The Good, The Bad & The Ugly: Reviewing Penn State football’s 16-10 win over Wisconsin
Penn State football’s 16-10 season-opening road win over Wisconsin was a roller coaster ride of emotions that almost encapsulated how the program’s 2020 season went — when the Nittany Lions started out 0-5 and finished the year by winning its last four games.
The beginning was nearly a disaster. The team couldn’t move the ball in the first half and Wisconsin was gashing the defense for chunk plays, leading one to believe an even bigger run was coming for the Badgers.
The second half was the opposite. The Nittany Lions kept breaking open the field with deep throws and putting the defense on its heels, thereby doing the same to the offense that wanted to pound the rock and methodically move down the field — something it couldn’t do while trailing late.
Then, with Wisconsin driving late in the game with a chance to take the lead, redshirt senior defensive tackle P.J. Mustipher realized the team had been here before. Just last year, the Nittany Lions had a chance to stop Indiana in the team’s season opener, but their inability to do so eventually led to a Hoosier win.
That wasn’t going to happen this time.
“We talked about last year,” Mustipher said. “Indiana, I think we had the same situation. We were on the field in the red zone and we had the opportunity to close the game out and get a win and we didn’t. Same situation came back and we were ready.”
Mustipher and the defense managed to close out the game, unlike last season, and will now start the season 1-0, rather than falling to 0-1 for the second season in a row.
Good
Penn State’s entire defense: You could parse through the defense group by group and potentially find a minor flaw here and there, but as a whole, it was as close to flawless as one could reasonably expect given the circumstances. The unit was excellent in holding the Badgers to 10 points in a road matchup in a hostile environment.
All three levels of the defense had their respective times to shine throughout the victory. The defensive line consistently pressured Wisconsin quarterback Graham Mertz when he was tasked with throwing the ball. Defensive end Arnold Ebiketie — more on him in a second — played about as well as one can in a debut.
The linebackers were able to stop running back Chez Mellusi from breaking a big one and swinging momentum in the Badgers’ favor. They consistently got off blocks and brought Mellusi to the ground when he was able to get to the second level of the defense.
The secondary capped it all off by smothering Wisconsin’s receivers most of the game and made the rare necessary tackle if Mellusi passed by the linebackers.
There’s plenty of reason for positivity for Penn State fans following the win, but none is greater than the fact that the team might have a top-five defense in the country.
Arnold Ebiketie: The Temple transfer was fairly hyped up by his teammates and coaches prior to the season, but it’s unlikely anyone reasonably foresaw the debut he had. The redshirt senior finished with seven tackles and a sack in a game in which he left for an extended stretch of the second half due to injury.
The defensive end was consistently around the ball throughout the game, regardless of what the Wisconsin offense tried to do. When they wanted to run, he was crashing inside or bypassing blockers to make a play on the ball in the back field or near the line of scrimmage.
When the Badgers threw, he was even more of a problem. He beat up on Wisconsin left tackle Tyler Beach and made Mertz feel his presence. He even had a would-be strip sack called back because Mertz got rid of the ball just in time. Not to mention, he dropped into coverage a few times where he more than held his own. Ebiketie was expected to be a major contributor for the Penn State defense but there’s a chance he’s way more than that. He might be the best player in a group loaded with high-end talent.
Jahan Dotson: The Penn State offense’s slow start wasn’t necessarily Jahan Dotson’s fault, even if he didn’t have a particularly explosive first half. The senior receiver won his battles time and time again against the Wisconsin secondary and particularly against cornerback Faion Hicks.
Hicks said in July he intended to follow Dotson in the game and that’s what he did when the team was in man coverage. Hicks played reasonably well in the game, but at the end of the day the Penn State receiver was just too good.
He helped open up the field by stretching the defense deep and getting open over the top numerous times, especially in the second half. Dotson could’ve reasonably had three long touchdowns in the game had redshirt senior quarterback Sean Clifford hit him in stride, but his five catches for 102 yards and a touchdown were enough in the end to help Penn State win.
The coverage Dotson saw pulled enough defenders away from other receivers to open up the field for his teammates. That’s the type of coverage he’s likely to see through the rest of the season.
