The old beauty of a stadium showed its age (yet again) on Saturday afternoon. Mother Nature certainly did her no favors, of course. As torn up as the turf was before game time, the Florida Citrus Bowl couldn’t withstand the rainfall that began well before daylight had arrived and before hosting the rugged blend of speed and brawn displayed by two Top-15 teams – Penn State and LSU – at the Capital One Bowl.
Fans saw passes from both quarterbacks hit the ground with regularity, passes that had no business ending up there after bouncing off receivers and defenders throughout the day. And they witnessed each shift made by ball carriers do more to help out a defender than it did to break a runner free on such a slop of a field.
Such chaotic circumstances resulted in a matchup that would go on to break the Capital One Bowl record for punts (15) and punt yardage (549) thanks to the extra efforts of Penn State’s Jeremy Boone and both Derek Helton and Josh Jasper of LSU. The treat for fans though finally came through, in the fourth quarter, with the kind of finish that would go down to the last minute of the game.
The first six possessions of the day went for punts before the game’s most valuable player, Daryll Clark, found Derek Moye for a 37-yard touchdown pass with less than two minutes to go in the opening quarter.
LSU answered on their next possession with a 25-yard field goal from Jasper. Two punts followed between the two teams. Then came a Penn State field goal from the game’s unofficial MVP, Collin Wagner, who would boot the game-winner (his fourth of the game) with 57 seconds to go. And then again, two more punts before the Tigers were intercepted and another field goal gave the Nittany Lions a 13-3 lead at intermission.
With the kind of talent on both sidelines that will have pro scouts doing double duty over their notes, it’s a shame that the sod was unable to properly accomidate them.
Before the game even began many wondered aloud why in the world marching bands were permitted to perform on the field beforehand, where puddles were beginning to form and the strain it took when Miami and Wisconsin battled there three days earlier in Champs Sports Bowl showed through. The same sentiment would again be echoed at halftime when the performances raged on with little-to-no consideration for the poor slobs of turf that had already been under far too much duress.
If there was ever a time when she could have handled hosting a local high school football team’s regular season schedule, two weekends worth of state championship games, two college football bowl games – and all the in betweens that go along with it – those days looked far behind our sweet lady of Orlando.
In the second half players continued falling over themselves in minature mines of mud. Blooper-like plays came and went throughout. When passes weren’t bouncing off of the chests of receivers they were bouncing off one player and into the unsuspecting hands of another. The balls were wet. The balls were muddy.
As miserable a first half as the one turned in by LSU (67 yards of total offense with six penalties and just one conversion out of seven attempts on third down) they sure made a game out of it. After Penn State was forced to settle for a field goal following an LSU turnover two touchdowns and a major momentum change turned the tide In favor of the Tigers, 17-16, in front of 63,025 fans.
But then LSU punted for the final time with seven minutes to play, opening the door for Penn State to slip and slide their way through 12 plays over 65 yards to set up the final 21-yard field goal attempt from Wagner, who left just under 50 seconds of false hope for the Tigers under an overcast sky in 60-degree breezing weather.
You would have thought the ground was moving out from underneath them the way LSU made their final go at retaking the lead – the same lead they captured and seemingly relinqueshed in an instance.
And come to think of it, guess you could say it actually was.
Reprinted with permission of KnightNews.com’s sports partner, OrlandoSportsCentral.com. Visit OrlandoSportsCentral.com for more Knights sports news, plus all your local sports needs including: high school football, Orlando Magic and more!
