2014 Pinstripe Bowl final score: Penn State beats Boston College in OT, 31-30
Overtime in Yankee Stadium gave Penn State a win in its return to bowl season.
Penn State’s first bowl game since NCAA sanctions came down in 2011 will also go down as Penn State’s first bowl win since 2009.
The teams traded scores quite evenly throughout, with only one two-score lead emerging at any point. BC kicked a field goal with 2:10 left to put pressure on PSU, but a 49-yard drive sent us to extra innings, so to speak.
Tyler Murphy hit David Dudeck to give the Eagles the immediate lead in OT, but Mike Knoll whiffed on the extra point, the seventh XP missed by BC this year.
Via ESPN
PSU responded with a touchdown loft from Christian Hackenberg to Kyle Carter. The previously embattled Sam Ficken, now one of the country's better kickers, drilled it to seal the 31-30 victory.
Penn State's win means the program exits the sanction era with a 22-16 record and three straight seasons over .500
— Ben Jones (@Ben_Jones88) December 28, 2014 The game included a pair of unexpected offensive outbursts.
Boston College ran for 284 yards in regulation. That’s a new season-high for the Penn State defense, which gave up 219 to Ohio State and not much of anything at all to anybody else. The Nittany Lions entered the postseason with the country’s No. 1 rushing defense in a variety of metrics, and yeah, this is the same Eagles offense that dumped 452 rushing yards on USC and nearly beat Florida State and so forth. Avoid playing BC if you can.
And Penn State’s Hackenberg threw for 339 yards in regulation, his highest total since Week 1. It came against a pretty average Boston College pass defense, but it’s not as if Penn State had been playing against, well, Penn State’s defense for most of its season. He also threw zero picks, making this his third game of the year without an interception.
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