The Good, The Bad & The Ugly: Reviewing Penn State football’s 45-17 win over Minnesota

Penn State had plenty of reason to celebrate Saturday night. The Nittany Lions bounced back from a poor showing last week to dominate the Minnesota Golden Gophers in the White Out, 45-17. They did it by turning the page from the loss to Michigan and fixating on the next opponent.

That type of shift will happen once again this week — or at least it needs to if the team wants to win again next week.

The Nittany Lions will now turn forward and focus on the Ohio State Buckeyes. While some on staff have gotten a head start on the Buckeyes, Penn State head coach James Franklin said after the game that he wanted his team to at least take a little bit of time to celebrate their sixth win of the season.

“Our analysts have gotten a head start on them, but no,” Franklin said with a smile. “I mean, literally, the game ended like, what, 12 minutes ago. I haven’t broken down Ohio State yet. They’re a good football team and we’re going to have to be ready to play, but we’d like to enjoy this for a few minutes and then I’ll get in early Sunday morning, and we’ll get started with these guys.”

The Nittany Lions match up well with the Buckeyes, comparatively speaking. They’re not going to try to run all over Penn State like Minnesota and Michigan did, and their biggest strength (their wide receivers) matches up with Penn State’s biggest strength (their secondary).

Still, Ohio State is arguably the best team in the country and will be heavily favored.

But Penn State will at least have an opportunity and after last week, that’s all the team can ask to have.

Good

Running game: Penn State was in need of a rebound performance on the ground after last week. Freshmen running backs Kaytron Allen and Nick Singleton couldn’t get anything going against Michigan and had easily their worst performances of their short college careers. They both bounced back with a statement against the Golden Gophers.

Allen was the every down runner. He consistently earned 4 yards and moved the sticks for the Nittany Lions when they needed to extend drives. Singleton was the big play threat. He got to the edge for a 16-yard touchdown that made Minnesota’s chances of winning minuscule and then slammed the door shut with a 30-yard run late in the fourth quarter. The offensive line got the push it needed but it was the two backs who showed why they’re so consistently touted as one of the best duos in the conference. There aren’t many better ways to bounce back than combining for 28 carries for 155 yards and two touchdowns.

How Sean Clifford finished: We can break down the start later but the way Sean Clifford finished Saturday’s performance was excellent. Take out the first 11 passes and it might have been the best of his career. Clifford was gutsy, hanging in the pocket to take big hits in order to get passes to his receivers. He was accurate, finding his tight ends in open pockets in the middle of the field. But most importantly, he was consistent, avoiding many of the mistakes that have plagued him throughout his career.

Clifford played as well as Penn State could have asked to end the game and looked like a high level Big Ten quarterback. That’s the type of quarterback this team needed last week and will need again next week. Consistency hasn’t been the redshirt senior’s strong suit, but if he can play against Ohio State like he finished against Minnesota, then Penn State will have a shot.

Linebacker play: Saturday featured something you don’t see much anymore in college football — or at least I don’t. The Nittany Lions played three true linebackers for long stretches of the game, and for good reason. Minnesota wanted to run, so having size, strength and speed at linebacker was more important than having an undersized veteran in the game. That pushed Abdul Carter into the starting lineup alongside Tyler Elsdon, who was also flanked by Curtis Jacobs, and it could not have gone much better.

Jacobs had 14 (!!!) tackles in the game including two for loss, while Carter had eight of his own and inside linebackers Elsdon and Kobe King combined for six more. The three backers were consistent against the run, reading their keys and plugging holes before Mohamed Ibrahim could break off big gains. Count Saturday as a major success for a linebacker group that didn’t find much success against the Wolverines.

Tight end usage: Big win for those who wanted to see more tight end targets this week. I don’t know if I stand among the biggest advocates to get them more involved, but I still think the group should’ve been utilized more. And they were. Theo Johnson had five catches for 75 yards and a touchdown, while Tyler Warren and Brenton Strange combined for 43 yards on two touchdowns plus a Warren touchdown.

Johnson’s usage is particularly noteworthy. He’s arguably Penn State’s biggest weapon on the outside. He’s enormous at 6-foot-6, 260 pounds while boasting excellent athleticism and a massive catch radius that allows him to beat out even the best defenders. Yeah, sure seems like that guy should get the ball more. This is a good start for the Nittany Lions and one they should try to build off of in the coming weeks.

Bad

Minnesota in the White Out: Not a lot went wrong for Penn State so let’s turn to Minnesota for a couple bits of information. The Golden Gophers could not handle the environment. Period. Point blank. End of story. They committed eight penalties for 52 yards and most of those were false starts. I’m not sure how they prepared for the noise and the atmosphere but it clearly wasn’t enough. Honestly, for most offenses 5 yards here and there wouldn’t matter but it crushed Minnesota.

The Golden Gophers needed to stay on schedule when it came to down and distance, and starting a set of downs by needing 15 yards instead of 10 was not a good way to do that. Their penalty issues forced them to throw and that isn’t something they wanted to do, especially with usual starter Tanner Morgan out with a concussion. It’s pretty cut and dry this year: The White Out had a huge impact on this game.

Minnesota sustaining drives: This ties into the lack of preparedness for the atmosphere, but it happened more than just when Minnesota committed penalties. Too often the Gophers stayed off schedule and were forced to throw, which, again, they did not want to do. When they finally did get on track and Ibrahim was able to get rolling, something would happen that would stall out the drive or bring it to an end, like when Ji’Ayir Brown picked off a pass.

The Gophers should’ve come in, and may very well have, with the same gameplan as Michigan. They should’ve tried to sustain long drives to wear down the Penn State defense, setting the tone for the game. Instead they either didn’t or couldn’t and the Nittany Lions were able to control the pace and tempo however they saw fit.

Ugly

How Sean Clifford started: Look, I said not a lot went wrong. I didn’t say nothing went wrong. This is the downside to what was nearly the best performance of Clifford’s career. The first 11 passes would have made you think he was about to have the worst performance of his six years at Penn State. He was off the mark, off kilter and seemed flustered.

Clifford couldn’t hit his open targets and once again threw a brutal interception that could have easily turned the tide of the game in Minnesota’s favor. It’s great for him and the Nittany Lions that he turned his play around so drastically, but stretches like he had to start the game are what often hold the team back. It’s been four years of starting, so I wouldn’t recommend holding your breath that he can eliminate those stretches, but limiting them would still help the team take a pretty big step forward.

This story was originally published October 23, 2022 at 10:42 AM.

Jon Sauber

Centre Daily Times

(814) 231-6461

Jon Sauber covers Penn State football and men’s basketball for the Centre Daily Times. He earned his B.A. in digital and print journalism from Penn State and his M.A. in sports journalism from IUPUI. His previous stops include jobs at The Indianapolis Star, the NCAA, and Rivals.