The Good, The Bad & The Ugly: Reviewing Penn State football’s 24-0 win over Indiana
Jahan Dotson and Sean Clifford connected twice Saturday night for touchdowns. The duo has made that connection 18 times in their careers — a Penn State record — and has connected frequently over the past two seasons.
So what makes that connection so special? How have they been able to accomplish so much as a pairing?
“I think the first thing is Jahan’s good,” Penn State head coach James Franklin said. “That helps.”
Obvious exceptional talent aside, the pair has also done plenty to put itself in position to break the record. The redshirt senior quarterback and the senior wide receiver are in year three of being on the field together on offense.
Beyond that, they’ve also put in the requisite time and reps on the practice field to make things happen once they do take the field.
“I think the combination of Jahan’s talent, and the time that Sean and Jahan have spent together,” Franklin said, “whether it’s on the practice field, whether it’s watching film, whether it’s in meetings. And then, they’ve played a lot of games; I don’t know what the number is. It would be a good thing to kind of talk about, but those two have played a lot of games together, and that helps.”
Dotson and Clifford connected eight times overall in the game for the two touchdowns and 84 passing yards. Those numbers have built upon an already high-level season for the pairing.
Through five games Clifford has found his favorite target 35 times for 446 yards and six touchdowns, with Dotson leading the team in all three categories.
The Penn State offense has struggled at times, but the simple solution of Clifford searching for Dotson has been tried and true for nearly two years and doesn’t seem to be going away any time soon.
Good
Jahan Dotson: Franklin’s quote says it all. Dotson is just good. There isn’t much more to say about a wide receiver who’s been declared the No. 1 player at the position in the 2022 NFL Draft class by ESPN’s Mel Kiper Jr. and who did nothing to dissuade that this week. He finished with eight catches for 84 yards and two touchdowns and threw a 21-yard pass to sophomore wide receiver Parker Washington for good measure.
His most impressive play in the game came in the red zone early in the second quarter. Dotson ran toward the back of the end zone with only one man to beat, but no room left to run. Clifford uncorked a dart toward Dotson’s right shoulder and the receiver turned around in time to find the pass, contort his body in a balanced position and get his hands up to make the play.
Those types of plays are now common for the senior wide out. They’ve become routine, but in no way are they. Dotson excels at making the difficult look effortless and did it once again against Indiana.
Clifford’s pocket navigation: Clifford hasn’t always been at the top of his game, but Saturday night featured two excellent examples of how he has taken a step forward from last season. His pocket presence and footwork can still be an issue at times, but they were not issues against the Hoosiers. There were two separate occasions when Clifford successfully avoided pressure and got out of the pocket, rolling once to his left and then later to his right.
The first play — when he rolled left — saw him create space with his legs to find an open passing lane to tight end Brenton Strange. Clifford threw to the open tight end for a touchdown near the corner of the end zone to open the scoring in the game.
Later on, the redshirt senior rolled to his right and appeared set to take off for a run — as he frequently did last season. Instead, he pulled up when he saw a linebacker leave his assignment and threw the ball to a wide open Dotson. Dotson then did what he does best and trotted into the end zone for a touchdown. Clifford may have struggled with his accuracy at times in the game, but he showed some of the growth he’s experienced under offensive coordinator Mike Yurcich, as well.
Keyvone Lee: It sure seems obvious who Penn State’s primary running back should be. Lee finished with eight carries for 74 yards, including a 44-yard run. Take that outlier run away and Lee still averaged over four yards per carry. The sophomore running back found holes and exploded through them with strength in the game, while showing off the strength that makes it hard for a lone defender to bring him down immediately.
Lee has struggled with fumbles and negative runs this season but neither flaw reared its head Saturday. Not to mention, Lee and John Lovett were the only backs who showed consistency as runners, while the team’s starting running back — Noah Cain — struggled to gain any traction after he ran for nine yards on Penn State’s first offensive play.
As long as Lee can avoid making costly mistakes, the Nittany Lions should use him as their primary running back moving forward with Lovett as a change of pace option. Lee seems to be a level above the rest of the position group at this point.
Penn State run defense: Really you could go with the entire defense here, but let’s hone in on the utter domination of the Nittany Lion run defense. Indiana was held to 69 yards on 24 carries in the game and was shut down on most of its rushing attempts. No matter what the Hoosiers called, they didn’t seem to have much of a hope against a Penn State defense that caved the offensive line in before sending in a wave of linebackers to clean up the ball carrier.
Not counting the last drive of the game when Penn State had some of the deepest parts of its non-existent depth chart in the game, Indiana running back Stephen Carr had 11 carries for 20 yards and the team had 20 carries for 39 yards. That is a remarkable performance at any level, but especially in a home game against a solid conference opponent.
Penn State’s defense has stood out in every game in some form or fashion, but Saturday’s performance against the run was legitimately special and could set the tone for the team’s upcoming matchup against the Iowa Hawkeyes.
Bad
Run blocking: Part of the reason only Lee excelled was because the offensive line still didn’t consistently create holes in the running game. Indiana was able to get enough of a push to get into the backfield numerous times when the Nittany Lions ran the ball. That did enough to disrupt the running game and prevent less explosive backs like Cain from getting going on the ground.
Now, Cain wasn’t able to do much when space was created, but it would’ve been much easier for him, Lee and Lovett if they were able to identify a hole and explode through it for a big chunk of yardage. Instead, they had to slither through creases and struggled to make anything substantial happen because of it.
Next week won’t get any easier for this offensive line — which still protected Clifford well in the passing game — and will be the Nittany Lions’ toughest run blocking test yet. It may be now or never time for the unit on the ground and the signs this season have pointed more toward never than they have now. If that’s the case, the short passing game may go from being an extension of the run game to the entire run game.
Indiana’s play-calling: To be clear, there wasn’t much Indiana offensive coordinator Nick Sheridan could call to gash a defense as elite as Penn State’s. His Hoosiers were at a talent disadvantage and that showed early and often Saturday night. However, he could have at least made things less predictable. The Hoosiers ran the ball on its first seven first downs of the game, and by the time they threw on first down they were already in a 14-point hole going against an elite Penn State defense.
That type of predictable play-calling plays right into the hands of a veteran defensive coordinator like Brent Pry and unsurprisingly that’s what happened in Beaver Stadium on Saturday. The Nittany Lions were at the top of their game against the run, but it’s also much easier to reach that pinnacle when you know when the running back is getting handed the ball.
Sheridan was handcuffed in a way by starting quarterback Michael Penix Jr.’s inaccuracy and inconsistency, but that doesn’t excuse tipping your hand on every drive and essentially forcing yourself into second-and-long situations at every turn.
Ugly
Parker Washington’s hands: There really wasn’t much that was ugly on Penn State’s end, but Washington’s struggles stand out. The sophomore wide receiver entered the game as the team’s second leading receiver and a safe and reliable target for Clifford. He exited it having played one of the worst games of his short career. Washington has frequently displayed excellent hands as a receiver with the ability to snatch even the hardest passes out of the air.
That wasn’t the case against Indiana, where he dropped multiple passes he usually hauls in with relative ease. That seemed to agitate the sophomore, who was seen catching passes on the sidelines between drives as he worked through the issues. He was able to catch the pass from Dotson following the mishaps early in the game, which is a good sign moving forward. The sophomore will likely return to form against Iowa as a sticky-hands target for Clifford and a reliable option at every level of the field, but for the first time in his career he struggled with the thing he excels at most.
This story was originally published October 3, 2021 at 6:00 AM.
