Game 596: Penn State continues slaughter of Maryland, 59-0
College Park, MD – Since 2014, when Maryland co-captains dissed the captains of Penn State’s football team under sanctions at the coin toss to stir up a rivalry by not shaking hands, the Lions have reeled off five straight victories against the Terps after that one-point loss. PSU added insult to injury for that memory last Friday night, 59-0, for the 54th win in 58 games against Maryland. Following a one-point victory by the Lions in 2015, they’ve outscored the Terrapins, 201-20, since.
Fear the Turtle?
Penn State scored on seven of its eight possessions in the first half to lead 38-0 before Maryland’s Marching Band took to the field. Lion QB Sean Clifford scored on his team’s first play from scrimmage following an interception by LB Jan Johnson to place the ball at Maryland’s eight. On the third play of their next possession, Clifford (26 of 31, 398 yards, three TDs, one, INT) connected with KJ Hamler for a 58-yard TD pass.
In the second period, PSU’s dominating and lightning quick defense forced punts four times after only three plays, one after four, and intercepted starting Maryland QB Josh Johnson after a 14-play drive to the five ending there in a pick by DB Tariq Castro-Fields.
That last stop started a 95-yard scoring drive finished off with Ricky Slade’s five-yard run. TE Nick Bowers caught a 15-yarder from Clifford, and RB Journey Brown hauled in another for a 37-yard score on consecutive series. Jake Pinegar finished State’s first half scoring with his 21-yard field goal.
Defense…Defense
As potent as the PSU offense performed, the defense bottled up the Maryland offense from start to finish. In the second half, six of seven Terrapin possessions ended in three plays or less. Guest Game Analyst Brian Donnelly (Towson grad, Terps fan, bigger Navy fan) left our Penn State section before halftime to go sit in the abandoned Maryland student section to sulk in peace by himself. GGA John Massimilla (PSU grad and fan) and I stayed and reveled in the PSU section in front to the Blue Band members that came to support their Lions. The Lion defense allowed only 68 passing yards and only 60 rushing yards on the evening. They seem primed up for Big Ten Conference play.
Spreading the spoils to victory
Six Nittany Lion players rushed for a combined 198 yards. KJ Hamler caught six balls for 108 yards and a TD. Twelve other Lion receivers snagged 23 passes for 313 yards and two TDs. Penn State got their Big Ten East play starting with an explosion. They looked to be firing on all cylinders to start to challenge in upcoming conference play.
Next!
No. 12 Penn State (4-0,1-0) hosts Purdue (1-3,0-1) coming off a 38-31 loss against undefeated Minnesota. Maryland (2-2, 0-1) heads to Rutgers (1-3,0-1), 52-0 losers to Michigan last Saturday. Their Head Coach Chris Ash and his Offensive Coordinator John McNulty were both fired by the school on Sunday. Appropriately, read our Collegefootballfan.com game review from last week following their game versus Boston College.
We stayed at Brian’s house Friday as he slowly recovered from the shock trying to understand why he went with us again to see this match- up. He did the same two years ago in PSU’s 66-3 win over Maryland. He couldn’t stop blaming himself. Great tailgate with he and his wife Laurie and her cousins Deb and Dan and friends, all devout Maryland Terps fans and season ticket holders. Brian drove us there and back so John and I could relax and enjoy after our long rides to Maryland to catch up with him. We look forward to going with him again in 2021. He won’t be caught dead in Penn State. He can’t withstand the traffic after a Penn State home game.
Next stop to stay on track to Game 600 – Philadelphia for a Saturday afternoon at The Linc to see Temple host their old coach Geoff Collins and his Ramblin’ Wrecks from Georgia Tech!