In an after-dark attack Saturday, the Boston College Eagles sunk their talons into the hot air balloon in which the Nittany Lions and their fans had been soaring, since Penn State’s season-opening romp over Akron last week. Dropping as fast as Penn Staters’ hopes that 2004 was going to bring a dramatic turnaround from last year’s disastrous 3-9 record, that balloon crashed to earth in BC’s soldout Alumni Stadium, before 44,500 fans plus an ABC-TV regional audience, as the home team posted a 21-7 victory in a contest that reminded Penn Staters all too much of the Eagles’ 27-14 win in Beaver Stadium a year ago.
Striking quickly, the Eagles caged the Lions in a hole too deep for them to claw their way out. While the 14-0 advantage the Eagles took into the locker room at halftime was not as large as the 24-0 lead they compiled in the first 18 minutes of last year’s battle, BC countered the Lions’ second half attack to maintain the margin till the final gun.
Although Penn State’s 1-1 record is the same as it was early last year, the faithful still saw more positive signs in the first two games than they did last fall. Sensing a different attitude, more intensity and better leadership than in 2003, they count on the Lions to beat the University of Central Florida, which has already been trounced by Wisconsin and West Virginia, just as they topped Kent State last year to salvage the non-conference slate. The questions then turn to the advent of the Big Ten schedule where the first five opponents are all ranked in the top 22, and State will have to pull at least one upset in the conference to avoid its fourth losing season in the last five campaigns.
Akron had obviously not been a sufficient test for the young Lions in their opener, for Saturday the rushing attack that picked up 352 yards and four touchdowns against the Zips was held to 73 yards and no scores by BC. The rush defense that had stuffed Akron for 72 yards, allowed a single runner to top the century mark in the 11th game out of the last 14. The pass defense that contained Heisman Trophy candidate Charlie Frye was riddled for three touchdowns by a little heralded junior college transfer. And the pass offense which produced touchdowns from two different passers to three different receivers last week was stymied with four times as many interceptions as TDs. Finally, the battle which Penn State won in the trenches against Akron was a flat out surrender in Boston.
BC looked like a flock of wounded Eagles coming into Saturday’s contest, having “lucked out,” as the Boston writers described it, a 19-11 win over the same Ball State team that was decimated, 59-7, by Purdue Saturday afternoon. In doing so, they lost their featured tailback, L. V. Whitworth, who gained 121 yards and one TD on 21 carries, and starting offensive tackle Jeremy Trueblood to knee injuries. While Whitworth sat out Saturday night’s contest, Trueblood recovered in time to help open big holes for the new star back, redshirt freshman Andre Callender, who shredded Penn State for 122 yards in his collegiate debut and set up the passing game for the home team.
Paul Peterson, a senior scrambler who came to BC by way of Snow JC in Ephraim, Utah, picked at the Lions’ secondary for 199 yards and three scores on 23 completions in 31 attempts without allowing any thefts. Penn State couldn’t get much pressure on him from its front four, but when it did he scrambled until he found an open receiver or threw the ball away.
Conversely, BC’s defensive front pressured Zack Mills into a career-high four interceptions (just one less than his total last season), as he tried in vain to make big plays that would bring the Lions back from their two-TD deficit. Mills completed his first six passes for 63 yards and drove State into the Red Zone, before his seventh aerial was tipped at the line of scrimmage and picked off by linebacker Ray Henderson at the BC 15 to snuff out the Lions’ attempt to tie the game at 7-7.
The Lion senior co-captain was also perfect on four passes for 52 yards on the opening possession of the second half, as he led his squad on a 61-yard scoring march, culminated with a 13-yard TD strike to senior wideout Ryan Scott to bring the Lions within seven points.
However, Boston College responded with a time-consuming 16-play 74-yard drive on which Petersen converted two third downs with 22 and 23 yard passes to Jason Lilly and ran for 10 yards on a 4th and 2, then scrambled until he could find fullback Mark Palmer in the end zone for a two-yard TD to regain the 14-point margin.
After that Mills could connect on only 9 of 23 passes for 71 yards and had three picked off deep in BC territory in the fourth quarter, as he struggled to get the Lions back into the game.
“I tried to force some things when they were just sitting back there in their defense,” he told reporters after the game. “I was just trying to make a play.”
Lion after Lion said, “We just didn’t execute,” and senior safety Andrew Guman explained, “We didn’t come up with the big plays at big times.” Guman had a career high 14 tackles, followed by Posluszny with a career-high 12.
In his post-mortem, Coach Joe Paterno said simply, “BC played very well, and we did not.” In an almost funereal voice, he added, “We turned the ball over five times. You can’t win that way.”
State was also flagged for 87 yards in penalties — the most in two years.
Paterno credited BC’s Peterson with “coming up with some big-time plays.” Paterno said, “He scrambles well and finds people downfield,” pointing out that BC has not lost any games that Peterson has started. Peterson won the starting job from Quinton Porter (who started at Penn State last year) for the final three regular season contests and the bowl game against Colorado State. (Porter, a fourth-year senior is redshirting this season.)
Nevertheless, Paterno noted, “We’re more competitive this year and we’ve got better leadership than last year.”
“We lose momentum when things go wrong early, especially on the road,” said utility man Michael Robinson, who started at wide receiver and caught a career high five passes for 54 yards, while running the ball four times for 35 yards from the shotgun.
Penn State has lost its last seven games played outside of Beaver Stadium (including the Capital One Bowl) since Larry Johnson’s record-setting performance at Indiana two years ago. The Lions have lost 17 of their 21 regular season road games since late 1999 — the season in which they won their last non-conference road game at Miami.
“We have to take this loss like men and put it behind us,” Robinson said.
Center E.Z. Smith said, “Now we’ll find out how we react to adversity.”
For the glory,
