Outback Bowl Review

The Nittany Lions finally turned potential into reality by beating Tennessee 20 – 10 in the Outback bowl January 1st. The Vols were held to their lowest point total all season, QB Erik Ainge threw his first interception since Oct. 21st, and WR Robert Meachem was held to 4 catches for just 33 yards.

Offense
Without a doubt, Anthony Morelli had the best game of his career throwing for 197 yards and a touchdown without a pick. Heisman numbers no, but his play was nearly flawless. His completions weren’t as impressive as his incompletions; often he refused to throw passes into coverage instead opting to just throw the ball away and live to fight another down. Color commentator and former Lion Todd Blackledge said it best – learning to throw the ball away is one of the toughest things for a young quarterback. Morelli completed 14 of his 25 attempts and you can attribute 4 or 5 of those incompletions to dropped balls and two specific plays where the receivers were hit early before the ball got to them but no fouls were called. Regardless, it was a great day for Morelli; he spread the ball to 7 different receivers and played with a fire that he hasn’t shown all year.


Having an equally good day was Tony Hunt who rushed for 158 yards and wore down the Tennessee defense by the end of the game. With 9:15 to go in the 4th quarter and PSU holding onto a 7 point lead, Penn State got the ball at the Vols 45 yard line. It was classic Tony Hunt time. Hunt got the ball 7 straight times and carried it and the Penn State team down the field to the Tennessee one. The drive stalled but it didn’t matter – Kelly kicked a chip shot field goal and Penn State had a two score advantage and breathing room for a Defense that had allowed only one TD all day. It was the final nail in the coffin and Hunt made it look easy. For his efforts, Hunt was named the Outback Bowl MVP.


Not to be forgotten by any stretch of the imagination was the play of the offensive line. I’ve been a vocal cynic of the offensive line play all season but they finally pulled it together in this game. They gave Morelli time and opened up holes for Hunt. Just imagine if Hunt had this blocking all season. Penn State often went to an unbalanced line and Tennessee didn’t adjust leaving a mismatch of blockers on defenders and Hunt took advantage, much to the chagrin of the helpless Tennessee secondary who were then tasked with stopping Tony.

You will never confuse this offense with the Penn State team of 1994, but for one game they looked like they could do some damage. They completed their longest drive of the season with a touchdown drive of 92 yards in the first half.

Defense
Another game another great performance by the Nits D. Even without Ed Johnson the defense still managed to hold Tennessee to its lowest point total all year. The Vols didn’t study tape enough as they tried to block Jay Alford with one guy early on and Alford was deadly. To their credit they adjusted and did a good job of blocking PSU’s front four the latter half of the ball game. Pos was non-existent in the first half but was his usual self in the second, covering the field, living in the backfield and being a general pain in the ass to the offense. Pos lead the team with 2.5 tackles for loss and ran down speedy Tennessee running back LaMarcus Coker behind the line of scrimmage on one particular signature play. Anthony Scirrotto continues to grow into a force breaking up 2 passes and intercepting another. Connor lead the team in tackles and Sean Lee did his part chipping in on one of PSU’s two sacks. But the play of the game and the turning point came with Tennessee driving, already in Field Goal range. RB Arian Foster was tackled by Sean Lee and the ball came out just before Foster hit the ground where it was scooped up by Tony Davis who raced down the sideline 88 yards to put Penn State up for good.

That was the closest Tennessee got in the second half as Penn State took control and shut the Vols out the rest of the way. It was another fine performance for a unit that only had one bad game (Notre Dame) all season. Pos, Alford, and the rest of the seniors will be missed.

Special Teams
The one negative point of the game was the continued sporadic play of Kevin Kelly. He missed three field goals, two of which were in his range. He did a good job on kickoffs, getting the ball near or in the endzone most of the game. Kick coverage was good and the kick returning was just another day at the office. With the exception of Kelly’s misses, the special teams did their part.

Overall
It was a good win for a team that had a lot to prove. Penn State hadn’t beaten a ranked opponent all year long and some thought their record was inflated at 8-4 but hopefully this game proves the detractors wrong. Those of us living our lives through Blue & White colored glasses always believed this team had this kind of potential but they didn’t show it until now. If only the offensive line blocked like this all season and Morelli made the kind of decisions he made in the Outback Bowl, who knows what could have happened. But I’ll take a solid win over a very good Tennessee team and enjoy the rest of the bowls.

Side note: LaMarcus Coker scored the only Tennessee TD when he raced 42 yards after stiff-arming Sean Lee. After the play they showed Lee on the sideline having what I thought was a nervous breakdown. He was literally freaking out because of the missed tackle. God man, I appreciate that kind of dedication to perfection but it’s ok bud, we love you. We can forgive one missed tackle especially after the kind of kick-ass year you put in, don’t kill yourself over it.