The No. 10 Penn State Nittany Lions saved their best rushing performance for the last game of the year.
Amassing 369 total rushing yards, Penn State held on to beat the No. 17 Memphis Tigers 53-39 in Saturday’s Cotton Bowl at AT&T Stadium, the home of the NFL’s Dallas Cowboys. Running back Journey Brown finished with a Penn State bowl record 202 rushing yards — the second-most ever in a New Year’s Six bowl game — while Noah Cain added 92. Ricky Slade also had 58, and Devyn Ford even added 2 yards and a TD.
Memphis QB Brady White had a memorable game himself, throwing for 454 yards and two interceptions. And Memphis kicker Riley Patterson set a Cotton Bowl record, and an overall all-time bowl record, with six field goals from distances of 42, 41, 51, 44, 37 and 48 yards.
James Franklin’s squad got off to a slow start and trailed early. But Penn State rebounded, and Memphis had no answer for its running game.
OFFENSIVE PLAYER OF THE GAME
Penn State RB Journey Brown: The redshirt sophomore saved the best game of his career for the final game of the season. Let’s just list his stats here first because they tell quite the story: 16 carries for 202 rushing yards andtwo touchdowns. He also had two catches for 7 receiving yards.
Brown flashed speed, power and versatility Saturday, and the Memphis defense simply couldn’t stop him — even when it knew what was coming. We’ll get to one of his more memorable plays a little farther down, but Brown was simply unstoppable. His previous career high was 124 yards against Minnesota.
Only one running back has recorded more rushing yards in a New Year’s Six bowl game — Ohio State’s Ezekiel Elliott, who had 230 against Alabama in the 2015 Sugar Bowl.
DEFENSIVE PLAYER OF THE GAME
Penn State LB Micah Parsons: The sophomore All-American was a one-man wrecking crew and absolutely dominated Saturday. He finished with a team-leading 14 total tackles, to go along with three tackles for loss, two sacks, two breakups and two forced fumbles. If it wasn’t for him, this game could’ve been a whole lot closer.
He made clutch plays at key times. When Memphis was just 20 yards shy of the end zone in the first quarter, he sniffed out a reverse for a 10-yard loss to force a third-and-20 situation. In the second quarter, he forced a three-and-out after stopping Memphis’ back for no gain and, on the next play, sacking the quarterback for an 8-yard loss. In the third quarter, he pressured Memphis QB Brady White into throwing a pick-six to safety Garrett Taylor. And, in the final period, he made Memphis settle for a field goal after a pass deflection — well, dropped interception — and sack pushed the Tigers into a third-and-19 situation early on.
Parsons should make every single all-bowl team this postesason.
PLAY OF THE GAME
RB Journey Brown’s bruising 32-yard TD run: He’s not just a burner with the 100-meter high school state record; Brown is proving he’s a multidimensional threat.
The Pennsylvania native made national highlights early in the first quarter, when he broke four tackles en route to a 32-yard touchdown run to give Penn State the 7-3 lead. On first-and-10, he followed his blockers and broke a linebacker’s arm tackle about five yards upfield. Then he shimmied to avoid a defensive back, before stiff-arming him to the ground. And then? Well, he still wasn’t finished.
Brown stiff-armed another defensive back, who tried to pull Brown down by his collar — but Brown powered through the tackle and then carried a 250-pound defensive end about 5 yards into the end zone. If it wasn’t the most impressive run of the season for Brown, it sure made his end-of-year highlight tape.
TURNING POINT
Penn State safety Garrett Taylor’s pick-six: No, this play didn’t exactly put it away for Penn State. But it gave the Nittany Lions the necessary momentum to carry them to a win.
Let’s set it up. Late in the third quarter, with Penn State nursing a 38-36 lead, the Memphis offense found itself facing a critical third-and-8 on its own 24-yard line. As soon as QB Brady White snapped the ball, linebacker Micah Parsons was bearing down on him.
With one hand on White, the signal-caller just tried to shovel the pass forward — but it landed in the waiting arms of Garrett Taylor, who didn’t hesitate and sprinted 15 yards into the end zone. That gave Penn State a 45-36 lead, and it eventually gave it the win.
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