Penn State against Kent State: Prediction Roundtable

Barry Leonard, Co-Site Expert

Through the first half of last week’s game against Pitt, it appeared Penn State would be in for another tough fight that would go down to the end. After failing to get much going, the Nittany Lions scored late in the second quarter and went on to completely dominate the second half to crush Pitt.

Although I predicted an easy victory in Week 1 against Appalachian State — and I was totally wrong — I am highly confident in that this week.

The Nittany Lions have improved on offense and don’t appear to have missed a beat in the run game with junior Miles Sanders hailing the main rushing duties. I’m expecting Sanders to have a big day against the Golden Flashes and to eclipse the 100-yard mark for the second-consecutive week.

Quarterback Trace McSorley has been plagued by drops from his wide receivers, but he’s still found a way to make big plays. While Juwan Johnson has yet to live up to the hype for this season, redshirt freshman KJ Hamler has quickly turned into the most dangerous weapons on the offense.

The defense has been rough to say the least, but the unit appeared to right the ship in the second half against Pitt last week. One are of concern is the fact that Kent State possesses a strong run game that could give the Nittany Lions some trouble early on.

Fortunately, the Penn State offense will be too much for Kent State to handle, and the Golden Flashes will be forced to abandon the run game.

I’m not expecting a slow start from the Nittany Lions. In fact, I think they will roll from the outset. Penn State will dominate in its final game before getting into the Big Ten part of the schedule.

Penn State 54
Kent State 10