STATE COLLEGE, Pa. – For their annual White-Out Game, Penn State fans wore jackets, hooded sweatshirts, jerseys, hard hats, stocking caps, baseball caps, bucket hats, cowboy hats and even wigs, and waved pom-poms, all in a matching shade. Collectively they resembled a blinding snowstorm or a large bowl of ice.
The idea behind this football fashion statement was to get the visitors to raise a white flag and surrender, and Jedd Fisch’s University of Washington football team promptly obliged, losing 35-6 on a chilly Saturday night at Beaver Stadium humiliated.
If this were a different kind of White-Out, sixth-ranked Penn State (8-1 overall, 5-1 Big Ten) — scoring without much trouble on all four first-half possessions — treated the Huskies like the yet another typo, erasing them with a few deft moves to appease the color-coordinated crowd, a purple shirt or two, out of 110,233, which was the ninth largest in school history.
In the midst of what has lately become known as a swing state, the UW (5-5, 3-4) was simply not competitive in this playground battle in the heart of rural Pennsylvania, demonstrating once again that it didn’t have the personnel to win on the road in the conference – and failed to do so for the fourth time in as many tries.
Additionally, the Huskies missed a chance to secure a bowl bid, giving themselves two more chances next Friday against UCLA at home and against Oregon on the road after Thanksgiving to collect win No. 6.
“We weren’t ready to play, it’s pretty plain and simple,” linebacker Carson Bruener said.
Most of the time, the UW was battered up front, on both sides of the line, something that happened once before in Iowa in a 40-16 setback, although this was worse. The Huskies gave up five sacks and couldn’t get close to Nittany Lions quarterback Drew Allar, who completed 20 of 28 passes for 220 yards and a touchdown. Penn State had a bulging lead of 486 to 193 in total yards.
This was a physical mismatch, and the UW coach didn’t shy away from it. He noted that the Nittany Lions outweighed his team by nearly 1,000 pounds on the two-deep offensive line.
“We’re going to bring guys in and we’re going to keep getting bigger,” Fisch said. “This is the Big Ten. It’s a huge transition. This team was recruited as a Pac-12 team.”
The UW turned it into a game for about half an hour. The Huskies took the opening kickoff and smartly advanced from their own 30 to the Penn State 22, but stalled and turned to Grady Gross for a 45-yard field goal. His kicking slump is far from over: Gross hit the right upright square and bounced back.
Although white was the predominant color, Penn State’s first offensive possession was highlighted by a pop of yellow.
As the Nittany Lions moved down the field unnoticed, they got an extra boost when UW cornerback Thaddeus Dixon came up and made what appeared to be a textbook tackle on Omari Evans, waiting for the running back to come to him before wrapping up and took him. down for a 1-yard gain on the Husky 15.
Dixon, much to his dismay, was flagged for targeting when it was determined he had gone from helmet to helmet, and he was ejected.
UW wide receiver Denzel Boston (12) is brought down by Penn State safety Zakee Wheatley (6) during the first quarter at Beaver Stadium. / Matthew O’Haren-Imagn images
The ball was moved to the 8 and Penn State scored a play later on backup quarterback Beau Pribula’s option keeper on the left side. The Nittany Lions already had several of their turnovers in and the game was barely a touchdown old. The home team led 7-0 with 3:47 to go in the first quarter.
After forcing a punt, Penn State moved 14 plays 80 yards for another score in the second quarter, turning to its football android, 6-foot-4, 261-pound Tyler Warren, who is normally a tight end side, but took a direct snap. and reached the ball across the goal after a two-yard run. The Lions led 14-0 with 9:22 to go before halftime.
It was at this point that the Huskies relented and simply weren’t competitive. Quarterback Will Rogers tried to throw one lunge for Jeremiah Hunter and overshot him heavily, with Penn State’s Jaylen Reed making an uncontested interception to put his team up 42.
Eight plays later, Mr. Do Everything Warren took another snap and ran untouched down the left side for another 2-yard score, putting his team up 21-0 with 3:23 remaining in the half.
Nittany Lions quarterback Drew Allar throws a pass during the second quarter under the rush of UW safety Vince Holmes. / Matthew O’Haren-Imagn images
After the Huskies went 3-and-out, Penn State regained the ball with 1:53 left before the break, plenty of time to score again, especially against a defense that looked as bad as it has all season.
The Nittany Lions covered 68 yards in nine plays before Allar’s 8-yard touchdown pass over the middle to Julian Fleming, beating redshirt freshman corner Leroy Bryant. There were thirteen seconds left until the break. It became 28-0.
By now all color had drained from the Huskies’ faces, realizing they had been thoroughly embarrassed and still had to play the second half.
As if that wasn’t bad enough, Penn State’s Nicolas Singleton returned the second half kickoff 97 yards for an apparent touchdown, but it was negated by a holding call.
Two plays later, the Huskies finally got a defensive stop — their first in five possessions — recovering a Warren fumble at the Penn State 34. Bruener ripped the ball out and nickelback Jordan Shaw recovered.
The Huskies stayed with freshman Demond Williams Jr. for the entire second half. as a quarterback, but still had trouble moving the football. They settled for Gross’ 24-yard field goal to cut the deficit to 28-3 with 9:47 left in the third quarter.
Then Fisch played this one as if the game was beyond repair and it was time to look to the future. He let Williams in and surrounded him with freshmen Adam Mohammed and Jordan Washington, with the latter making his UW football debut.
Rogers was pulled with just 59 yards passing and starting tailback Jonah Coleman sat with just 24 yards rushing.
“When you have guys who haven’t started a game or even won a game in college ball, it’s tough,” Coleman said. “Obviously we’ve moved to the conference and we’re trying to figure everything out. No excuses.”
Fisch said he did not plan to make a change at quarterback this week because the job still belongs to Rogers for Friday’s game against UCLA.
Gross added a 35-yard field goal early in the quarter to pull the Huskies within 28-6 and Penn State responded with Kaytron Allen’s 2-yard TD run for the final margin. Allen led all rushers with 98 yards on 20 carries.
Typical of this mismatch play, the Huskies’ Williams showed off his exceptional speed and broke off a 43-yard run near the end, but he was sacked before and after his breakaway run and the drive stopped at the Lions’ 11.
Penn State’s White-Out Game had claimed another victim.
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