Penn State improved to 7-1 on the year Saturday following an overly dramatic 33-24 last-minute win over Indiana. Penn State was what Penn State has been all year but the Nittany Lions overcame a late turnover and a few defensive miscues to pick up another victory. Fans will remember this as ugly, but eventually it’ll just show up on a Wikipedia page as another win. Another thing people will eventually forget? The grades.
Offense: C
I hate grading this group. Penn State’s offense is by most reasonable measures not very good at most things and yet still scores 31 points (the defense scored the other two), cranks out a game-winning drive and wins by simply being too damn persistent. Nobody is going to watch this team between now and a to be determined future date and be like “wow, what an enjoyable experience” but they do just enough to win against everyone not named Ohio State — so far. It’s hard to feel too good about Drew Allar’s first career interception — especially when it came — and it’s hard to feel too good about 3.1 yards per carry against a bad rush defense or a receiving room that provides no regular reliability. That said, a 7-for-18 mark on third down is an improvement and 4-for-4 in the red zone is a good number. This group gets a C because at the end of the day it has played better and it has played worse and the good things just about evened out the bad. I don’t know, Penn State is probably going to win 10 games this year; I guess it doesn’t matter how watching this offense makes me feel anymore.
Defense: C
In the defense of Penn State’s defense, this group was due for an off afternoon. All things considered, this game really came down to a few brain farts on blown coverages and one really really good pass. Indiana only rushed for 80 yards, but some of those came on some bigger runs on the interior of the line, which was an early season issue for Penn State in the trenches. Indiana getting 349 yards on 53 plays is a bit alarming at a 6.6 yards per play clip, but like most weeks Penn State’s defense did enough most of the game that a better offensive attack could have greatly changed the tune of the outcome. This was by no means Penn State’s best work on this side of the ball, but much like last week, holding a team to 10 or 14 points through three quarters ought to be enough to avoid nearly losing in the end. This grade gets knocked because Penn State almost lost, but two bad plays aside this game and this tense outcome was much more a product of the offense than not. Extra credit for the late sack, fumble, safety combo, even if nobody could pick up that ball for a good 20 yards.
Special Teams: C
A missed field goal [51 yards, soooo there’s that] and a block in the back taking a touchdown off the board hurt this grade but recovering a muffed punt, having a punting average of 49 yards, and hitting a 50 yard field goal help it. Not the best day from a group that has really avoided being a problem child for a few weeks now but also not the best. Nobody was going to look at Penn State’s special teams as the culprit if it had lost on Saturday, which is all you can ask for in a game like that. All of that being said, could have been better and will need to be flawless once Michigan comes around.
Coaching: C
Sensing a theme here? Penn State almost lost and played maybe its most lukewarm game on both sides of the ball this season but actual coaching decisions didn’t hurt Penn State any and I’m not sure that “fixed all of its issues in one week of practice” was really going to happen. You can complain all day about any given play call, but until Penn State can functionally execute things on a regular basis, it is basically just shooting from the hip on what will or won’t work. Credit to whoever made the call to run the ball more this week —a bit too late on that, but nevertheless.
Overall: C
Would be kind of weird if this was higher. You could argue Penn State should get a lower grade for a generally blah performance but finding a way to win gives this immunity from failure. At this point Penn State should get to at least 10 wins playing a pretty meh style of football, which might say more about the teams they beat than anything else. Wins are wins, even if that feels like a bit of a lie sometimes.
