Utah football’s season ends on a low as Penn State pulls away to win the Rose Bowl

PASADENA — In the weeks leading up to the 109th Rose Bowl Game, the matchup between No. 8 Utah and No. 11 Penn State was advertised as a contest featuring two similar, evenly matched teams.

At halftime Monday, the Utes and Nittany Lions lived up to that billing as the score was knotted up at 14-apiece. 

But the second half of the Utes’ second consecutive Rose Bowl appearance turned into a nightmare of sorts on a cool, gloomy, overcast afternoon. 

That’s when the Nittany Lions exploded for two long, lightning-strike touchdowns — and that spelled the difference. 

Utah was looking to make history with its first Rose Bowl victory. Instead, it made history in dubious, and uncharacteristic, fashion. 

The Utes yielded the third-longest touchdown run in Rose Bowl history in the third quarter, then surrendered the longest passing touchdown in Rose Bowl history in the fourth quarter as Penn State seized a dominating 35-21 victory.

The Nittany Lions became the first team in Rose Bowl history to record multiple 80-plus-yard scoring plays in a single game. 

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“Defense got big-played,” said Utah coach Kyle Whittingham. “That’s evidenced by over 400 yards of offense by Penn State. Only 15 first downs. That’s not a lot of first downs, which means they’re getting some big-chunk-yardage plays, which definitely led to our demise.”

And it certainly didn’t help Utah’s cause that Penn State knocked quarterback Cam Rising out of the game with a leg injury in the second half — a year after Ohio State knocked Rising out of the Rose Bowl in the second half. 

For Utah, the second time around at the Granddaddy of Them All resulted in another disappointing loss. 

Pac-12 champion Utah finished the season, like last year, 10-4. Penn State ended up 11-2. 

“Going back-to-back Rose Bowls, not a lot of people say they can do that, but at the same time we wish we would have executed better to come out as Rose Bowl champions,” said wide receiver Devaughn Vele.

“It doesn’t matter how many times you come to the Rose Bowl, it’s better when you win one, so we could come 100 times. If we don’t win one, it doesn’t really mean that much. I feel like execution-wise we could have done better, but it’s credit to Penn State, they played a really good game, and we’re just going to get back to the drawing board and start preparing for next season.”

Penn State rolled up 448 yards of total offense, compared to 391 for Utah. 

Rising completed 8 of 21 passes for 95 yards and one interception, and backup Bryson Barnes completed 10 of 19 passes for 112 yards with a touchdown and an interception. 

“When you look at us and our issues in this game, didn’t throw the ball efficiently enough, not nearly as efficiently as we’ve been throwing it all season long,” Whittingham said.

“We did a decent job running the ball, as well, but like I said, our lack of production throwing the football was really off the pace tonight.”

Vele hauled in five passes for 100 yards and Jaylen Dixon caught six passes for 64 yards and a touchdown. Ja’Quinden Jackson ran 13 times for 81 yards, including a 19-yard TD in the second quarter.

Penn State quarterback Sean Clifford completed 16 of 21 passes for 279 yards and two touchdowns. 

“Penn State, give them credit. They played well,” Whittingham said. “Their quarterback was exceptional. High completion percentage, threw for a bunch of yards, ran the ball efficiently enough.”

And Utah failed to force any turnovers, as it lost the turnover battle 2-0. 

“Minus-2 in the turnover margin,” Whittingham said. “It’s tough to win when you’re minus-2 there.”

Wide receiver KeAndre Lambert-Smith had three receptions for 124 yards, including a historic 88-yard touchdown. Last year, Utah gave up the most receiving yards in a bowl game to Ohio State’s Jaxon Smith-Njigba. 

Freshman running back Nicholas Singleton rushed seven times for 120 yards and two touchdowns, including an 87-yard TD run for the Nittany Lions.

All season, the Utes have been spectacular in the third quarter — outscoring opponents by 136-38. 

But not Monday against the Penn State.

On Utah’s opening drive of the second half, it was marching and had first and 10 at the Nittany Lion 35. The Utes dialed up a trick play with Vele taking a pitch and looking to throw. Instead, he was sacked for a nine-yard loss.

Utah ended up punting.

Three plays later, on third and 3 from the Penn State 13, Singleton broke through the line and scampered 87 yards for a touchdown to lift Penn State to a 21-14 advantage. 

“It was a defense where we committed essentially everybody but the corners who were in coverage to the box, and one of our up-front guys got cut out by their tight end,” Whittingham said.

“The tight end did a great job, if you watch the replay, our defensive guy is looking over to the sideline to see if we’re going to be changing the call. They snapped the ball when his head was to the sideline, which didn’t allow him to get a very good opportunity to play the block scheme, so that was the issue there.”

The next time Utah had the ball, midway through the third quarter, Rising scrambled for nine yards but absorbed a hard hit, was shaken up and had to be helped off the field. He did not return.  

Another Rose Bowl, another Rising injury, another appearance by the backup, Barnes.

The Utes couldn’t do much else offensively the rest of the way, though Barnes did lead a touchdown drive in the final minute. 

On the first play of the fourth quarter, Penn State, facing third and 4 from its own 12, Clifford connected with Lambert-Smith for a Rose-Bowl-best 88-yard TD to give the Nittany Lions a two-touchdown lead, 28-14.

“The long pass was a double move,” Whittingham said. “It was Cover 2 structure, and the safety just got a little bit too aggressive on the first slant move and went right by us. The run was (88) yards. Those two plays there were very damaging.”

And with that, Penn State took control as it scored 21 unanswered points.

Yeah, the Utes could have used their All-America cornerback Clark Phillips III, who opted out of the game after declaring for the NFL draft. 

“Clark is a tremendous player. Certainly would have helped to have him back there in the secondary, but he wasn’t there, so like I said, it’s next man up mentality,” Whittingham said.

“We missed him, but he’s got a bright future ahead of him at the next level, and we wish him all the best.”

In the first half, it was a much different Rose Bowl than last year, when Utah led Ohio State 35-21 at halftime. While the 2022 Rose Bowl was a track meet, a shootout, this time, it was more of a defensive-minded plodding, slow-paced game.

The first two scoring drives of the contest took five minutes and seven minutes, respectively. 

But the second half was a much different story, as Penn State changed the complexion of the game by scoring quickly on those two long plays. 

“It was mistakes by our defense at critical times and big plays, which we typically don’t give up,” Whittingham said.

“We’re usually very good keeping things in front of us and not giving up big plays, as evidenced by our No. 1 ranking in the Pac-12 in defense this year. But tonight just weren’t good enough limiting big plays by the opponent.”

EXTRA POINTS: Announced attendance was 94,873 … Utah has now dropped four consecutive bowl games. The Utes’ last bowl victory came in the 2017 Heart of Dallas Bowl over West Virginia … Utah is now 1-4 against Big Ten opponents in bowl games … This marks the 15th Rose Bowl played on Jan. 2 … The Pac-12 holds a (39-33) lead in Rose Bowl games against the Big Ten.