11:10. PENN STATE 7, WASHINGTON 0. Penn State is going to struggle against Washington’s dynamite defensive front, and one of the most interesting things about the early going is going to be how the Nittany Lions choose to attack it.
They start with a shovel pass to Saquon Barkley, but it loses a yard. Juwan Johnson drops a hurried pass by Trace McSorley on second down, but Barkley shakes free on third-and-11, taking a short pass 12 yards to move the chains.
That seems to relax PSU. The Nittany Lions enter UW territory with a nine-yard zone-read keeper by McSorley and a 15-yarder from Barkley, and after a couple of short passes lose yardage, McSorley finds DaeSean Hamilton open deep for a 48-yard score. Teams don’t break off 48-yarders on Washington, but Penn State just did.
Two high-octane offenses will face off in this year’s Fiesta Bowl, when the Washington Huskies take on the Penn State Nittany Lions, on Saturday at 4 p.m. ET on ESPN (live stream).
This marks the third time in program history these two teams will meet, with Penn State holding the overall series lead, 2-0. The last meeting was in 1983, in the Aloha Bowl, when the Nittany Lions won 13-10 over the Huskies. In the time since, Penn State is heading to its 11th bowl game in 13 years, and Washington will be competing in its eighth bowl game in a row.
- Time: 4 p.m. ET
- Location: University of Phoenix Stadium, Glendale, Ariz.
- TV: ESPN
- Streaming: WatchESPN
- Odds: Penn State opened as 4.5-point favorites.
If UW is close going into the fourth, they will definitely have a depth advantage. This could well translate into anywhere between a 3- and 10-point net scoring advantage, assuming UW makes the requisite investments in the rushing attack early in the game. The key for UW will be to make this a physical game in order to test that Penn State depth.
PSU will face the nation’s statistical best run defense - albeit one that faced one of the easiest schedules in FBS for the second year in a row - so this may be another game in which Trace McSorley will have to use the pass game in order to get Saquon Barkley going in likely his last game in the Basic Blues.
Running backs will rule the day
Both the Huskies and the Nittany Lions feature dominant running backs who are among the top of the FBS. Penn State’s Saquon Barkley didn’t quite finish as high as anticipated in the Heisman Trophy voting, but he’s still a dynamic rusher -- and return specialist — and will give the Huskies top-rated rush defense a tough task.
On the other side of the field is Washington running back Myles Gaskin. The Husky might not have the breakout numbers to match that of Barkley, but his consistency has kept him in line with the Big Ten rusher on the stat sheet.
While Barkley gets the check mark over Gaskin on the eye test, he can’t compare as a pure runner. Gaskin’s vision is absolutely phenomenal. You can’t put together a highlight package that is going to truly capture his brilliance. His dominance is in the ability to turn a 2-yard gain into 6 yards rather than a 10-yard gain into 80 yards.
With this being the last collegiate game for both Barkley and Gaskin, it’s fitting that they finally face each other on the gridiron for title supreme.
Having its 2016 season ending in a CFP snub, and a 2017 season that was derailed by a stunning loss to Ohio State, Penn State is out for blood. James Franklin needs a way to keep his team motivated heading into the offseason — especially losing some big-time contributors to the NFL — and he’ll look to make a point against the Huskies.
Be sure to check out all our bowl predictions here.
College football's first bowl game was almost its last
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