Sunday Column: Soul-Crushing Defeat The Latest – Not The Last – Chapter in Nittany Lions 2024 Story. Welcome To Modern College Football!

This playoff stuff is crazy, man.

For the second time in two months, Penn State lost its game of the season … and yet it still has a chance to play for the national championship.

For the second time in two months, the Nittany Lions looked like they belonged on the biggest stage of the college game and had a few tantalizing moments where victory was allllllmost in their grasp. And for the second time in two months, they made enough mistakes to watch a signature win slip through their fingers.

And while the manner in which the Lions lost this particular game might sting, when you look back and you consider the correctly called but boneheaded penalties and the incorrectly called or non-called penalties and the turnovers and the missed tackles and the inability to capitalize on the big M Momentum, it ultimately accomplished the second of Penn State’s major priorities for the evening.

1. Win the game. X
2. Don’t get blown out. √

The one-score loss in a game in which the top-ranked Ducks threatened to pull away on more than one occasion means the Lions SHOULD be able to hold onto one of the 5-8 seeding spots and get that home playoff game that basically everyone thought would happen until Michigan played spoiler last week. And, as many people have pointed out, the path through the playoffs might actually be easier via the 5 or 6 seed than it might have been through the 1 seed, even with the bye. In what should be undoubtedly the most intriguing chase for the national championship in the sport’s history, Penn State has as good a shot at being the last team standing as anyone, even the very talented team they just lost to.

So … there’s that, anyway.

But if you want to sit and wallow in this one first, by all means, there is plenty of slop to go around. The Nittany Lions’ outstanding defense got jumped on the first possession of the game and, aside from a couple of three-and-outs, never really regained their footing, as they had after so many sluggish starts throughout the season. Scheme-wise, the Ducks smartly neutralized Abdul Carter and a potent Penn State pass rush by running the ball and getting it out of Dillon Gabriel’s hand quickly. More than that, though, they punched back at a defense that had bullied every team it had faced this season, and kept punching.

That allowed a Ducks defense that had been excellent all season long but was utterly gashed by Penn State’s running attack to barely, just barely, keep the Lions at arm’s length. Penn State got 105 yards from Nick Singleton, 124 from Kaytron Allen and even 54 yards and a tuddie from Drew Allar, whose legs served him better than his arm during a wild second half after he made several big-time throws—a few of which were dropped—during an almost-as-wild first half. The offensive line was terrific in both the run and the pass game against a very good Ducks front, Harrison Wallace turned in arguably his best game of a mostly quiet season, and Tyler Warren was once again that dude, but the offense, as it often has in 2024, left as much meat on the bone as it put in its stomach.

In one sense, this game was kind of like the last time these teams met, when the losing team out-gained the winning team yardage-wise but couldn’t quite pull even, and a bit like the 2017 Rose Bowl, when early mistakes proved too much for Penn State to ultimately overcome in an otherwise strong performance.

The theme on both sides of the ball, and even on special teams, was the major theme from the regular season: Inconsistency. Even when the defense looked like it was about to finally get a stop, there was a dumb face-mask penalty, or a defensive back allowing an Oregon receiver to get just enough separation for big catch and a third- or fourth-down conversion. On offense, Allar had some utterly ridiculous throws, stringing passes through tight windows just before a certain sack, but had just as many less difficult throws that didn’t even give his receiver a chance to make a play. The game-deciding interception was probably one part that, one part of the lack of wideout playmaking elephant that sat in the room all season, and one part Andy Kotelnicki’s eyes getting a little bigger than his stomach (and one part uncalled defensive holding, but you can find that column six other places this morning).

Throw in another missed kick from Ryan Barker, and Penn State fans can head into their next game feeling confident about this team’s vast potential, which we saw bits and pieces of yet again Saturday, and at the same time, anxious about the self-destructive tendencies that started in September and have continued right on through to early December. The Nittany Lions were pretty much who they’ve been all season, which is a team that plants itself firmly on the threshold of greatness, only to watch other teams actually enjoy the greatest wins.

Even after another defeat that felt like a knockout, they’ll have at least one more chance to cross that threshold.