Explosive plays and Mike Yurcich’s offense: Look, the first half wasn’t good. There’s no denying that. But the fault for that doesn’t necessarily fall at the feet of offensive coordinator Mike Yurcich. Yurcich schemed up more than enough openings but just enough went wrong for his players that it made it nearly impossible to move the ball. Whether it was pressure from the defensive line or inaccurate throws, the offense was held back by the on-field play more than the play-calling.
There were at least two plays the Nittany Lions missed on that could have severely altered how the first half played out. The Wisconsin defense got just enough pressure or a pass was just off the mark enough to keep those plays from happening.
The second half saw that change because of the team’s ability to execute and give Clifford the space he needed to work, along with Clifford doing enough to complete those passes. That turned into three 40+ yard pass plays in the second half that led to points for the Nittany Lions. It’s clear this is going to be an offense that relies on explosive plays this season and on Saturday it managed to hit on just enough of them.
Bad
The first half for both offenses: The offense was schemed up well for Penn State, but the entire first half was a mess because of the lack of the aforementioned execution. The Nittany Lions couldn’t create holes for their running backs, couldn’t give Clifford time to work and couldn’t stay on the field. They consistently went three-and-out and earned only a single first down in the first half.
The blocking was a major part of the issue but Clifford didn’t do the team any favors when the line did give him enough time. There were multiple plays where he felt pressure that either wasn’t there or wasn’t as close as he anticipated and it caused him to make several throws off-balance. At other times he just missed his receivers, like when tight end Theo Johnson got open for what would have been a first down but the quarterback threw the pass too high and led him too far. A softer pass that led Johnson across the field instead of up it would have allowed him to catch the pass in space and go to work.
Not to mention, Wisconsin’s offense found some things that worked, then completely went away from them. Mertz wasn’t good in the game, but he executed reasonably well when he was allowed to get into a rhythm. Instead, the Badgers went away from the pass for long stretches of game action. Mertz will be scapegoated by some, but his play wasn’t exactly helped by the play-calling.
Sean Clifford’s deep accuracy: While Clifford completed three 40+ yard throws in the game, at least one of them could have gone for a touchdown but didn’t.
First, let’s get the actual touchdown out of the way. Clifford threw a great ball into space and allowed Dotson to get under it with nobody around him for a 49-yard touchdown.
The other two throws were much less clean. Dotson’s second deep reception should have absolutely been a touchdown. He beat his man deep and was running home free down the field. Clifford just had to once again throw the ball into open space and let his receiver go get it. Instead, the ball came out well short with Dotson having to come to a near stop just to make the reception. He was brought down not long after because of it.
Those are throws Clifford has to make. Explosive plays felt like they were coming left and right Saturday, yet there were only three of them. Those type of plays don’t happen often and the Nittany Lions need to be able to take advantage when their talented playmakers get open deep. His deep ball was improved Saturday afternoon, but it wasn’t quite where it needs to be for the offense to truly take off under Yurcich.
Ugly
Jordan Stout from in close: What unfolded for Penn State when they needed a kick to go through the uprights from in close was flat out brutal. First, Jordan Stout sent a 23-yard field goal wide right that would’ve given Penn State a 10-7 lead. Had the rest of the game played out the same way, the Nittany Lions would have comfortably been ahead by two scores late and would have had a relatively stress free final few minutes.
Then, Stout clanked an extra point off the left upright so loud that the sound reverberated throughout Camp Randall Stadium. That miss was even more important because it made the game 16-10, putting the Badgers in a position to take the lead with a touchdown rather than making it a tie game.
That added even more pressure on the defense when Wisconsin had the ball late, because failure meant a likely loss rather than simply going to overtime.
Stout was ultimately bailed out in the end by the defense and his teammates, but he must be better on extra points and short fields goals when he’s seemingly taken that job from Jake Pinegar, who had it last season and was available Saturday. That being said, Stout also helped flip the field and pin the Wisconsin defense with his kickoffs and punting. So the answer to his issues Saturday may not be about his ability, but rather about how much the team plans to use him this season.
Penn State can’t afford to lose opportunities to score in games against good teams, and frankly, Stout’s mishaps Saturday could have been more costly than they were.
This story was originally published September 5, 2021 at 4:52 PM.
