The Penn State-Maryland Report Card: Stiff-Arming the Terps
STATE COLLEGE, Pa. | Penn State running back Nicholas Singleton told Sean Clifford at one point Saturday to feed him. Which made Clifford laugh a little.
"It's one of those things where I’m like, 'Dude, I don’t call the plays, but if you want the ball, I’ll try to get you the ball,'" Clifford said.
Good strategy. On a day when Clifford broke Penn State's career-passing record, the run game and offensive line controlled the game. The Lions rushed for a season-high 249 yards in a 30-0 victory over Maryland and did not allow a sack for the fourth time this season.
Considering that the Lions played without three starting offensive linemen for the second consecutive week, that's an impressive feat. So was a shutout that included seven sacks and 74 passing yards for a team that averaged 260 per game.
To the report card.
OFFENSE: B
Imagine what the score might have been with good-game Clifford. The quarterback (12-for-23, 139 yards, one touchdown) did not have his best day. He left at least two touchdowns on the field and made a throw that got his head coach penalized for unsportsmanlike conduct. Others compensated.
Singleton scored twice on 4th-and-1 from Penn State's short-yardage formation that has become a powerful tool. Singleton (11 carries, 122 yards) has run through the freshman wall and has a record in sight: He needs 276 yards to break Saquon Barkley's freshman single-season rushing record of 1,076 yards. Kudos to the patchwork offensive line, notably left tackle Drew Shelton and center Juice Scruggs, and tight end Brenton Strange (who caught a touchdown0 for leading the way.
DEFENSE: A
Maryland quarterback Taulia Tagovailoa entered the game averaging 259.8 yards passing per game. He threw for 653 yards and four touchdowns against Penn State the past two seasons. The Lions held Tagovailoa to a career-low 74 yards and sacked him seven times. Penn State's defensive line made five of those, with Chop Robinson (who played linebacker for Maryland last year) getting two.
Freshman linebacker Abdul Carter (seven tackles, one sack, one forced fumble) is entering another realm, and end Adisa Isaac made Tagovailoa weary. The punctuation mark was Jordan van den Berg's 4th-and-2 stop in the red zone to preserve the shutout.
Penn State sacked Maryland quarterback Taulia Tagovailoa seven times and held him to a career-low 74 passing yards in a 30-0 win Saturday at Beaver Stadium.
Matthew O'Haren/USA Today Sports
SPECIAL TEAMS: B
Kicker Jake Pinegar has blossomed of late, adding certainty to the kickoff unit and making long-range field goals. Pinegar kicked a 50-yarder for the second consecutive week and added another from 46. With 12 points, Pinegar (323 points) passed Saquon Barkley for second on the school's career-scoring list.
The returns were conservative and nothing special. The Lions also got freshman punter Alex Bacchetta into the game for the first time this season.
COACHING: B+
Aside from Franklin's penalty, the staff boat-raced Maryland. Offensive coordinator Mike Yurcich has turned that short-yardage T formation into playbook multiple-choice exam that opposing defenses have not answered well (save for Michigan and Ohio State). Offensive line coach Phil Trautwein deserves major credit for accelerating the development of young lineman such as freshman Drew Shelton.
And it's surprising that defensive coordinator Manny Diaz hasn't been floated for the multiple head-coaching openings. We'll wait for the Monday after Thanksgiving for the volume to increase on that.
OVERALL: B+
Penn State has throttled outmanned opponents for consecutive weeks, as it's supposed to do. Again, with better quarterback play, this game might have drawn close to Penn State's 59-0 demolition of Maryland in 2019. But the Lions are proving capable of reaching their preseason ceiling of 10-2.
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