Rewriting history is in no one’s best interest. The Nittany Lions had plenty of near-flawless starts to the season in the past decade plus. It would NOT be rewriting history, however, to say the past few season openers came with more anxiety than one should expect from a team that, allegedly, was competing for national titles.
No such anxiety on Saturday.
Penn State put the foot on the gas from the jump, did not relent, and did not take the foot off the gas until it was time to kneel out the clock.
We’ve been missing the feeling of knowing the opponent has no shot for a while, and oh what a good feeling it is.
Penn State scored first. They started the game with the ball, and marched right down the field. Ryan Barker made a 38-yard field goal on the first drive. Rocco Becht then threw a 42-yard touchdown pass to Koby Howard, who would proceed to make every person in existence wonder why he sat on the bench all of last season. Becht then threw a 25-yard touchdown pass to Brett Eskildsen. Penn State led 17-0 after one quarter. Marshall did not score.
Early on, it became clear that Marshall wasn’t going to do much on offense. Caleb Bacon’s debut as a “full-time” defensive end went about as well as you would hope, and Max Granville, save for one “holding your breath” moment, showed he’ll be just fine thank you. And suddenly, Penn State’s edge play is not as big a question mark as we may have thought before the season. We’ll wait until the better teams on the schedule to mark that question as answered, but early results look pretty good! Becht threw an 8-yard touchdown pass to Benjamin Brahmer late in the second quarter, and Penn State led 24-0 at halftime.
Becht load in the third quarter was light, as his one drive ended with a 39-yard touchdown pass to Zay Robinson. Robinson, at that point, was the fourth Nittany Lion to catch a touchdown pass. Alex Manske took over from there, and showed why, even after open heart surgery in the offseason, he came with Matt Campbell from Iowa State, and is the heir apparent to Becht in 2027. Quinton Martin Jr. then ran for a 6-yard touchdown. Penn State led 38-0 after three quarters.
Connor Barry got some time in the fourth quarter, Cam Wallace ran for a 6-yard touchdown, and Penn State finished the game in the manner Penn State teams should.
I will not officially be “concerned” about the running game just yet, as Marshall sold out to stop the run. But having an answer to a team selling out to stop the run is a good silver lining to have. If anything, it’s good to know that third-stringer Quinton Martin is waiting in the wings, in a “break glass in an emergency” kind of way, as he looked the best of all the running backs.
Stats and Storylines
161 – Koby Howard’s receiving yards on six receptions. All of last season, he had 131 yards on seven receptions.
487 – Total yards for Penn State on offense. Not bad!
9 – The number of players who caught a pass in this game. Six of them were receivers!
9 – Tackles for loss in the game. We’re so back!
