Penn State Football rides momentum, defense seals 16-10 win at Wisconsin

Takeaway #4 – Sean Clifford Played Better

Sean Clifford was the single biggest question mark for Penn State Football coming into the season, and he still is.

The best thing about Clifford’s performance Saturday … no turnovers.

Clifford finished 18/33 (54.5% completion percentage), with 247 yards and one touchdown. In the first half in particular, we did not get that great of a judge on where exactly Sean Clifford stands because he did not have much time to throw and as a result, was forced to throw a lot of short passes.

Clifford missed on a few throws, mainly overthrowing Jahan Dotson on deep routes a few time. However, he did finally connect on one in the fourth quarter that set up go ahead touchdown for Penn State.

Clifford also severely underthrew an out-route to Jahan Dotson in the third quarter, but made up for it on the next play with a downfield strike off his back foot to hit KeAndre Lambert-Smith in stride, which to me was his best play of the day.

Clifford will need to continue to improve, but Penn State Football fans should not be too upset with his performance today, especially compared to last season. However, if he was able to avoid turnovers and play well enough for Penn State to get the win on the road against one of the best team’s on Penn State’s schedule, things should go much differently for he and the Nittany Lions in 2021.

Here is one more look at Clifford’s touchdown pass to Jahan Dotson:

https://twitter.com/CFBONFOX/status/1434216828511965185?s=20