Did Penn State Concede Too Soon?

There are probably few people surprised by Penn State’s loss to USC in the Rose Bowl. But one thing does confuse me—why no onside kicks in the fourth quarter?

Sanchez comes up roses

With the score 31-7 at halftime, it made sense to think the game was over. Even I thought PSU should have just gotten on a plane back to Happy Valley, which probably wasn’t very happy at that point, and forget the second half. But when the score board read 38-24—after three scores in approximately ten minutes—with over four minutes left in the game and a timeout remaining, why didn’t the Nittany Lions think they had a shot? To hear Joe Paterno after the loss, he, too, believed the game was over at halftime. Apparently, that never once changed.

But don’t you wonder what might have happened if PSU had tried even just one onside kick? USC’s offense had backed off just enough for PSU to stop them, unlike in the first half. And even though the USC defense kept bringing pressure, PSU quarterback Daryll Clark had adjusted enough to throw accurate passes and score on every drive to that point. Paterno told his players to keep fighting, but apparently “fighting” doesn’t include doing everything in your power to take advantage of a slight chance at overtime.

Even if PSU couldn’t take the Rose Bowl to overtime, what’s the worst that would have happened? USC recovers the onside kick and scores again? Or PSU recovers and goes three and out? PSU fumbles or throws an interception? They kick a field goal, making the final score 38-27? Maybe they score even just one more touchdown, making the final score 38-31? If you truly have no shot of getting back into the game, what do the first three possibilities matter? With the other scenarios, at least the game would have looked even more closer-than-it-was than it already does.

USC offense outshined their defense

It’s pointless to spend time on what might have happened if PSU hadn’t kicked the ball off twice in the fourth quarter. But the reason I even go there is because PSU went all the way out to Pasadena not just to play in the Rose Bowl, but also to prove a point—“We’re not Ohio State. We’re not Illinois. We’re not Michigan. We can play with the big boys.” They said they wanted to prove that point, and they just did not do it. Even though they lost by 14 points instead of by the average 25 or so points that USC normally drops on Big Ten opponents, this is not what people will say when they discuss this latest Big Ten embarrassment. PSU will now be lumped in with the rest of the Big Ten as another team smashed by USC, another huge loss in another boring Rose Bowl blowout, another bad bowl season for the conference, and another example of how slow and awful the Big Ten is. No one will care that PSU outscored USC in the second half, because PSU has nothing to show for it.

Maybe it’s not quite fair to compare PSU to Ohio State, because PSU’s loss was more like the two 14-point beatings Michigan suffered at the hands of USC than OSU’s 41-14 loss to Florida and 35-3 loss to USC. And they scored a lot more on that almighty USC defense than any other team did during the season…which, frankly, ought to now make the question of how good USC’s defense truly was highly legitimate, considering the competition USC faced all season (and I don’t care about the Pac-10 holding a perfect record in this season’s bowl games—wins over Pittsburgh, Miami and even BYU don’t really impress me much).

Still, PSU will not escape the comparisons and the insults…because everyone knows that, after the first quarter, they never made USC sweat.