Penn State Football: the numbers behind the Nittany Lions’ 5-0 start

To the surprise of some, Penn State Football is off to a 5-0 start as they head into their bye week to prepare for what will be a pivotal October schedule.

While it hasn’t been the prettiest at times, the Nittany Lions have ultimately gotten the job done in each and every matchup so far this season.

Numbers don’t always tell the full story, but they can tell quite a bit of it. So, let’s take a deeper dive into some statistics that have propelled Penn State Football to their fast start, as well as some that still need to be improved upon.

The Penn State Football offense

Coming into the season, the biggest question mark on offense was the running game. It was bad last year and it needed to improve; and it has.

During training camp, I wrote about three stats that would define success for Penn State Football in 2022, the first of which was rushing yards per carry. Last year, Penn State’s three primary running backs averaged a combined 3.9 yards per carry. In that same article, I mentioned that the primary ball-carriers would need to average at least five yards per carry for this offense to be successful.

Well, the trio of Nick Singleton, Kaytron Allen, and Keyvone Lee have averaged a combined 5.4 yards per carry thus far–led by Singleton’s 7.4, which is sixth best in the country and second best in the Big Ten. Plus, the Nittany Lions only had six total rushing touchdowns by running backs in all of 2021. They already have eight through just five games.

The passing game has been streaky, but Brenton Strange’s four touchdown receptions leads all Big Ten tight ends in that category, and is fourth overall in the conference.

Though he should probably have three because of the dropped interception by Northwestern this past weekend, Sean Clifford’s two interceptions ties his career best through five games. He also threw two through five games in 2019, which is arguably his best season to date.

Additionally, the sixth-year quarterback has completed 62% of his passes so far this season, which isn’t great, but it’s also currently his best single season completion percentage of his career.

Clifford has also accounted for 13 total touchdowns through five games: nine through the air and four on the ground.

The offensive line overall has been noticeably improved, as they have not only done a better job of creating running lanes for the backs, but they’ve also done a better job in pass protection. They have allowed just seven sacks so far through five games. Last year, the line allowed eight sacks through the first five games.

All this has led to the Nittany Lions averaging 34.4 points per game, which is 26th in the country. They averaged just 23.9 points per game in 2021, and only surpassed the 30-point threshold three times on the entire season. They’ve already topped that this year, as they’ve scored more than 30 in four of five contests, with the lone exception being this past week’s sloppy mess.