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

This was a pretty exciting week for the wide receivers and tight ends. It’s always good to see a player break out for the first time, and that’s exactly what we saw from sophomore wide receiver Jahan Dotson.

Dotson caught his first two career touchdowns in this game, the first and last touchdowns for Penn State. The first touchdown went for 28 yards, while the second went for 56. Dotson ended the day with four receptions for 109 yards to lead the team.

I mentioned last week that I expected Penn State to get the tight ends more involved in this game, and sure enough, they did. After catching just one pass last week, sophomore tight end Pat Freiermuth caught eight passes for 99 yards and two touchdowns.

One of the touchdowns came on a long run after a one-handed catch.

There’s no doubt in my mind that Pat Freiermuth is a top-five tight end in the nation, and potentially even a high pick in the 2021 NFL Draft. He’s that good, so expect him to be a constant security blanket for Sean Clifford.

The only other wide receivers to catch passes were redshirt sophomore KJ Hamler, who hauled in three catches for 62 yards, and redshirt freshman Justin Shorter, who caught one pass for nine yards.

KJ Hamler did have a bad drop in the game on a big third down in the first half, the first notable drop of the season for the Penn State pass catchers.

In terms of Justin Shorter, he wasn’t targeted much, but I still anticipate a breakout game to be just around the corner for him.

Overall, it was an excellent game for the pass catchers, despite the lousy drop from KJ Hamler.