The Good, The Bad & The Ugly: Reviewing Penn State football’s 44-13 win over Ball State
Penn State football went into Saturday’s matchup with Ball State focused on the task at hand, ready to seize the opportunity. The Nittany Lions dominated the Cardinals on their way to a 44-13 victory that didn’t seem to be in much doubt at any point during the action.
The Cardinals may not have the brand recognition of most big-time opponents, but the Nittany Lions took their opponents seriously, especially considering the talent they boasted, including a defense that isn’t often broken.
“We knew we just had to be patient,” senior wide receiver Jahan Dotson said after the game. “Credit to Ball State, they’re a great defense. They’re known to bend, but don’t break. They did a great job of that. We did a great job of sustaining drives and we were able to capitalize.”
Ball State’s defense showed it wouldn’t be broken over the top, but Dotson and the Nittany Lions were able to bend their way to plenty of points in the contest.
They were able to take advantage of the space the Ball State defense gave them and found a way to work their way down the field. The result was an offensive performance that succeeded with both the run and the pass.
“I just thought we more balanced, we were more efficient, part of it is how they play and they played soft,” Penn State head coach James Franklin said. “They were not going to allow us to throw it over their head. I think that was obvious in their game plan on the defensive side of the ball, but by doing that you create some free access throws and I think we threw for a pretty high percentage there in the first quarter and first half, so it’s kind of give and take. You got to pick your poison a little bit.”
Good
Penn State’s defense: Look, eventually it’ll have to be narrowed down to one aspect of the defense finding success, but this isn’t that week. The Nittany Lions were once again dominant defensively and the unit’s first and second string groups didn’t allow a touchdown to be scored. It took for the deepest parts of the depth chart to take the field to allow Ball State to find the end zone.
Penn State didn’t miss a beat on that side of the ball after its 16-10 victory over Wisconsin in Week 1. The team’s starters didn’t have to play a full game but when they were in the game, they dominated. Sophomore linebacker Curtis Jacobs was all over the field, earning a sack and stopping an early Ball State red zone play near the line of scrimmage when it looked like the Cardinals had an opportunity to score. The team’s secondary was excellent against a legitimate star receiver in Justin Hall and the front four made sure quarterback Drew Plitt was uncomfortable whenever he dropped back to pass.
The Nittany Lions have only played two games but the upside of this defense is very real. The unit could find its way to being one of the best in the country and to this point, the clear best in the Big Ten.
The game plan against Justin Hall: The secondary was good against Hall, in large part because the team made his presence a clear focus going into the game. Franklin made that much clear Wednesday night during his weekly post-practice media availability when asked about Hall.
“Everybody has, usually, on defense or offense a couple of guys you have to be aware of,” Franklin said. “You better know where they are on every snap. ... It’s the same way with him. As a defense, we better know where he’s at on every play because he’s impactful. What you try to do each week, is you try to identify who those guys are and you try to limit their impact in the game.”
Mission accomplished. Seemingly every time Hall touched the ball, he was swarmed by Nittany Lions. Every time he went in motion, the defense accounted for him. Every time he went out for a pass, somebody was nearby. Hall finished the game with six catches for 35 yards on 11 targets and three carries for 16 yards. He’s one of the best playmakers in the Mid-American Conference and on Saturday night he was a non-factor thanks to the game plan Penn State had ready for him.
The turnover battle: For the second week in a row Penn State won the turnover battle and did so because it didn’t turn the ball over once. Redshirt senior quarterback Sean Clifford deserves a lot of credit for that. He averaged an interception per game and had two fumbles returned for touchdowns last season, but to this point has yet to cough up the ball this season.
Clifford has been smart with his decisions, throwing the ball away when nobody is open and being more secure with the ball when the pass rush is closing in on him.
In turn, his defense has been getting the ball back and giving him more opportunities to lead the team down the field. On Saturday, that came in the form of a Daequan Hardy interception and a Jesse Luketa interception return for a touchdown. The unit now has five takeaways through two games, giving the team a +5 advantage in the turnover battle so far this season.
The extra possessions those takeaways have generated have been a crucial reason for the team’s success against Wisconsin and Ball State.
Pace: Penn State’s offense continues to push the pace and continues to put defenses in compromised positions because of it. The Nittany Lions don’t huddle and they don’t take much time between snaps and that opens up opportunities that wouldn’t otherwise be there.
Offensive coordinator Mike Yurcich’s offense is predicated on its tempo and that’s been on full display through 120 minutes of game action. The unit catches the defense unprepared because of its speed and that gives the teams playmakers chances to create big plays. On more than one occasion, Clifford received the snap and handed it off to his running back, whether it was Noah Cain or Keyvone Lee, and allowed whichever bulldozing back had the ball to plow forward.
The team’s tempo when mixed with a power run game can be especially difficult to deal with because speed is often associated with speed. When a team goes up tempo, they’re usually trying to get the ball to speedy players in space, pushing defenses further from the line of scrimmage. When that happens, it opens the first level of the defense for players like Cain and Lee to dominate.
Bad
Offensive line depth: There isn’t much to harp on from Saturday’s performance, but Penn State’s backup offensive linemen didn’t exactly inspire confidence when they were called into action. The team’s first unit did a good job of opening holes in the running game and giving Clifford time when he dropped back. But that time and those holes got much shorter and smaller once the backups took the field.
Ta’Quan Roberson wasn’t in the game for long, but when he was he didn’t have the most time in the world to throw and his running back, Caziah Holmes, didn’t have the most space to run. While the ability of the backups along the offensive front aren’t a major concern, it will be if anything happens to the starters.
It seems clear that there’s a decent gap between the starters and backups and that the best way for Penn State to succeed offensively will be to keep that group of five linemen — Rasheed Walker, Eric Wilson, Mike Miranda, Juice Scruggs and Caedan Wallace — healthy as long as it can.
Ugly
Rushing disparity: The vast difference between Penn State’s ability to run and Ball State’s ability — or inability — to do the same was obvious early and often Saturday afternoon. The Nittany Lions finished the game with 240 yards on the ground, including an average of five yards per play, while the Cardinals finished with 69 yards and 2.7 yards per rush.
Now, part of that is game flow, with Penn State grinding down time while it was up in the third and fourth quarter, but the other part is just how good it was at running the ball early in the game. Lee in particular excelled as a runner, frequently churning out chunk plays just by finding gaps and pushing the pile forward. Clifford’s 43-yard run helped that total, but the rushing attack was still excellent before and after that play.
Penn State should look to its ground game to control games against inferior opponents and that’s what it did Saturday. Ball State was unable to match the Nittany Lions on the ground and it helped widen the clear talent gap between the two teams.
