STATE COLLEGE, Pa. — (AP) — Penn State players know their goal is still within reach.
The No. 6 Nittany Lions (7-1, 4-1 Big Ten, No. 6 CFP) also realize a College Football Playoff berth could slip away if they let last week’s humbling loss to No. 3 Ohio State snowball.
They’re determined to rebound against Washington (5-4, 3-3 Big Ten) in front of a White Out crowd on Saturday.
“We control our own destiny,” quarterback Drew Allar said. “We have a really good team coming into town that’s playing a lot of good ball right now. So it’s going to be a challenge this week for us offensively and we got to step up to the challenge.”
The Huskies aren’t the Buckeyes, but they still pose a threat.
Washington will bring the nation’s second-ranked pass defense and a little swagger to Beaver Stadium, fresh off a late goal-line stand that helped upend Southern California last week.
While Washington stymied the Trojans from the 1 late in the fourth quarter to help snap a two-game losing skid, Penn State was on the other side of a similar situation.
The Nittany Lions ran four plays inside the Ohio State 3 with just over five minutes to play a week ago. Three runs up the middle went nowhere and a fourth-down pass fell incomplete. Ohio State took possession and ran out the clock.
“We got to do some things better scheme-wise, but also we’ve got (to) do a little bit better job fundamentally and technique-wise to make sure we get the movement we need,” Penn State coach James Franklin said.
Receivers wanted
Allar knows this will be a tough matchup for his wide receivers, but he’s determined to get them going this week.
Since tight end Tyler Warren’s 17-catch game against USC on Oct. 12, Penn State’s top three wideouts have combined for only 12 catches in games against Wisconsin and Ohio State.
Liam Clifford and Omari Evans were held without a catch by the Buckeyes and will now line up against a secondary allowing a Big Ten best 142 passing yards per game. Additionally, the Huskies have picked off eight passes this season, including three last week.
“If not the best, they’re one of the best,” Allar said. “They just stick to guys in coverage. So we’re going to have to make contested catches throughout the whole four quarters this weekend.”
Two-headed monster
The Nittany Lions need more from their running game.
Nick Singleton and Kaytron Allen combined for four 100-yard rushing performances to start the year. They’ve failed to eclipse that threshold since.
Ohio State’s physical defense held Singleton to a career-worst 15 yards on six carries while Allen managed only 27 yards on 12 carries.
“We got to get our traditional running game going,” Franklin said. “I think that’s going to be a combination of both still doing some of the heavy stuff, but I think we can expand on some of the spread stuff as well to get some guys out of the box to create more space.”
Rowdy crowd
Washington coach Jedd Fisch has experienced a Beaver Stadium White Out — where nearly all of the 107,000-plus fans wear white and virtually glow under the lights.
Sure, it’s a sight, but the noise that comes with it poses the biggest challenge.
Fisch said he spent time earlier this week showing his players clips from Michigan’s 2015 win in Beaver Stadium when Fisch was part of Jim Harbaugh’s staff.
“I know they’ll be loud,” Fisch said. “We’ve just got to go play ball and try to see if we can play the best game we’ve played all year.”
Managing the load
Fisch has had to monitor running back Jonah Coleman’s workload since the junior was unable to finish a game against Rutgers on Sept. 27.
Following the team’s bye three weeks ago, Coleman has looked better and better. He topped out with a career-high 23 carries against the Trojans. He leads the Huskies with 889 yards on 141 carries and seven touchdowns.
“We needed that bye week for Jonah to get back to as healthy as he could be,” Fisch said. “Our goal is about 20 carries. He had 58 (total) plays in the (USC) game, so not just the carries, but in the pass game. That’s a pretty substantial amount of reps for a running back.”
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