Penn State improved to 4-0 on the year Saturday night with a 31-0 victory over No. 24 Iowa to pick up a convincing win against another Big Ten foe. The Nittany Lions have now scored 30+ point in 11-straight games, a mark which leads the nation. Streaks are good but grades are better, and here are Penn State’s following its latest Big Ten victory.
Offense: B+
Penn State’s offensive performance is a bit of a “tale of two halves” story. On the whole, the Nittany Lions provided everyone with a pretty methodical showing but it took a little bit of time to get the ball rolling and the second half was better than the first as a result. That in and of itself is not a disqualifying feature, but it does bring up the question of whether or not “tenderize the opponent with short runs” is the kind of equation that will work in bigger games.
That being said this group scored 31 points, converted nearly half of its third downs and did a lot more good than bad. A 4.1 yards per play average doesn’t seem like a sustainable model but Nick Singleton, KeAndre Lambert-Smith and Drew Allar both did plenty enough good to boost this grade. Penn State’s offense can get better and still needs to figure out its deep threats in the passing game, but it’s hard to argue with the overall result. The grade takes a knock on the merits of “it could be better” and less so that Penn State played poorly against an otherwise good defense. Tyler Warren continues to be a legitimate red zone threat.
Defense: A+
Iowa’s offense may have been without some of its weapons and have systemic problems in its own right, but Penn State’s defense finally played the way people have been expecting it to. Iowa had six fumbles and lost four which gives Penn State’s defense a whopping nine turnovers in the last two games alone. Considering that the Hawkeyes only had 33 offensive snaps nobody put up wild defensive numbers but Curtis Jacobs does get credit for recovering two fumbles. Iowa for its part had one third-down conversion, and four first downs all night to go with 76-yards of offense. Iowa is its own worst enemy offensively and Penn State did nothing to make that any easier on the Hawkeyes.
Special Teams: C+
This group is helped a bit by bad weather giving it the benefit of the doubt but it’s also not like “messing up because it’s rainy” doesn’t still count the same on the scoreboard. Kaden Saunders had his most uncertain game in the punt return spot and Alex Felkins missed an inconsequential but still totally reasonable field goal. Felkins gets credit here for a 46-yard make but the grade gets knocked again for Riley Thompson seeming capable but not a weapon-level punter just yet. Penn State did recover a muffed punt but also muffed a punt so it’s a bit of a wash here. Every big game this group can get through without being a problem the better off Penn State will be. Credit though to Felkins for his make of the night that gave Penn State a 3-0 lead in front of an early angsty crowd.
Coaching: A
Penn State’s play calling in the first half left a bit to be desired but on the whole Iowa never looked like a team that was going to win this game and Penn State never looked like a team that was going to lose. There was an early substitution issue and death-by-1000-two-yard-runs was a buzzkill but there was no coaching malpractice here. Whatever Penn State’s coaches said at halftime or decided to do in the second half worked and the Nittany Lion offense churned along quite nicely, especially on the first drive of the second half. Manny Diaz has this defense getting up to speed which is only good news for Penn State, which is assuming this defense will end up being one of the best in the nation not just on paper but with the eye test too. James Franklin is at his best when it gets to be spiteful and Iowa gave him plenty to work with after these teams last met.
Overall: A
Iowa’s offense might be bad but Penn State showed up to play on defense and took care of business on offense against a talented defense. End of the day a 31-0 win over a Top 25 team isn’t the sort of thing you can scoff at. Penn State has things to improve on and can improve on, but all told this was a beatdown.
