Wins are wins and that’s two in a row for Penn State, with both coming in fairly convincing fashion. That doesn’t mean it was always pretty or without the low points, but when you start a season 0-5, you take them however you can get them. In this case to the tune of a 23-7 win in windy New Jersey.
Penn State will look to improve in its final two games of the regular season, but at this point it has found a formula that works and if it ain’t broke. Week 8 ain’t the time to fix it anyway.
Here are the grades.
Offense: B
At no point during this season is Penn State’s offense going to blow you away. A lot of this has to do with the fact it isn’t really even trying to impress you; it’s trying to get a few yards here, a few yards there, a first down and a third down conversion. Rinse and repeat.
With that in mind you have to grade Penn State through those objectives rather than trying to compare the Nittany Lions to Alabama. (I mean, you shouldn’t be doing this on a good day to begin with.) Should this group be better overall? Probably. Could Penn State’s coaching staff have done a better job getting this team prepared? Who really knows — but probably. It is what it is and the Nittany Lions are who they are. We can unpack how it came to be at another time.
At the end of the day Penn State controlled this game. The offensive line created huge holes, Sean Clifford was smart with the ball and Will Levis — for all the eye rolling fans might have about quarterback draws — did manage 65 yards on 14 carries. Penn State as an offense generated two passing plays of 20+ yards and 10 rushes of 10+ yards. The chunk plays were there mostly on the ground but Penn State was mostly running it to the tune of 57 total carries.
Clifford had an unremarkable outing, but did at one point complete seven of eight passes with the only incompletion coming at the hands — or lack thereof — of a Parker Washington drop.
A 3-for-3 red zone trip is okay, but Penn State left points on the board coming away with just 13 points. That drops the grade, too, out of principle.
The Nittany Lions were not good on third down, 4-for-15, which was surprising for a team that has been pretty good at those this year. Penn State averaged the need for 7.7 yards per third down, a bit higher than it might like, but not really any different than the rest of the season.
Penn State lost its edge a bit in the second half (45 yards in the third quarter), which is why the grade is lower, but still managed to sit on the ball for nearly 17 minutes of that half and 36 minutes total. Coupled with the fact Rutgers had no real consistent offensive threat of its own, Penn State wasn’t exactly trying to score quickly and 248 rushing yards helped that cause. A tipped interception by Clifford and a fumble hurt this grade, but generally speaking Penn State played well enough to win, well enough to go up 20-0 and well enough to remind everyone that Rutgers has some work left to do even in a down year for the Nittany Lions.
Defense: A
This group is hilarious to grade because it has pretty consistently slowed teams down this year, especially the past two weeks, while also making you feel like it’s about to give up a big play at any moment.
Rutgers is not good, and Penn State’s defensive front had its way in the trenches really for the first time all year, picking up two sacks and six tackles for a loss. Even plays it didn’t make in the box score were still there on the field to be had.
In total Rutgers had four rushes of 10+ yards, and three passes of 15+ yards, which honestly is not a bad outing at all, especially when three of those runs came on quarterback keepers rather than between the tackles running. All of this coming against an offense that was averaging 30 points a game.
Jesse Luketa led the way with 10 tackles, while Joey Porter Jr. added seven of his own. Jaquan Brisker and Brandon Smith both had nice moments along the way and Penn State’s defense really looked like the defense you’ve come to expect. This all culminated with Rutgers coming up short on two low yardage fourth-downs and Penn State putting the clamps on Rutgers’ running game most of the day. In total the Scarlet Knights had just 43 yards in the first half which was more than enough for Penn State’s offense to take advantage of.
Other things of note: Rutgers averaged 3.2 yards a carry and was 3-for-15 on third down.
There are some tackles Penn State’s defenders would like back, but if you’re only going to let a team score seven points and gain 205 total yards, you’re going to be OK with that. You can split hairs with this performance, but you can’t knock the grade.
Special Teams: B+
Rutgers had a 62-yard punted downed at the two. This is unrelated to Penn State but I wanted to mention it because I enjoy a good punt and you should too.
On Penn State’s side of the ball, in a game where there are big wind issues and no shortages of punts you really just want to go home without having made a million unforced errors. The Nittany Lions did that and Jordan Stout was his usually long-legged self with a 47-yard field goal while Jake Pinegar banged home two shorter kicks.
Penn State’s return game is still unremarkable but it also isn’t making mistakes, which is a plus. Rutgers had nothing to speak of in the return game which is a credit to Penn State with Rutgers having an otherwise pretty explosive return unit with Aron Cruicshank.
Not much else to talk about, which is usually a good thing when it comes to special teams.
Coaching: A-
Have to give this group some credit for understanding what this team is and finding a way to make it work. Clifford is a different quarterback the past two weeks and while the Will Levis package may be predictable, it tends to work. All told James Franklin and his staff have adjusted their thinking and it has given them two decently comfortable wins as a result.
The only real issue here is the second half drive when Penn State went to Levis on three straight plays with three straight runs. Levis is fine, but he’s not a running back, and if he was he wouldn’t even be Penn State’s best running back. With so many options and so many guys running the ball well, it’s one thing to milk the clock, it’s another to do it that way. Every play looks like a bad idea when it doesn’t work, but that drive was nauseating.
Also maybe let Levis throw? And if you don’t want your backup quarterback throwing the ball maybe it’s time to work on that.
Just two penalties for Penn State, and the Nittany Lions are playing like they care, and these days that’s not as easy as you might imagine.
If we’re going to hit them while they’re down, have to give the staff credit when things are going better. Especially at this stage of the season when it’s easy to lose a team.
Overall: B+
Penn State is winning, is playing better on both sides of the ball and is finding a way to get the job done. It isn’t always pretty, it’s maybe not what anyone imagined, but you can’t fault the effort or the commitment to figure things out. Could it be better? Yep. But it has also been a lot worse and everything is relative at this point.
