Dvon J-Thomas recounts halftime message that rallied Penn State football to come-from-behind victory

It certainly wasn’t the tune-up game that many expected to see in Beaver Stadium this weekend, with Penn State football getting everything it wanted and then some from Bowling Green on Saturday afternoon. Down 24-20 at the break, the Nittany Lions needed a dominant second half, inspired partly by a locker room speech from Dvon J-Thomas, to rally for a 34-27 victory.

“I said, ‘We’ve been here before,’ you know,” the redshirt senior+ defensive lineman told reporters after the game. “I mean, I’m sure, as you guys know, we’ve been down at halftime before. We’ve had situations where we didn’t play so favorably in the first half. But we’ve been there; we’ve done that.”

Falcons give Nittany Lions an early gut check

Bowling Green punched the Penn State defense in the mouth from the game’s opening series, a six-play, 75-yard touchdown drive to jump out to an early lead. The score was the first opening-drive touchdown the Nittany Lions had allowed in 28 games. The Falcons ultimately came away with points on three of five offensive possessions in the first half.

The second half was a completely different story. Penn State football allowed just three points on 89 total yards of offense from the Falcons. After picking apart the Nittany Lions secondary with a deadly 16-20 for 192 yards and two touchdowns in the first half, Bowling Green quarterback Connor Bazalek went 9-19 for 62 yards and two interceptions the rest of the day.

Experience helps to put Penn State football over the top

© Alex Disabella / Basic Blues Nation, 2024.

With 47 upperclassmen across the Penn State football roster, Dvon J-Thomas attributes Saturday’s second half turnaround to the seasoned nature of the Nittany Lions locker room.

“Like I said, we’re a very veteran team. We’re experienced,” he explained. “We’ve played a lot of football together. Although it’s like, collectively, each individual has played a lot of football, and together, we have over 100 years of experience if you really want to be technical. Yeah, me, myself, I got like 50 years.

“So, yeah, we’ve been here before. You know, it’s a new half, 0-0. We approach it as a new game, made our adjustments. We know what we need to fix, and we move forward from there.”

You can watch the full remarks from Dvon J-Thomas on the Basic Blues Nation YouTube Channel.

Penn State football now enters the first of two bye weeks before welcoming another MAC program, Kent State, into Beaver Stadium on September 21.

Bowling Green certainly gave the Blue and White plenty to chew on over the next 13 days, quite the contrast from the high of last week’s dominant showing in Morgantown. We’ll see if the Nittany Lions bottle the intensity of Saturday’s second half and fend off another sluggish start in Week 4.

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