The Rutgers football team played well and hard and even outplayed No. 12 Penn State at times, but the Nittany Lions simply made more plays and escaped with a 27-6 win on Saturday.

With that being said, here is the final installment of our thoughts and observations post of the 2019 season.

-- On an early first quarter fourth down by Penn State on the Nittany Lions’ first drive, quarterback Will Levis took the ball outside on a read option and moved the chains. Had CB Avery Young held contain, he could have stopped him short.

-- Some great plays by the defense early on. The linebackers group, especially Olakunle Fatukasi, Tyshon Fogg and CJ Onyechi, were flying around making plays. Fogg was in on a sack on that aforementioned drive which resulted in a punt.

-- WR Bo Melton came to a life with a nice catch in the opening frame. He split the defense on what looked to be a slant and almost took to the house for a long touchdown. His unsportsmanlike penalty was foolish, however.

-- If we mention Melton, we need to talk about freshman WR Isaiah Washington, too. Washington was targeted nine times and had fouor catches, the most since having four against Liberty. He also finished with 63 yards. It didn’t count, but did you notice his one-handed snag out of bounds?

-- JACK linebacker CJ Onyechi probably should have played more this season. All throughout the first and second quarter, Onyechi was doing a great job of getting through the A-gap and creating havoc for the young PSU quarterback. He finished the game with five tackles and a sack.

-- The bag of tricks opened. With nothing to lose, the interim head coach/offensive coordinator Nunzio Campanile called for a trick play in which QB Johnny Langan found RB Aaron Young out of the back field on a flea flicker for a 39-yard gain.

-- Angelic holds. Mortell Award finalist, Cole Murphy, displayed what he can do as he placed down a bad, low snap perfectly for kicker Justin Davidovicz who made a 29-yard field goal to put Rutgers ahead 3-0 in the first quarter. Nice recovery.

-- Safety Christian Izien had a solid game. In the first quarter alone he made five solo tackles. One of the better, tough players on the defense. He ended up with eight stops.

-- The offensive line didn’t do a great job protecting Langan. Penn State has been one of the more consistent teams in terms of sacking opposing signal callers over the years with 40 or more. It wasn’t just one guy either who was the culprit.

-- On the flip side, Rutgers was able to run the ball down the Penn State’s throats at times. RB Isaih Pacheco showed power. The sophomore recorded 18 carries for 102 yards.

-- Rutgers never found end zone once in the first half, but it outplayed Penn State by a mile. Rutgers had 243 yards of offense compared to 129 for the home team and it totaled 383 for the game. Penn State had 333.

-- To quote Pacheco from two weeks ago, " Langan is tough as sh**." Kid was running hard and got a busted lip in the process. He was seen bleeding near the end of the third quarter. The redshirt freshman threw for 164 yards on 12-of-24 passing and ran for 58 yards.

-- QB Cole Snyder, a true freshman, got some playing time late. He threw the ball nicely completing 3-of-3 passes for 35 yards. He's still eligible for the redshirt.

-- Team in general had some juice and played hard. Campanile has mentioned that’s expected, but there seemed to be a little extra confidence out on the field. Maybe everybody tried to put a little extra on film for the next head coach.

-- Speaking of that, if you didn't hear, Greg Schiano is back.