After a shaky, confidence-diminishing week-two win against FIU, Penn State football came out of the gate firing. Nicholas Singleton had eight carries on the opening drive alone and finished with a powerful touchdown run.
But then the Nittany Lions put the car into neutral again.
Despite an embarrassment of riches in the field control battle, it was two punts and two Ryan Barker field goals before Penn State found the end zone again. It was much of the same “meh” we saw last week against FIU: missed
assignments along the offensive line, puzzling Drew Allar throws, and a collapsing rushing attack.
Still, James Franklin’s squad took a 21-0 lead into the locker room at halftime. An efficient seven-play, 70-yard drive put Penn State back into first gear, and Allar made a throw that reminded Beaver Stadium why he was a five-star recruit. A Villanova field goal bid was snuffed out by a penalty and a solid effort by Justin Lustig & Co.
Still, things felt bad. The scoreboard didn’t reflect the game. Villanoa, after all, is an FCS team. Penn State is the No. 2 team in the country and is still struggling to move the ball, even after a week to improve on the sluggish FIU performance.
It took an ugly Allar interception for the Nittany Lions to get into rhythm once and for all — putting together professional drives to get both Singleton and Kaytron Allen in the end zone. Then the starters got pulled out, and the fleeting three-game sample size we were given before the Oregon game was over. The curtains closed. What do we make of this team? I’m not sure.
Lost in the offensive chaos is the pure dominance of Jim Knowles’ defensive unit. A second-quarter Nevada field goal was the lone score allowed by Penn State’s starting defense. Yes, the three-game sample size did not contain the strongest competition, but it’s hard to ignore individual performances from guys like Dani Dennis-Sutton and Tony Rojas. It’s hard to ignore how well the secondary has played. It’s hard to ignore the intensity of this unit, and it’s hard to ignore how good the same guys look on special teams, too.
It feels like this defense can hang with any team in the country, surely including the next opponent on the Nittany Lions’ schedule.
How real these so-called offensive woes are will become apparent against Oregon. You can’t hide behind a final score in a top-five matchup. We’ve had three games to glean all we can about how just good this team is, and the evidence is inconclusive. The final scores pass the eye test, but there are real concerns with Allar and the rest of his supporting cast. We’ve seen a lot of good, and we’ve seen a lot of bad.
At the end of the day, the Nevada, FIU, and Villanova games did not matter. They were penciled in wins — preseason games, essentially. James Franklin had to decide what he would do with them to help prepare for Oregon and beyond. Every Twitter take, bit of film analysis, and press conference quip can only go so far. It’s all a moot point.
We’ll know for sure on September 27.
