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Penn State Football: Grading the Nittany Lions’ Performance at Maryland

By Dylan Burd

COLLEGE PARK, MD - NOVEMBER 25: Linebacker Jalen Brooks
COLLEGE PARK, MD - NOVEMBER 25: Linebacker Jalen Brooks /
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STATE COLLEGE, PA – SEPTEMBER 14: Sean Clifford #14 of the Penn State Nittany Lions scrambles against the Pittsburgh Panthers during the first half at Beaver Stadium on September 14, 2019 in State College, Pennsylvania. (Photo by Scott Taetsch/Getty Images)
STATE COLLEGE, PA – SEPTEMBER 14: Sean Clifford #14 of the Penn State Nittany Lions scrambles against the Pittsburgh Panthers during the first half at Beaver Stadium on September 14, 2019 in State College, Pennsylvania. (Photo by Scott Taetsch/Getty Images) /

Penn State defeated Maryland 59-0 on Friday night in College Park in their first road game of the 2019 season.

A young team going into Maryland Stadium at night in what was their highest attended game of all-time had all the makings of an upset, right? As Lee Corso would say, “Not so fast!”

Penn State football deserves all the credit in the world for its 59-0 win over Maryland, as it was arguably the most dominant conference game the team has played in years from start to finish.

Despite outscoring Maryland 104-6 in their last two meetings coming in, Penn State did not take this game lightly at all.

There isn’t much else to say to open up this article, as the coaching staff and the players all did a phenomenal job of preparing for this game off of a bye week. That being said, let’s get to this week’s positional grades!

A. . . . QUARTERBACKS

After a wishy-washy first three weeks for Sean Clifford, he looked like a completely different quarterback on Friday night. He was as composed and as confident as we’ve seen him all season.

In Clifford’s first away start, he threw for a Penn State-record of 398 yards, completing 26 of his 31 passes. He also had three passing touchdowns. In addition, Clifford ran for 54 yards on seven carries which included an 8-yard rushing touchdown on Penn State’s first offensive play.

Sean Clifford’s only blemish in the game came when he threw his first interception of the season in the second quarter on a deep pass. On the bright side, Penn State was already up 28-0 when the interception happened.

After leading a touchdown drive at the beginning of the third quarter, Sean Clifford was pulled for the rest of the game, and Will Levis was put in. Levis completed three of his eight passes for 23 yards and had six carries for 38 yards and two touchdowns.

Overall, it was extremely impressive to see Clifford put up these kinds of numbers in only a little over two quarters in his first road game. This wasn’t the Maryland of old in terms of the stadium atmosphere. It was a legitimately good crowd for the first quarter, and Clifford played as if he’d been through it ten times.

If Sean Clifford can consistently string weeks together like that, then Penn State is going to be a very tough team to beat.

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