Thursday, March 28, 2024
Home » News » Local & Penn State Sports » Penn State Football: Handing Out the Grades Following the Nittany Lions’ 38-17 Win Over Villanova

Penn State Football: Handing Out the Grades Following the Nittany Lions’ 38-17 Win Over Villanova

Offense: A/B/C?

I think Penn State’s own offense doesn’t really know what to think of this game. Jahan Dotson and Parker Washington did their thing with KeAndre Lamber-Smith adding in his own 83-yard touchdown. Dotson and Parker each had over 100 yards receiving while the later had two touchdowns to his name while Dotson scored on a 52-yard reception on Penn State’s first play from scrimmage.

All told Sean Clifford threw for 401-yards but so many of those came after the catch. By the end of the afternoon seven receptions accounted for 332 yards of offense and four touchdowns. There’s nothing really wrong with that, but it does leave a weird taste in your mouth trying to decide if A: a few big scoring plays are good or B: a bunch of not so good plays are bad.

Because this is the hard part, Penn State rushed for just 80 yards and averaged 2.4 yards per carry. Noah Cain had one carry as he recovered from a mild injury he was dealing with during the week but Penn State’s offensive line didn’t do much to help everyone else who gave it a go. Keyvone Lee and John Lovett managed 66 yards on 18 carries – which isn’t awful but didn’t feel all that productive in the moment.

Penn State went 0-for-3 in third-and-short situations and 4-for-12 overall on third down. The tight ends were largely absent after a big game against Auburn except for Tyler Warren who has turned into some Tommy Stevens/Fullback/Wildcat *thing*.

At the end of the day you can’t knock a 400-yard passing effort but bad third downs, no running game and a general feeling this game could have been over by halftime hurt this grade. So a little A, a little B and a little C here.

Defense: A

Has there been much to complain about with this unit all year? Occasionally Penn State’s opponent scores, or moves the ball a bit. In terms of big picture issues though, not really any come to mind so far. Villanova wasn’t on the field all that long at any given moment so there are no big individual stats that stand out although Ellis Brooks did lead the way with three tackles. Defensive end Arnold Ebiketie continues to be a dude at his position and finally picked up a sack this week after terrorizing Bo Nix and Auburn all last weekend. Brandon Smith also had two tackles for a loss and Jaquan Brisker laid out at least one massive hit.

Penn State’s secondary was only credited with one interception but had a dropped pick-six and another interception wiped off the board because of a penalty. This group is doing its part every week and had four pass breakups to show for it. Villanova was 4-for-14 on third down with six of those attempts coming from nine or more yards to gain.

All told Penn State’s defense did what it has done all year, and that’s give up very little points, yards and momentum. The fact this group feels like an afterthought says a lot about the year it’s having four weeks in.

Special Teams: B-

Jordan Stout missed a 53-yard field goal which doesn’t seem like the sort of thing you should really knock a guy for but his kickoff out of bounds was an unexpected mistake. Penn State’s return game seems to be perpetually on the brink of a big one but Villanova’s punt unit was effective in keeping Jahan Dotson in check. It’s not so much that this group was all that bad on a day when it wasn’t really going to matter, but nothing about it really wow’d you either. Stout does get credit for the fact all four his punts were downed inside the 20. May not have mattered on Saturday but trends like that will win you a lot fo games in the long run. Drive start average is huge and special teams can make all the difference in that area. This grade is lower because of the mistakes, it would have been lower but a missed 53-yarder can only hurt you so much.

Coaching: B

Mike Yurcich knew what he wanted to do to exploit Villanova and for the most part it worked. Penn State’s running game needs to improve but that’s not the sort of thing that changes over night and Yurcich did his part with screens and passes in the flat to make up for some rushing woes. Penn State’s defense has been so good this year that hardly anyone talks about about Brent Pry these days so that has to count for something. By and large Saturday – if we’re going to chalk some of this up to indifference – is an example of why player leadership matters. That’s not at all to say there is an actual leadership issue, but if you’re going to have a bad few days of practice and sort of sleepwalk through a game a lot of that comes down to players as much as it does actual schematic prep. When it’s all said and done Penn State won, had over 500 yards of offense and really only gave up three points with the first team defense. That’s a solid outing, issues or not.

Overall: B

Yea it was a groggy performance against a team that never really had a chance against Penn State but the Nittany Lions could have done a better job of making this game less of a game. At the end of the day this is the first easy week Penn State has had in ages with an all Big Ten schedule last year and three very different kinds of emotional games to open up this season. It’s not ideal that the Nittany Lions made this game a little uglier than it needed to be but it’s hard to imagine this group not getting up for all the big games that really matter the rest of the season. So sure, stomp your feet, but also who cares. Every team in America has a weekend like this, it was just Penn State’s turn.

If nothing else, look around the scoreboards. It’s better to win with ease and look ugly doing it than to lose. A win is a win.