For the most part we had to throw the ball to win the game, having that kind of flexibility showed up today.”
Penn State’s Lydell Sargeant, a 5-foot-10 cornerback, didn’t think the mismatch with USC’s much-taller receivers was the difference.
“The size difference wasn’t the reason why they were completing passes,” he said. “A 4-foot-10 guy could catch some of the passes that Mark (Sanchez) was throwing.
“Like I said, they tried to go on top a couple times and weren’t successful, so the size difference didn’t really matter in this game.”
That’s for certain. Williams stands only 6-foot-1 but to further drive home the notion that Sanchez was playing his best, Williams caught 10 passes for 162 yards.
“It’s nothing that we haven’t seen before,” Sargeant added. “Just that they were mistake-free. Mark did a good job throwing to the receivers that were open and (did a good job) reading our coverages.”