Well that was a week. Penn State got thumped on the road and now heads straight toward a gauntlet of games between Minnesota and Ohio State at Beaver Stadium. 5-1 ain’t bad, but a 41-17 loss at Michigan certainly did little to calm the natives. One game can’t change a season for the worse, but it certainly can send a train running down those tracks. Here are five storylines to follow as Penn State looks to right the ship.
Can They Make You Forget?
It’s hard to deny how Penn State’s loss to Michigan made everyone feel, not in terms of disappointment but simply how surprised everyone was that the Nittany Lions looked so out of place. It’s one thing if they had lost. That happens. It wouldn’t have even been so bad had they lost by a decent amount, but Penn State didn’t even look like it belonged on the field. That will happen, but it makes the next week all the more important to bounce back from. Nobody is going to simply forget that game with Ohio State just around the corner, but nothing helps fade the memory quite like a win. The better Penn State plays the less and less you’ll think about Michigan.
Can They Make You Believe?
With Ohio State just around the corner it’s hard not to put Penn State’s current form up against the Buckeyes. On a good day, that might be a dubious proposition at best, but with Ohio State running over teams and the Nittany Lions coming off one of their worst performances in a long time, it’s fair to say optimism is not at an all-time high for this program. Can Penn State do anything to make you believe that a noon kick and an insanely early morning in traffic is going to result in anything good? Penn State has long given Ohio State a run for its money for no real good reason but you’d have to really have faith to think the Nittany Lions are going to give the Buckeyes their first loss of the year. How this paragraph is being written proves my point; can Penn State make anyone believe in the upset?
Can Sean Clifford Make You Think Twice?
At this point so many words have been written about Sean Clifford that we should really just copy and paste the obligatory “he’s good and sometimes he’s not good” right into here and call it a day. In any case, if Sean Clifford is going to actually be Penn State’s best chance at winning games the rest of the season, these are the games when he proves his worth. It’s hard to say if true freshman Drew Allar is in a place to actually perform better than Clifford but nothing will help more to ease the tension brewing between fans and Clifford/James Franklin than if the longtime starting quarterback can go out there and perform. Will that make everyone happy? Probably not, but if there was ever a game for Clifford to win over a few fans during the final stretch of his career, this would be one of them.
Can the Defense Stop the Alarms?
Penn State’s offense has so long been the weak point on this team that when the Nittany Lions’ defense decides to take a turn at struggling it really throws everyone for a loop. Minnesota provides the Nittany Lions with a good shot at a redemption tour on the ground as the Gophers are right up there with Michigan in terms of rushing offense. If Penn State can slow down this group on the ground it’ll go a long way towards hitting reset for expectations with this bunch. Might be wishful thinking that they can stop Minnesota and Ohio State in back to back weeks but something far less than 400 yards on the ground would certainly help get things back to more normal.
Can Everyone Calm Down?
This is pretty much everything rolled into one, but can Penn State fans, players, coaches and everyone else take a deep breath? Penn State doesn’t need to win by 40 and it doesn’t need to look like it’s going to beat Ohio State, but if it could get back to something normal — a well played game — that could help ease some big narrative issues around the program right now. Of course, Ohio State lurking around the corner doesn’t exactly mean that feeling will last for long, but a game that lets fans enjoy an atmosphere at Beaver Stadium, some beers and some touchdowns could help everyone’s mental health in late October.
