It’s probably safe to assume that most Penn State fans won’t want to think too long and hard about the Nittany Lions’ 20-19 loss to Maryland on Saturday afternoon.
A cold, windy day coupled with a poor offensive performance and a last minute loss — the fourth in a row for Penn State — doesn’t leave much for fans to write home about.
But part of the improvement process that Penn State continues to take part in will rely on self scouting, evaluation and improvement across the board.
So with that in mind, here are the grades for Penn State following Game 8 of the 2014 season.
Offense: C-
I — in general principle — have a hard time grading the offense based on the merits of a normal offense. That being said Penn State’s receivers dropped passes that they shouldn’t have and struggled to string together positive plays. Unforced errors hurt the Nittany Lions’ chances in the second half. Akeel Lynch was fairy serviceable at running back but his 51 yards on 21 carries isn’t all that flattering despite a few good runs. Geno Lewis’ long third down conversion catch was a positive but Penn State was limited in any long passing attacks down the field that gave Maryland reason to fear the deep ball. Just 219 yards of offense and a 6-for-20 third down conversion rate is disappointing — even if we’re giving Penn State some level of reasonable doubt.
Defense: A
Penn State’s defense was once again a reason to give fans hope that the Nittany Lions could pull off the win. Penn State almost did just that too thanks to forcing three turnovers and holding Maryland to only one third down conversion all game. Three of Maryland’s four scoring drives started on Penn State’s side of the field which gave an otherwise stellar defense very little room to work with. Holding Maryland to 196 yards is also hard to find fault with. Freshman safety Marcus Allen had double digit tackle numbers (11) for his second straight game and registered one of Penn State’s six sacks. Deion Barnes continues his strong season with two more sacks to bring his total up to six on the year.
Special Teams: C
This is a tough one because it’s hard to have a unit be a large part of the reason why Penn State could have won — and also why it lost — at the same time. Sam Ficken had maybe the best game of his career with a 4-for-4 performance that included kicks from 46,47 and 48 yards. On the flip side, the punting situation did not improve at all with Daniel Pasquariello taking over with 36.8 yard average although he did manage a kick of 47 yards. Overall though Penn State wasn’t a threat in the return game and poor punts hurt the field position battle including the final and eventual game winning drive by Maryland.
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