Penn State Football Report Card: Grading the win over Indiana

What did you think of Penn State’s 24-0 win over Indiana?

Head coach James Franklin's team was dominant on defense, incredible on special teams, and did enough on offense to allow those two superb areas to stand up in the fifth victory of the year.

"I thought overall, it was an unbelievable environment," Franklin said. "We've been fortunate, I think we've been over 105,000 [fans] each week, that's had a huge factor on our success so far. I also think just the energy after last year, I think it's been great for everybody. It's been great for our community, and I know it's been great for our football program specifically."

Like we do every week, it’s time to hand out the grades.

Is this too harsh on a night that saw the Nittany Lions run for 208 yards and put up 408 total? Perhaps, but when stacked against the play of the defense and special teams, it's difficult to assign a grade that's anything higher than what we have here.

Quarterback Sean Clifford admitted after the game that he missed one too many easy throws throughout a 17 for 33 performance that equaled 178 yards, three touchdowns, and an interception, and they're the kind that can put a team in a hole if its defense isn't crushing a pedestrian offense every single drive.

The ground game was statistically better, but Noah Cain doesn't always seem to be as great of a threat as expected. Keyvone Lee is probably the best back, but the combination of blocking and tailback play continues to be an issue in obvious running situations. The Nittany Lions were a terrible one of five on third and five or less in this one and also failed to score on a fourth and goal at the one. That is not a winning formula over the course of a season.

Penn State might as well have been leading 240-0 with how bad the Hoosiers' offense was, but there will be nights when opposing attacks solve the Nittany Lions' defense, which makes scoring into the 30s and even 40s a must. Running 76 plays but having only an eight minute time of possession advantage says a lot about how quickly many drives ended, and PSU won't always be fortunate to not have it matter down the road.

Feel free to disagree, but it was a C+ effort in many respects. That said, Jahan Dotson continues to be absolutely terrific.

What else is there to say about Penn State's defense at this point?

While we knew coming into the season that Brent Pry's unit had the chance to be special, there were still so many questions to answer back in August. The secondary was always going to be a strength, and it was again on this night with two interceptions and six pass breakups, but the defensive line has been the truly pleasant surprise, especially considering Adisa Isaac's absence and also the fact that it's not a deep rotation upfront, but it hasn't had to be because the starters are so good.

Indiana was constantly under duress from the opening drive, and whether it was Micahel Penix Jr., or Jack Tuttle, who replaced him after a second half should injury, the Hoosiers quarterback were pressured over and over again, and the rushing attack was anything but nice as it finished with only 69 yards.

Penn State has yet to face a high-flying attack, but so what? It doesn't need to prove anything to anyone at this point. It put all of its talents on display in primetime and turned in arguably its best performance of the season, even if it's pretty hard to top the incredible one at Wisconsin five weeks ago.

Speaking of running out of words to describe exemplary performances, how should Jordan Stout's night be described?

We're going to go with terrific.

It's hard to express just how important the do-everything specialist's punting is. He booms it so high and far that the gunners are waiting for the returner to catch it and fair catches are almost as routine as the touchbacks from his kickoffs. Stout also crushed a 50-yard field goal and was perfect on his extra point attempts. This truly was an A+ effort for all of Joe Lorig's charges, headlined by Stout.

This isn't an A+ because it felt at times like Mike Yurcich was being a bit conservative. That's not the worst idea in the world, as there was no use taking too many risks with how badly Indiana's defense was being dominated by Penn State, but something was just not quite clicking with the offense on too many drives, so we knock the grade down slightly while noting that James Franklin, Brent Pry, and Joe Lorig all knocked it out of the park.

There is always going to be room for improvement, and that's the case regardless of whether it's a shutout, close loss, close win, or 24-point cruise-control victory. Penn State is so good and so many areas including its offense, but it's that group that has to put it all together for a full 60 minutes for this team to be at its best.

It's close, but it'd be a lie to say it's there headed to Iowa.

"There was a lot of things we've got to correct from this game, and we got a tremendous challenge on the road," Franklin said.

"There's not a whole lot I look forward to going to Iowa City. I am looking forward to the hospital, and waving to those children, but that's the only thing I'm looking forward to, but it will be a tremendous challenge."

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