Penn State Football: Grading Nittany Lions’ performance vs. Buffalo

It was a very rough first half for the Penn State offense on Saturday, as they punted on four of five drives (not including the kneel to end the half). Sean Clifford wasn’t bad in the first half, but he was making a lot of short throws, and ultimately not leading Penn State to first downs.

Clifford was 6/8 passing for only 61 yards and a touchdown in the first half. The touchdown pass was 28 yards to sophomore Jahan Dotson, who was wide open on the right side of the end zone. Most importantly for Clifford and the Penn State offense though, they only scored 7 points in the first half.

However, everything changed for Sean Clifford and the Penn State offense in the second half. He threw two touchdowns in the third quarter, both to tight end Pat Freiermuth.

Clifford also led Penn State to another score as his 58-yard run set up a 2-yard rushing touchdown for freshman Noah Cain. The 58-yard run came on a read-option, something that Clifford struggled with a bit at the beginning of the Idaho game and in the first half vs. Buffalo.

In the fourth quarter, Clifford was able to hit Jahan Dotson for a 56-yard touchdown. It was easily the best throw of the day from Clifford.

Sean Clifford ended the game completing 16 of his 22 passes for 279 yards and four touchdowns. Furthermore, he led the team in rushing with 11 carries for 51 yards and managed to get through the game once again without turning the ball over, which is enormous for a first-year starting quarterback.

Some minor details need to be cleaned up by the time the conference schedule begins in less than three weeks. Clifford still needs to improve his reads on the option plays.

He also needs to improve his ball placement at times a bit. For example, on Penn State’s last drive of the third quarter, Sean Clifford completed a 45-yard pass to K.J Hamler that would have easily gone for a score had the pass led him.

Instead, Hamler needed to stop running his route and adjust his body to catch the ball, allowing the defender to make up ground and tackle him right after the pass was completed. That’s not an opportunity you can miss when you play against good Big Ten teams.

That being said, There’s no doubt that Sean Clifford has already shown improvement since the beginning of the Idaho game last week. The fact that this was only his second career start should make Penn State fans really excited for the future.