What went wrong for Penn State Football in heartbreaking loss to Iowa

Too Much Self Harm

This Penn State Football team shot themselves in the foot multiple times throughout the game.

The Nittany Lions had 10 total penalties, many of them being false starts which backed them up deep into their own territory.

Obviously it is not Roberson’s fault that the offensive line jumps early, but it is a little bit strange that there were probably more false starts with him in there today than there were with Clifford through the first 5+ games with Clifford. Maybe there is some miscommunication without Clifford in there?

Additionally, Penn State Football had some key drops. Brenton Strange had 2 drops on plays that would have gone for first downs had they been caught. Cam Sullivan-Brown also could not haul one in that was certainly a tough play to make, but still a catchable ball.

Finally, there were some bad interceptions by both quarterbacks today that were not truly forced by Iowa, as much as Penn State just made a mistake. One thing that seemed to be common among both quarterbacks was the fact that they seem to try to force the ball to Jahan Dotson at times, which leads to turnovers.

If not leading to turnovers, there are still times when there are others open, and the quarterback tries to force it to their number one target, as opposed to taking the easy completion elsewhere.

Give Iowa credit, they are a great team, and they play sound football, but the Nittany Lions beat themselves in many aspects today and left the door wide open for the Hawkeyes.