Game Recap: Lions go into White Out game 2-0 following win over Ball State

Penn State welcomed the biggest home-opening crowd since 2008 to Beaver Stadium on Saturday, and except for the Ball State followers who made the trek to State College, those 105,323 fans surely liked what they saw. The Nittany Lions romped, 44-13, flashing their offensive versatility while coming up with a couple of defensive takeaways to put the game thoroughly out of reach.

“There were a lot of good things,” coach James Franklin said. “We won field position, we won the turnover battle and we won the explosive play battle. When you do that, you’ve got a chance to be successful.”

The Nittany Lions have been successful so far this season and are now 2-0 heading their big nonconference showdown vs. Auburn.

Saturday’s game featured the first full-capacity crowd at Penn State since November 2019, as well as the Nittany Lions’ biggest crowd for a home opener since they drew 106,577 to see them face Coastal Carolina on Aug. 30, 2008.

Here’s a look at the good and the bad:

• Once again, Penn State’s defense showed a knack for timely opportunism. A week after coming up with three critical takeaways at Wisconsin, the Nittany Lions got a pick-six from senior Jesse Luketa midway through the third quarter.

Luketa’s timing was perfect; the Lions’ offense had hit a lull, but the game wasn’t entirely out of reach at that point, with the Cardinals trailing by 18. A middle linebacker doubling as a defensive end this year, he extended his arm in the direction of the seemingly uncatchable pass, and the ball just kind of stuck to his hand.

“I’m super proud of Jesse Luketa,” Franklin said. “He didn’t know what his role was going to be coming into the season, but he trusted the coaches and trusted the program, and right now he’s impacting at defensive end, he’s impacting at linebacker and he returned his first career interception for a touchdown. That was big time.”

Later in the third quarter, redshirt sophomore cornerback Daequan Hardy also came up with an interception. For the season, the Nittany Lions have five takeaways and no giveaways.

• The Cardinals weren’t going to let senior receiver Jahan Dotson beat them deep, so the Nittany Lions countered by keeping the ball on the ground in the second half and found some success. They totaled 240 rushing yards for the game, as seven PSU ball carriers averaged 5.0 yards per carry.

Sophomore running back Keyvone Lee was particularly impressive, averaging 8.5 yards on eight carries and finishing with 68 yards. The 239-pound Lee showed the ability to change directions quickly and find holes where none seemed to exist. He also had a nice sideline catch for 24 yards.

• Senior quarterback Sean Clifford spread the wealth in passing for 230 yards. A week earlier at Wisconsin, he completed passes to only four receivers, with Dotson and Noah Cain accounting for 10 of Clifford’s 18 completions. Against Ball State, he completed passes to 10 receivers.

“I love that we were able to spread the ball around,” Franklin said. “We had 10 receivers with catches in the first half, so that was awesome.”

• After missing a short field goal and PAT last week, Jordan Stout hit 3 of 4 field goal tries, with his miss coming from 45 yards. He was 5 for 5 on PATs, averaged 51.3 yards on three punts and had touchbacks on all nine of his kickoffs.

• Two games, two targeting ejections. This time it was redshirt sophomore safety Tyler Rudolph who was flagged, and now he’ll miss the first half of the Auburn game next week. Senior linebacker Ellis Brooks missed the first half of the Ball State game after being ejected in the fourth quarter vs. Wisconsin.

• Ball State had some intermittent success on offense, and not just against the Nittany Lion reserves in the fourth quarter. The Cardinals could have made the second half more interesting if they had been able to finish off an impressive 70-yard drive that reached Penn State’s 4-yard line late in the second quarter. But they had to settle for a field goal and a 24-6 halftime deficit.

A White Out showdown against Auburn awaits, and Penn State will presumably provide the Tigers with a bit more resistance than they encountered in their first two games. They have yet to be held under 60 points, having thrashed Akron, 60-10, in their opener, and followed it with a 62-0 victory over Alabama State on Saturday.

Auburn got three touchdown catches from senior receiver Demetris Robertson, with two of those scores – 28-yarder and 36-yarder – coming during a 35-point third-quarter outburst that put the game away for the home team.

But while Robertson had a big day, Auburn did most of its damage on the ground, totaling 377 rushing yards as a team, including 147 by freshman Jarquez Hunter and 122 by sophomore Tank Bigsby.

Penn State gave up only 69 rushing yards to Ball State, but next week’s game is going to be another big challenge in a season that is not likely to feature a lot of lopsided scores like this week’s.

“I still think there’s a lot of improvement that can be made and should be made,” Franklin said. “And we’re going to have to do that.”

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