Penn State Football: instant reaction from the Nittany Lions’ nail-biting win over Purdue

It wasn’t pretty, but Penn State Football is 1-0 following their win over Purdue.

Early on, it seemed like the running game had improved, as every run was going for positive yardage. However, the two leading backs on the game were the two true freshmen–Kaytron Allen and Nick Singleton–both of which went for just 31 yards apiece. Allen averaged 3.9 yards per carry, and Singleton 3.1.

Both showed some good things in their first collegiate game, and hopefully will continue to improve, because the Nittany Lions will certainly need it to.

The offensive line was certainly not good, but pass protection was solid as Sean Clifford was not sacked until late in the third quarter. He was certainly hit and hurried more than ideal, but it could’ve been much worse. It definitely has a long way to go, though, especially in the run-blocking department.

Finally on the offensive side, aside from one bad throw that looked like it would be the difference in the game, Sean Clifford played well. He didn’t play great, but he played well. Clifford completed 54.1% of his passes for 282 yards and four touchdowns. Had it not been for some costly drops, those numbers could have been significantly better.

Notably, Clifford accounted for all five touchdowns against Purdue, throwing for four and rushing for one on a quarterback sneak.

Many of those drops were courtesy of KeAndre Lambert-Smith, but he made up for it with his fourth quarter touchdown.

We also saw a healthy dose of Mitchell Tinsley in his first game in a Penn State Football uniform, as he caught seven passes for 84 yards and a touchdown. However, Parker Washington only caught two passes for a total of 30 yards. To me, it’s a little surprising that he wasn’t able to make more of an impact, but it’s a long season and hopefully he settles in and has a big year.

While there wasn’t a ton of good from the Penn State Football offense against Purdue, the final scoring drive was well-executed and capped off by a nice pass from Sean Clifford to Keyvone Lee on a wheel route out of the backfield. It’s good to see this offense put in that position in game one and to answer the bell by driving down the field to find the endzone.

Defensively, I think it’s safe to say many fans were surprised, and not in a good way.

For much of the game, Purdue could get whatever they wanted on short to intermediate routes, and they ran the ball well too. As a Penn State fan, that’s not exactly what you want to see against a team that was one of the worst rushing offenses in the country a year ago.

What was most important, though, is that they did not get beat deep very often, which was one of our keys to success for Penn State Football heading into the game.

It seemed like the defense sat back far too often, which was the opposite of the aggressive Manny Diaz defense that we anticipated.

Thankfully, they were able to get a stop and get some pressure on the quarterback when they needed it most, and helped to seal the win in the closing seconds.

To wrap up, we also got a chance to see Drew Allar perhaps earlier than most of us expected.

He went 2/4 for 26 yards in his brief debut as he took over for Clifford for one series to open the second half. He made a couple of nice throws, one of which turned out to be an incompletion due to a drop by Tyler Warren on a beautifully thrown ball by the true freshman.

It’s good that Allar was able to get his feet wet in a close game, and although limited, should be a good steppingstone for him moving forward. Hopefully next week the Nittany Lions can have a comfortable second half lead and we can see much more of the true freshman gunslinger.

A win is a win, and this is a good win on the road against a good Purdue team. We’ll get an opportunity to welcome the Nittany Lions back to Beaver Stadium next Saturday against the Ohio Bobcats, where hopefully they can play sound football and work out some issues before heading south to Auburn the following week.