Picking Penn State to win on Saturday was not at all an unreasonable choice but if you picked the Nittany Lions to win 41-12 there would have been plenty of people scratching their heads at you. But at the end of the day that’s exactly what happened as Penn State finally found its running game, got an efficient afternoon from Sean Clifford and really avoided any major mistakes while forcing the Tigers into quite a few. The recipe for a blowout isn’t complicated, but actually doing it sure can be harder than it seems. Penn State sits at 3-0 on the year and the grades certainly reflect the score this week.
Offense: A
Penn State ran the ball for 245 yards on Saturday which felt like the most noteworthy thing the program has done since winning the Big Ten title. More accurately, it was the most rushing yards in a single game Penn State has had since rushing for 240 against Ball State last year in a similarly scored 44-13 win. Nick Singleton was able to recreate his performance against Ohio last week with 124 yards on the ground over 10 carries and two touchdowns, including a long 54-yard scamper. It was one thing for the true freshman to put up impressive sprints against Ohio, but doing it against an SEC team — no matter how good or bad — was noteworthy. Singleton can probably add even more strength next summer but it’s hard to argue with what he has right now. Fellow freshman Kaytron Allen was also solid in a nine carry, 52 yard effort.
The running game was everything for Penn State on Saturday as the Nittany Lions cranked out five rushing touchdowns and managed to find room between the tackles for what felt like the first time in ages. As a result it was not a very busy night for quarterback Sean Clifford, who went 14-for-19 and 178 yards but was never called on to do all that much work. Tight end Brenton Strange led the way with six catches on seven targets for 80 yards and replicated his long effort play against Purdue with a 59-yard hurdle-and run. This was the second year in a row Penn State managed to burn Auburn with tight end play. Penn State ended up going 5-for-11 on third down and averaged 7.7 yards per play at the end of the day. Penn State’s offensive line didn’t give up a sack all afternoon either and Sean Clifford went without an interception for the second straight game. Clifford’s 19 attempts were the fewest in his career in a game he played start to finish.
This team will probably have flashier outings in the passing game but you can’t argue with a day that ends with 41 points, 477 yards of offense and that yardage split almost dead even between rushing yards (245) and passing yards (232). Honorable mentions to Mitchell Tinsley for some tough catches on Penn State’s first scoring drive and to Devyn Ford for his best performance in a while, going seven carries for 37 yards.
Defense: A
Penn State’s defense absolutely teed off on Auburn and had all sorts of numbers to show for it. The Nittany Lions ended the day with six sacks, 11 tackles for a loss and held the Tigers to a 5-for-15 mark on third down, with two of those conversions happening via some degree of tip-your-cap efforts by Auburn players. All told this was the best this group has looked all year and after facing two teams that got rid of the ball quickly, the defensive line had its way with the Auburn offensive front. Freshman linebacker Abdul Carter was something to be reckoned with, picking up six solo tackles, a pass breakup and a forced fumble. Veteran safety Ji’Ayir Brown also tallied his latest interception and forced a strip sack (the first sack of his career) as Penn State racked up four turnovers by the end of the afternoon. Corner Kalen King had some nice plays in coverage after teams went away from him the first two weeks and likely earned himself fewer targets in the coming weeks as teams go away from him again as a result.
It should be said that Auburn is not — it would appear — very good, but Penn State’s defense took full advantage of that. Zakee Wheatley had his first interception of the year which was his second turnover impact of the season following a forced fumble against Purdue in Week 1. Auburn ended the day with 415 yards of offense but a 2-of-4 red zone efficiency compared to Penn State’s 5-of-5 really told the story of the game. Auburn had a short field after Penn State’s failed fourth-down attempt but came away with just three points. The Tigers twice got inside Penn State’s 30 and had those drives end with interceptions.
Auburn helped Penn State out a bit by not really being good at anything, but you either play good defense or you don’t. Running back — and honorary best Auburn offensive player — Tank Bigsby ended the day with 39 yards on nine carries. It’s maybe slightly disconcerting that Penn State gave up 400+ yards and probably would have given up more points if not for the turnovers but you can’t knock a team for playing well and making the most of Auburn’s mistakes. Everyone would play worse if you just took out the good plays.
Special Teams: A
Jake Pinegar was perfect from the extra point spot and hit a 48-yarder at a semi-critical junction to really bounce back from a shaky performance against Ohio the week prior. A 28-yarder was less dramatic but no less important. Penn State’s return game hasn’t been overly exciting this year but it hasn’t really needed to be. Barney Amor had three punts for a 43-yard average but didn’t need to do much work in any real key spots. All told this was the perfect example of a game where if you don’t think about the special teams unit at all then that’s perfectly fine. Best thing here was Pinegar getting his groove back. The rest wasn’t a positive but it also wasn’t a negative.
Coaching: B+
Penn State’ decision to go for it on the fourth down on its very first drive seemed like a desperation move against a team that had too many problems to play desperation ball. In hindsight, it may have simply been James Franklin having a sense his team might do exactly what it did on Saturday and win by nearly 30, so in turn going for it wasn’t all that much of a gamble. The call to go for it was fine and the play was probably fine. It just didn’t quite work. In his defense this is all an example of saying an idea was good or bad based on the outcome. The only other real knock is a third quarter drive when Penn State was up 21-6 and ended up losing a yard before kicking that long 48-yard field goal. The knock here: Penn State was in control of this game and had a chance following a turnover to work a short field to really end the proceedings early in the third quarter. The calls and the execution just weren’t there and Auburn ended up driving the ball on what appeared to be a touchdown probable march before throwing an interception. Had that Auburn touchdown occurred it would have been 21-13 and the game would have felt much different. Had Penn State scored it would have been 28-6 and things would have been different then as well. Killer instinct is key, but 41-12 is pretty killer.
Props for Drew Allar time.
Overall: A
I mean they won 41-12, did just about everything perfect and finally ran the ball like a team that wants to compete for a Big Ten Title. You can nitpick here or there but this was clinical and not at all what anyone reasonably expected.
