The deciding play for the Rugby East title came down to a missed penalty goal in Penn State's 22-21 win over Army on Saturday in State College, PA. However, breaking down a failed penalty isn't much fun, and there was the small matter, too, of PSU scoring the go-ahead try with just a couple of minutes left.

Instead, let's look at that try. All day long, it seemed the Nittany Lions were getting themselves into scoring position, only to have something go wrong — a penalty, a mistake, the referee couldn't see the grounding. Whatever could happen to slow down Penn State did happen, and as time ticked away Army led 21-17.

It was then that the Nittany Lions got a scrum inside the Black Knights' 22-meter line.

With the try line just a few meters away, it seemed logical to pick up and attack around the edge of the scrum. That's just what Penn State did.

Army's defense was predictably strong. 

"Army played great defense all day long," PSU head coach Justin Hundley said. "Technically they are very sound and they are well coached and physical."

So the plan had to be to make that defense work. Penn State ran quick rucks and just kept pounding the line.

The problem is you run the risk of being stopped early or driven back if you are too weak going into contact. If you go too far, you can become isolated or get greedy and lose the ball at the line.

"We'd had two tries disallowed, so we wanted to set it up so we could go wide," Hundley said. "We knew what we needed to do and that we (could) create some more space for our backs."

So the Nittany Lions support ruckers had to be there, and the runners had to challenge the Black Knights defenders in order to suck them inside the play. 

And as a result, more Army defenders were committed to the ruck, more were on the ground, and more were left on the weak side (the Black Knights' left). That's when PSU's Ryan McNulty took one more run.

McNulty had already scored one try and could have been forgiven from going for another. Except, he held back just a little.

Because the plan was to win the ruck quickly and get it out to Penn State's secret weapon.

Kiefer Kei-Boguinard had come on as a sub, and the French-born back is a big load who can break tackles. 

"That was our plan," Hundley said. "Commit defenders so we could get Kiefer one-on-one with someone. When he's got that space, he's hard to stop."

The call came to go wide. Much of the Army defensive line was now committed in or near the rucks, and Kei-Boguinard might have a shot if the ball was moved quickly.

And it was. Kei-Boguinard got the pass but didn't exactly have that one-on-one he needed. No worries...

He pumped his legs through one tackler...

Simply trucked over another...

... and powered a shoulder on a third. He had to take on three players — but one at a time and none of them forwards — as the work of the Penn State packs had kept the Army back row from spreading out to help.

It was just enough, as Kei-Boguinard carried two Army backs with him over the line for a Penn State try and a 22-21 lead. 

In the waning moments, the Nittany Lions held on for the win after the Black Knights missed a potential game-winning penalty kick.

"It was a close game and could have gone either way," Hundley said. "We missed some kicks, too. But Kiefer did a great job for us, and we knew we wanted to get him the ball."