The Bowling Green football team (1-1) nearly shocked the college football world on Saturday afternoon, falling just short of upsetting eighth-ranked Penn State (2-0) in their home opener, 34-27.
The Falcons, who entered the game as 35.5 point underdogs, battled the Nittany Lions in a dogfight in front of 103,861 raucous fans at Beaver Stadium, resulting in BG’s closest finish against a top-10 ranked opponent in program history.
“Most importantly, you’ve got to give Bowling Green a ton of credit,” Penn State head coach James Franklin said postgame. “They played their tail off. The moment wasn’t too big for them. We were in a dog fight, so got to give them a ton of credit.”
Bowling Green broke Penn State’s streak of 18 consecutive regular season games of not allowing more than 20 points against non-conference opponents.
BG nearly pulled off the upset without starting junior running back Terion Stewart, who was injured late in last week’s season-opening victory over Fordham.
“He did his ankle in the Fordham game. He’ll be back, it’s not anything like last year. He just wasn’t 100%, he was more towards the 50%,” BGSU head coach Scot Loeffler said postgame. “We all know Terion’s a good player; Terion’s a good player at 50%, but when you’re not healthy and you’re not playing fast, you’re going to get hurt.”
The good news for the Falcons is they came out of Happy Valley much healthier than their last encounter against a Big Ten opponent.
“Knock on wood, I think we’ve come out of this healthy,” Loeffler said. “I think that was the biggest disappointment last year, is that we got the hell beat out of us in Ann Arbor.”
The Falcons started the game with a bang, driving 75 yards down the field on six plays, with junior tight end Harold Fannin Jr. finding the end zone on a six-yard reception from senior quarterback Connor Bazelak.
The score ended PSU’s streak of 28 consecutive games without allowing a touchdown on the first drive, the longest in the nation.
“I thought we had a good script going into the game, and I thought we were fortunate that we caught them in exactly what we anticipated,” Loeffler said.
Fannin dominated for the Falcons, finishing the game with 11 receptions and 137 receiving yards, both career highs.
“That dude is unbelievable. Harold is the best tight end in the country, in my opinion,” Bazelak said. “He’s funny, just because you don’t have to teach him anything, he just does stuff the right way on the field.”
Penn State responded with an equally dominant march down the field as junior quarterback Drew Allar waltzed into the endzone on a five-yard rush to tie the game at seven apiece.
Bowling Green took nearly five-and-a-half minutes off the clock on their next drive, spanning 10 plays and ending with sophomore kicker Jackson Kleather nailing his first collegiate field goal from 33 yards out, giving BGSU the 10-7 advantage.
After the Falcons forced a PSU three-and-out, Bowling Green again went on a time-consuming drive, draining almost six minutes off the clock. BGSU capped the drive off with a beautiful over-the-shoulder touchdown pass from Bazelak to senior wide receiver Malcolm Johnson Jr. in the back right corner of the endzone, extending their lead to 17-7.
Johnson finished with eight receptions for 81 yards, setting new career highs in just his second game in the orange and brown.
“He’s learning. This offense, we do a lot; I mean, there’s a ton,” Loeffler said. “It can get overwhelming, and what you’ve seen with Malcolm is it’s slowly but surely slowing down for him because he’s starting to know what to do.”
Penn State immediately answered back at the start of the second quarter as junior wide receiver Omari Evans caught a 29-yard touchdown pass from Allar to cap off a three-play, 75-yard drive that lasted just 60 seconds.
The next drive proved to be one of the most consequential of the game.
On fourth-and-one at their own 45-yard line, the Falcons lined up to go for it before Loeffler called a timeout. Out of the timeout, BG ran a pass play that was broken up by junior defensive end Abdul Carter, who generated pressure in the backfield all game long.
“The fourth-down call, that was a terrible call, and that’s on me. We thought scheme rather than player, and we thought we could get cute and beat [Carter], and we didn’t. That was a bad call, so I’ll take that,” Loeffler said. “It wasn’t a smart call; it didn’t give our team a chance.”
After taking over possession, Penn State redshirt junior kicker Sander Sahaydak drilled a 43-yard field goal to tie the game at 17.
