Penn State Football: Grading Nittany Lions performance vs. Michigan

Sean Clifford may have started off extremely slow against Iowa last week, but it was quite the opposite this week. On Penn State’s first five drives, Clifford completed eight his 12 passes for 108 yards and two touchdowns. He also had a rushing touchdown, which came on the third drive of the game.

However, following the fast start, Clifford and the Penn State offense struggled. On the next five drives, Sean Clifford only completed one of his eight pass attempts for seven yards. Clifford then recovered by throwing a perfect 53-yard touchdown pass to K.J Hamler.

Sean Clifford ended the game 14/25 with 182 yards and three touchdowns through the air. He also ran for 17 yards and a touchdown on 11 carries. Once again, Clifford had no turnovers in the game, displaying that his play and decision-making have been well beyond his experience.

If you’re a diehard Penn State fan, you’ve probably sat through every game and thought to yourself, “there’s absolutely no way Sean Clifford is better than Trace McSorley.” Considering McSorley was the quarterback for three years, and Clifford’s inexperience shows at times, that’s fair.

However, looking at the stats, Clifford is actually having a superior first season than Trace McSorley did back in 2016.

Through seven games in 2016, Trace McSorley completed 55.5% of his passes for 1,590 yards and nine touchdowns. McSorley also had three interceptions. He also rushed for 249 yards and four touchdowns on 86 attempts. Penn State was 5-2 in those games.

Through seven games this season, Sean Clifford has completed 63% of his passes for 1742 yards and 16 touchdowns. He also only has two interceptions. Shockingly, Clifford has rushed for 20 more yards than McSorley did at this point with 269 yards and three touchdowns on just 70 attempts this season.

Much of that likely has to do with sack yards as well, as the 2016 offensive line was far worse than this year’s, but that’s still extremely impressive, considering Clifford is slower and less athletic than McSorley. Penn State is currently 7-0 in those games.

In addition, Clifford is second in the Big Ten in passing yards behind Iowa’s Nate Stanley and tied second in the Big Ten in passing touchdowns behind Ohio State’s Justin Fields (tied with Minnesota’s Tanner Morgan).

What made McSorley’s 2016 season so great was the fact that he had his best games when Penn State clinched the Big Ten East title against Michigan State (376 yards and four touchdowns) and when Penn State won the Big Ten Championship (384 yards and four touchdowns).

With three tough games left on the schedule at Michigan State, at Minnesota, and at Ohio State, we’ll see if Sean Clifford can do the same thing consistently in big games. This past Saturday, he sure did.