Penn State Football: Show Me Your ID

UNIVERSITY PARK — The scoreboard read 31-20. The standings now read 9-2 overall and 5-2 in the Big Ten Conference. Good numbers. So why is it so hard to still — even now, 97 days after the Penn State’s first official practice of the 2009 season — get a read on this Nittany Lion football team?

It’s a SAT-like conundrum: If Team A has lost only two times, but did so at home by showing its B game in its biggest two games of the year, who really is Team A? And how much does a victory on the road in Game 12 more clearly define that Team? And if it does not, will a win in a bowl game in the 27^th state of the nation and subsequent 11-2 record do so?

Show your work. You have five minutes. Begin now.

If you were counting on Penn State’s sluggish and sloppy victory Indiana in Beaver Stadium to provide many clues, you’re surely mistaken.

It was a bad start for the Nittany Lions. The only people who showed up later than the students for the noon kick were the student-athletes. Must have been senioritis on Senior Day. Especially those folks who threw the ball. Or tried to catch it on punts. Quarterback Daryll Clark threw a pair of interceptions on Penn State’s first two possessions, while Drew Astorino and Graham Zug fumbled away two punt returns. (Click here for photos from the game.)

That Indiana was the recipient of four first-half turnovers and was only able convert them to seven points — an ROI of 1.55 points per miscue — was part the dysfunction of its offense and part the good form of the Penn State defense.

There’s a reason PSU’s D only gives up an average of 11.6 points per game, among the top five stingiest units in all of major college football.

“We’re resilient,” said defensive coordinator Tom Bradley, still wearing his Penn State cap that shielded his face from the TV lights after the game. He looked tired, worn. But he could still smile.

They did it the hard way on Saturday. The Hoosiers were up 10-0, and 5 minutes and 38 seconds still remained in the first quarter.

This is a place Indiana had been before. In its three preceding road Big Ten games against Michigan, Northwestern and Iowa, it jumped out to an early lead and held on until at least the third quarter. Richie Rich and Michigan snagged their only 2009 conference win by scoring against the Hooiser with just 2:29 left in the game.

No matter. Indiana on Saturday was another test for the Nittany Lions. A take-home test.

The 10 points scored by the Hoosiers was a third of all the first-quarter points the opposition has scored against Penn State in 11 games this season. It stopped there.

LINEBACKER (STOPPING) IU

With senior linebackers Josh Hull and Sean Lee, senior defensive tackle Jared Odrick and senior-with-junior-eligibility Navarro Bowman leading the way, the Nittany Lions turned back Indiana three straight times following a Lion turnover. Two of the stops were 3-and-outs, one was a 6-and-out.

Standard stuff, really, for the Lion defense. It entered the game nationally ranked from second to 14^th in the top six defensive categories.

It is not always pretty. On Saturday, they absorbed 51 passes, 298 yards and two touchdown passes from Indiana quarterback Ben Chappell. Their goal is to hold on, hold on and then create a mistake or capitalize on one.

The strategy worked again on Saturday. The second half began with a 10-play, 38-yard drive that culminated with a 34-yard field goal attempt by Colin Wagner. The kick clanked the right upright and fell back upfield. To that point, it had been that kind of day.

Seven plays later Bowman intercepted a Chappell pass and ran 73 yards for a touchdown and Penn State’s first lead at 17-10. The Nittany Lions, especially their defense, absorbed the Hoosiers’ best punch, and then took it to the house.

That’s who they are. Fight on State.

“Fighters. They’re a team of fighters,” Bradley said of the Penn State defense. “They fight the other team, they fight each other. They fight with me. I fight with them.”

* * * * *

Clark’s two picks came in an ugly run, one of only two such blips this season. Beginning with the fourth quarter of the Ohio State and into the first quarter against Indiana, Clark was 5 of 12 with three interceptions.

Prior to that, Clark went 115 passes without an interception, a string that covered 17 quarters. That was a big chunk of a hot streak where he had nine touchdown passes, five rushing TDs and a single interception. And five consecutive victories.

Clark is now 20-4 as a starter, a hearty .800 winning percentage. If Penn State wins out, he’ll be 22-4 — that’s 85 percent. Tough to be better.

But as we continue to show our work, we have to offer up Iowa as well. Against the Hawkeyes, in the Big Game of the Year, Part I, Clark was 12 of 32 for 175 yards and three interceptions. Clark, for one, will need the final two games of his career to cement his legacy.

This offense can be perplexing. Witness Stefen Wisniewski, who sat there in the Beaver Stadium interview room, wearing a blue polo shirt, a pair of jeans and a bit of a bewildered look on his face.

He had already answered a variant of the question and delivered it with efficiency if not effectiveness.

“I feel like our running game, when we’re executing, is working great. We move the ball,” Wisniewski said. “And when we’re protecting Daryll and he’s on, we’re moving the ball well there.”

The when…when…is code for inconsistency. Galen and Jay have spent the season hiding a sub-par line, shuffling the cards, managing now without a healthy Stephfon Green and hoping Clark could be the ace, no matter what. The result is a unit that can perform capably but lacks the steady nature of the defense.

So, just who is this Penn State offense, a unit that has scored a scant touchdown each in the first half of the past three games against Northwester, Ohio State and Indiana? Just what is the identity of this group, which has produced a 990-yard runner, a nearly 2,500-yard / 19-touchdown passer and almost 29 points a game?

What will people say about this offensive unit 10 years from now, Wisniewski was asked. He thought. And thought. For about 10 seconds.

“I don’t know, because we are all so different,” he finally replied.

Penn State running back Evan Royster, who carried the ball 17 times for 95 yards and a touchdown, and caught four passes for 39 yards, has been on edge about the offense all season. His post-game comments, win or lose, have a bit of exacting sharpness to them. (They do in-game as well. On Saturday, he exchanged angry words with an offensive lineman on the field.)

Rosyer is smart, thoughtful and honest.

“The coaches can change some things for us individually. Some of the players have an identity,” he said. “But as a unit we do not.”

The offense may have its poster boy in DeOn’tae Pannell, who moved from offensive tackle to left guard to fill in for the injured Johnnie Troutman. It’s a tricky shift to make 11 games into the season, necessitated by the injury and a lack of confidence in backup Matt Stankiewitch. But after the game the 6-foot-5, 300-pound sophomore from Michigan was nonplussed.

So, what’s your offense all about? He was asked. What defines it?

“We respond to adversity,” he said quickly and assuredly. “ We’ve dealt with a lot of changes. Some of the time we’ve been criticized, and I think we’ve responded.

“You know,” said Pannell, “everything isn’t just black and white.”