However, Bowling Green continued to battle, with senior running back Jamal Johnson finding a hole and sprinting across the field for a 41-yard touchdown, the first of his career, giving BG the lead back, 24-17.
Johnson finished the game with 46 rushing yards on just five attempts, while fellow senior running back Jaison Patterson led the Falcons on the ground with 57 yards on 16 attempts. Junior running back Justin Pegues added 18 rushing yards on three attempts.
“Not having Terion in the run game hurt,” Loeffler said. “But I’ll tell you what, [Johnson], [Patterson] and [Pegues], I thought they ran really, really hard, and I thought our offensive line was exceptional dealing with really, really good players.”
The Nittany Lions would tack on three more points just 10 seconds before the end of the first half, giving the Falcons a 24-20 lead heading into the locker rooms.
“I thought our kids played hard. I think, offensively, in the first half, we had an excellent game plan handling their man coverage, handling [Carter], who’s a bonified first-round draft pick,” Loeffler said. “We ran the ball fairly well against an unbelievable defense. In my opinion, I think it’s the best defense in the country…We did a good job in the first half manipulating our coverages and giving ourselves a chance.”
After both teams punted on their first possessions out of halftime, Penn State’s junior running back Nicholas Singleton found the endzone on a 14-yard pass from Allar, giving the Nittany Lions their first lead of the game, 27-24.
Bowling Green would be forced to punt again on their next possession. This led to PSU threatening in the red zone for the second straight drive.
However, BG senior cornerback Jacorey Benjamin picked off Allar for just the third time in his collegiate career, snatching an underthrown ball in the right side of the endzone out of the air. He would attempt to bring it out of the endzone, getting tackled at the three-yard line to end the third quarter.
BGSU’s momentum would not result in any points, as both teams were forced to punt again on their next drives.
With crunch time approaching and Bowling Green attempting to mount a late-game comeback, Penn State switched up their defensive strategy, opting for a two-man high coverage. This presented major problems for the Falcons, as Bazelak forced two throws that were intercepted on the next two possessions for BG.
“At the end of the game, we got caught in two-man, and we’ve got answers for two-man, we just couldn’t get to them during the week. When you’re playing a team like this, you’ve got 5,000 issues that you’re trying to patchwork to give yourself a chance,” Loeffler said. “I’ll take full responsibility for running out of bullets. Fact of the matter is there wasn’t a lot of places to go with the ball in the end.”
After the second Bazelak interception, Singleton broke off a 41-yard rushing touchdown on the very next play, proving to be the dagger that broke the Falcon’s back.
“It is what it is, but at the end of the day, we have to figure out a way to make one more play, make one more block, one more catch, one more throw; whatever it takes to win the game, and we just came up a little short,” Bazelak said.
However, BGSU would not roll over, making a field goal with 47 seconds remaining in the game before failing to recover an onside kick, spelling the end of the dramatic seven-point loss.
“Gave ourselves a shot at the end; the thought process was at the end to find a way to score, onside kick, take a shot and see if you can shock the world there,” Loeffler said.
Penn State finished with 438 total yards compared to Bowling Green’s 375, outgaining the Falcons on the ground 234 to 121.
BG converted half of their third down attempts, 7-14, while they held Penn State to just two third down conversions on nine attempts.
Bazelak finished the game 25-39, throwing for 254 yards, two touchdowns and two interceptions.
However, it was a tale of two halves for the BG starter. Bazelak went 16-20 for 192 yards and two touchdowns in the first half; however, he completed just nine of 19 passes for 62 yards and two interceptions in the second half.
On a positive note, Bazelak avoided taking a sack for the second straight game to start the season.
Meanwhile, Allar went 13-20 through the air on Penn State’s side for 204 yards, two touchdowns and one pick. Senior tight end Tyler Warren was a thorn in the Falcon’s side all night, setting a Penn State tight end program record with 146 receiving yards on eight receptions.
Next, Bowling Green will rest and recover over a bye week before heading to College Station to battle Texas A&M on Saturday, Sept. 21. Kick-off from Kyle Field is set for 7:30 p.m.
“It hurts, but to know that we played a top-10 team down to the wire and we had them on their heels, it’s a good feeling,” senior cornerback Jordan Oladokun said. “We just have to get in next week and make corrections so we can go to Texas A&M and play well.”
