Things were not going well for Penn State for the entire first half of Saturday’s game against Buffalo.
The offense was sputtering, the defense couldn’t get off the field, and the Nittany Lions were booed as they ran into the locker room at halftime, losing, 10-7.
Even on the first possession of the third quarter, Penn State started to show offensive signs of life, but running back Ricky Slade fumbled in the Bulls’ territory to halt momentum.
Then, with one play, everything flipped.
Buffalo quarterback Matt Myers dropped back on a long third down, looked to his left and let it fly directly into the hands of Nittany Lions cornerback John Reid, who had jumped the out route. Reid didn’t have to do anything else except run, taking it 37 yards to the house as Beaver Stadium erupted.
“It was definitely important just to kind of change the momentum around in the game,” Reid said after the game. “I knew, just, as a corner, you just do your job throughout the game, you’re gonna have one of those plays where you can make a play on the ball. So, I’m glad I was able to do it.”
The Penn State offense woke up after that, as quarterback Sean Clifford aired it out more frequently and led the Nittany Lions on three consecutive touchdown drives. Penn State, despite having fewer total yards and less time of possession, cruised to a 45-13 win.
“We have a lot of weapons, which I’m really excited about, across the board,” Clifford said. “... I think across the board we played really well at wide receiver. I thought in the first half, I needed to give guys a little bit better chances. I missed a couple reads. But overall, I’m proud of our guys. A win’s a win.”
Those three straight touchdown drives saw the Nittany Lions clicking on all cylinders.
On the first, they took over with a short field thanks to a big punt return from KJ Hamler and an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty on the Bulls. The very next play, Clifford faked a handoff, stepped up and found tight end Pat Freiermuth wide open over the middle for a 23-yard score, increasing the lead to 21-10.
Buffalo answered with a field goal to draw closer, but Clifford showed off again — this time with his legs.
On a 2nd-and-4, Clifford faked another handoff, then took off to his left, up the Penn State sideline. He ran away from a few players in the Bulls’ secondary and looked to be free to prance into the endzone, but he was tripped up just short. Running back Noah Cain punched it in from there.
“I need to pick up my feet,” Clifford half-joked after the game. “I was cramping a little bit, but yeah I need to pick up my feet to get into the endzone. That’s unacceptable.”
Finally, the last drive in the streak of possessions with a touchdown looked destined to end in a field goal. The Nittany Lions had a 4th-and-2 in Buffalo territory, well within the range of kickers Jordan Stout and Jake Pinegar. But Penn State was ready to put an exclamation point on this one.
Clifford once again ran play action and flipped a pass out to Freiermuth. The tight end reached out a hand, plucked the ball out of the air and turned up field, scampering 23 yards into the endzone.
After a Penn State field goal on the next drive, the night was appropriately capped off with a 56-yard bomb from Clifford to wide receiver Jahan Dotson with just over three minutes remaining in the game. It was the duo’s second touchdown combination of the game, as they also linked up in the first half for a 28-yard score.
For as easy as things seemed from the final score, the first half was anything but.
The Nittany Lions simply couldn’t get things going offensively, and the defense was having its own troubles against the slow, methodical Bulls offense.
By the time halftime rolled around, Buffalo had run 46 plays for 270 yards, possessing the ball for 21:28. Conversely, Penn State only had the ball for 8:32, running 20 plays for 82 yards.
Even still, the Nittany Lions bent but didn’t break. At one point, the Bulls went on a 19-play, 69-yard drive that ate up over eight minutes of clock. But that possession ended in a meager field goal that cut the lead to 7-3.
It wasn’t until there were 14 seconds left in the first half that Buffalo took the lead on a 6-yard pass from Myers to tight end Julien Bourassa.
Moments later, the teams were trotting into the locker room, and the boos from Penn State’s fans cascaded onto the field.
By the end of the game, that was a distant memory. As John Reid ran into the endzone, the momentum of the game came with him. The Nittany Lions seized hold of the game in the blink of an eye and secured a 2-0 record in the process.
“We always know we have to come out fast, and we just have to go back to the film and look at the things we need to improve on and make the corrections,” Reid said. “It didn’t hurt us tonight, but it could hurt us down the road.”
First Published: September 8, 2019, 3:04 a.m.
Updated: September 8, 2019, 3:04 a.m.
