That isn't the Penn State the preview described. Last week against Purdue, the Nittany Lions ran for 269 yards and leaned on Cam Wallace. In Seattle they ran for 167, and the passing game carried the half. The box score lists Wallace among the team leaders, but the reporting we found doesn't give his line, so he wasn't the story of this one. Penn State finished with 407 total yards to Washington's 306. With Rosa, Granville and Armstead all out, the Nittany Lions needed their offense to build a cushion, and it did.
Washington's big question was Demond Williams Jr., back from the fractured rib he suffered at halftime against Iowa. The 1st half answered it badly: 6 points, 2 field goals, and no touchdowns behind a patched-up line with both top running backs out. Williams led the 2nd-half push, but the coverage we found doesn't include his stat line. What the line score does show is a quarterback who got sharper as the day went on, after the hole was already 22 points deep.
The comeback was real. Washington scored 11 in the 3rd and 8 in the 4th while Penn State put up 0 and 0, and the 8-point quarter means the Huskies had to convert 2-point tries just to get within reach. That's what chasing looks like. The offense that couldn't finish drives in the 1st half finished them in the 2nd, and the defense shut out a team that had just scored 28. Becht and Carson Hansen ended it with a late drive that kept the ball away from Washington, about the only thing Penn State's offense did after halftime and the only thing it needed to do.
Both teams are now 5-4 and 2-4 in the Big Ten, which pretty much sums up how evenly matched they were. Penn State has won 2 straight after 3 losses in a row, and Matt Campbell has his first Big Ten winning streak, even if the Nittany Lions nearly gave this one back. Washington's 2-game road winning streak ended in its own building, where it has lost all 3 home games in this 5-game stretch. The Huskies won the second half 19-0, and that will sting for a while because it shows how close they were.
