The No. 1 Oregon Geese, taking part in of their first Large Ten season, received the convention title on Saturday night time by defeating No. 3 Penn State, 45-37.
It ought to assure the No. 1 seed for the Geese within the Faculty Soccer Playoff and ship them into the match with an ideal 13-0 report.
They would be the odds-on favorites to win the entire thing.
It’s not as rosy of an image for Penn State.
Not solely does the loss maintain the Nittany Lions from a Large Ten championship, however it would additionally forestall them from getting a top-four seed and a bye week into the quarterfinals. They’re virtually definitely going to get a house playoff sport within the first spherical (which is a wonderful comfort prize to a bye week) and even perhaps a sport the place they are going to be heavy favorites.
That’s the excellent news.
The unhealthy information is Penn State and head coach James Franklin had one other alternative to win an enormous sport towards an elite opponent and maybe change the narrative round their program.
They fell quick once more.
With Saturday’s loss, Franklin is now simply 3-19 vs. top-10 opponents at Penn State and nonetheless cannot recover from the hump towards top-tier competitors.
It’s a drawback for Penn State’s nationwide championship hopes as a result of these are the groups you must beat if you wish to play at that degree and win a title. Franklin and Penn State have emphatically confirmed that they’re able to beating just about each workforce on their schedule and virtually the entire Large Ten. However that goes away as quickly as they play Ohio State, Michigan and just about every other top-10 workforce.
There’s a lot to be stated for being a constant top-10 program that may win 11 video games yearly. There are most likely 120 applications (or extra) in FBS that might like to be in Penn State’s state of affairs yearly.
However Penn State followers are additionally most likely getting pissed off with getting so shut after which not having the ability to end the job.
Nonetheless, Saturday’s sport did look like it was a little bit totally different than a number of the different losses in most of these video games.
For one, James Franklin didn’t coach conservatively. He turned the offense free, went for 2 down by 14 factors within the fourth quarter, and so they hung in with the highest workforce within the nation whereas by no means giving up after falling 28-10 within the first half. Granted, Penn State did look overmatched and unprepared for prime time within the early going, however there’s a lot to be stated for the pushback.
Possibly that may be one thing to construct on for the playoffs. Possibly it may possibly set the stage for Penn State to know it may possibly compete with these groups and make a run. Quite a lot of it would rely on the seeding and the matchups, however finally, Penn State goes to must beat an Oregon, an Ohio State, a Georgia or a Texas sort of workforce to get to the place it desires to be.
To date, it has not carried out that, even when it does appear to be getting nearer on the scoreboard.
