Handing Out the Grades Following Penn State’s 33-14 Win over Central Michigan

Penn State beat Central Michigan 33-14 in one of those games you will forget about as soon as you wake up tomorrow. The Nittany Lions did enough on both sides of the ball to win while Central Michigan did enough to make things interesting just long enough for fans to get annoyed on a beautiful day that their favorite team won. Bigger fish to fry soon enough for this bunch, but for now here are the grades.

Offense: B

Penn State’s offense did, at the end of the day, do a lot of things pretty well. Kaytron Allen managed 111-yards on 13 carries as Penn State averaged 5.2 yards per carry and had a 100-yard rusher for the third-straight game. In the passing game, Sean Clifford started out 8-for-8 but then struggled to find his targets in the middle portion of the afternoon. All told he finished the day 22-for-34 for 217-yards and avoided any real mistakes, even if he didn’t have his best stuff. Parker Washington pulled down six catches while Brenton Strange had a five-catch, two-touchdown afternoon. Penn State went 5-for-6 in the red zone and went 5-for-13 on third down.

Overall 10 different players caught a pass and five different players caught multiple passes. Penn State didn’t have a single drive over 60 yards and averaged just 33.4 yards per scoring drive as Central Michigan gave the Nittany Lions a handful of short fields over the course of the day. This wasn’t a great outing by any stretch but for all the blah, Penn State still made good on short fields and took care of business. It’s an average grade because it was a pretty average performance.

Defense: C

Penn State’s defense bent, giving up a handful of long drives, but didn’t break in spite of it. This grade is a product of (much like the offensive side fo the ball) the fact it wasn’t great, but you also can’t argue with the end result. Central Michigan had 363 yards of offense and went 5-for-15 on third down and never really had a chance to get back into the game once Penn State went ahead for good in the second half. The Nittany Lions gave up plays of 25, 18 and 13 yards on third down, with two of those converting and the 25-yard gain setting up a failed fourth-and-goal attempt in the second half. Auburn had similar success the previous week converting third downs of 20, 16 and 10 yards in the losing effort. The Tigers finished the game also converting 5-of-15 attempts on third down, meaning of Penn State’s 10 third down conversions given up the past two weeks, half of them were for plays of more than 10 yards. 

This performance wasn’t nearly as disruptive in the trenches as the Nittany Lions were last weekend against Auburn and it was noticeable. As a result Penn State ended the game with two sacks and three tackles for a loss. PJ Mustipher led the way with six tackles while the Nittany Lions forced four turnovers — two through the air and two on the ground. Overall this wasn’t a bad performance but it was one of those games that made you think “If they play like this against Ohio State will they win?” Four turnovers? Probably. The rest of it will have to get better though. Honorable mention to a secondary that registered 13 pass breakups. Kalen King and Joey Porter Jr. had seven between the two of them.

Special Teams: D

Barney Amor has been fantastic punting all season long and nailed three of his four punts inside Central Michigan’s 15, giving Penn State’s defense a ton to work with. That being said, a miss from Jake Pinegar from 38-yards out and a blocked extra point really hurt the grade here, especially because this isn’t the first time these issues have popped up. A long 56-yard miss at the end of the first half doesn’t help but 56-yard field goals are more forgivable. Parker Washington has been a solid return man and seems like he could break one eventually. Special teams helped more than it hurt on Saturday but that’s only because the kicks didn’t really matter. They’re going to matter sooner rather than later and that hurts the grade the most here.

Coaching: C

Much like the rest of Saturday, this wasn’t bad but it wasn’t great here either. There wasn’t one decision that stood out, but Penn State looking like it was slogging through the afternoon has to come back at least a little bit to prep. Sticking with Kaytron Allen at running back was the right call and generally the Nittany Lions did enough to win, never really having to worry that much in the second half. This grade is low not so much because James Franklin and company really did anything wrong but more the fact it’s hard to have a game feel like that, and get a good grade in return.

Overall: C

A pretty meh game from end to end. Penn State will probably be a better team for it in the long run and also probably could have avoided this all together if it had finished the first half much like it started it. That being said, only giving up 14 points is never a bad thing in this day and age. Penn State avoided big offensive mistakes, forced a ton of turnovers and made the most of short fields. Nobody is going to think about this game ever again, so you can’t get a good grade for that, can’t get a horrible grade for winning either though.