Penn State’s season keeps sliding, and Saturday’s White Out loss to No. 19 USC only sharpened the picture. The Nittany Lions, who opened the year ranked No. 13 and 3-0, are now 3-3 after a 31-23 defeat in front of 114,419 fans.
There were bright spots in the loss, especially on offense, where Rocco Becht turned in what was arguably his best Big Ten game. But the night still ended with Penn State coming up short, and a few individual performances stood out for very different reasons.
Andrew Rappleyea was one of the clearest winners. The Millbrook, N.Y., tight end has drawn praise from OC Taylor Mouser for his work as both a blocker and a pass catcher, though most of his early-season impact came in the run game.
Against USC, he finally made a bigger mark as a receiver, finishing with seven catches for 63 yards and a touchdown. He also was brutally honest in his thoughts on the season thus far.
Chase Sowell kept building on his strong stretch while Koby Howard is sidelined. He looks like a real WR1 in this offense now, and against USC he caught four passes for 95 yards, all before halftime.
Two of those grabs went for 47 and 37 yards. Becht and Sowell clearly have a comfort level, with the quarterback looking for him downfield and hitting him in stride to help stretch the defense and settle into a rhythm.
How Sowell fits once Howard returns will be worth watching.
Tony Rojas once again set the tone on defense. Even with a few missed tackles, he led Penn State in tackles with 10, added a sack for a tackle for loss, and forced a fumble. He now has a team-high four sacks this season and has recorded at least one sack and one TFL in each of Penn State’s three Big Ten games.
Not every story was a positive one.
Marcus Neal Jr., nicknamed “Shark,” didn’t see the field on defense at all against USC after starting the first few games of the season. Matt Campbell explained the decision after the game, saying in part:
“I think collectively, as we’re continuing to put this defense together, Marcus is a critical piece to our success, and as the game kind of got into a spread game and playing in space, it was a situation where we went with probably more coverage than we did from a tackle standpoint at the safety position.”
James Peoples also landed on the wrong side of the ledger. He flashed real promise in Penn State’s first Big Ten game against Wisconsin, but his production has dipped since then.
Against USC, he managed seven carries for 20 yards, averaged 2.9 yards per carry, and also dropped a pass. He still has not scored a rushing touchdown in Big Ten play.
That leaves Penn State with a decision to make: keep leaning on him because of what he showed against Wisconsin and what he did last year at Ohio State, or turn back to Quinton Martin Jr., who has the longest run of the season so far.
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