The Good, The Bad & The Ugly: Reviewing Penn State football’s 30-0 win over Maryland
Penn State head coach James Franklin dropped to the ground and did 15 pushups during the second quarter of his team’s 30-0 victory over Maryland Saturday evening.
The head coach had just been flagged for unsportsmanlike conduct and wanted to show accountability after costing his team. Not to mention, he said, he was embarrassed by the fact that he got the flag.
So what did he do to get it? Nothing, really.
“I think they thought I was yelling at the officials, and I wasn’t, I was yelling at our players, but either way I got an unsportsmanlike conduct, my first one in 12 years,” Franklin said.
His penalty and a few others were some of the only lapses by the Nittany Lions in a game that they led wire to wire Saturday evening. The team’s running game dominated from the opening kick and imposed its will on the Maryland defense. The defense collapsed the pocket time and time again against the Terps.
That type of performance has become the norm for the Penn State defense. After not racking up sacks early in the season, they’ve come in bunches in recent weeks.
That’s in part because the entire defense is playing like a cohesive unit and is setting each other up for success even though star corner Joey Porter Jr. missed the game with an undisclosed non-football injury.
“When you’re able to get tackles for loss and put them in obvious passing situations, that helps,” Franklin said. “On top of that, we’re going to give up a play because of man coverage from time to time. Even without Joey, we were able to play good man coverage. Now the quarterback has got to hold on to the ball, and that helps too. It’s a complementary defense. It’s complementary football which we played tonight: offense, defense and special teams.”
Good
Running game: Let’s start with the obvious. I have been a staunch critic of the idea that Penn State needs to be able to run the ball when everyone expects it to. I’ve always said if that’s the case, passing is probably the best decision since it would be unexpected and should catch the defense off guard.
That being said, this might just be the kind of team that does whatever it wants whenever it wants on the ground thanks to its offensive line and running backs. It has been a while since Penn State has had an o-line this good and this deep. The team is dealing with a lot of injuries and still manhandled the Terps Saturday.
It helps, of course, that the running backs are legitimately elite already. Not good. Not great. Elite. Nick Singleton and Kaytron Allen would start in about 100 other running back rooms in the Football Bowl Subdivision. I don’t even know if I’m going out on a limb saying that. They’re that good.
Pass rush: I led with it for a reason. Penn State tortured the Maryland offensive line all game. It was as if the team’s pass rushers took turns deciding who was going to haunt Maryland quarterback Taulia Tagovailoa on any given play. They got after him when they rushed four and when they blitzed. They did it from the interior of the line and the exterior. They did it whenever they wanted.
Defensive end Chop Robinson had two sacks. Position mates Amin Vanover and Adisa Isaac each had one. So did safety Ji’Ayir Brown. And defensive tackle Zane Durant. And linebacker Abdul Carter. It was everyone from everywhere. This is a dominant pass rush that meshes beautifully with a lockdown cornerback room and a dynamic safety group. This is everything a fan could want in a defense and more. I’m not sure if defensive coordinator Manny Diaz is going to get head coaching looks after getting fired at Miami last year, but he absolutely deserves to.
Tight ends: This is one group that probably doesn’t get as much credit as it deserves. The tight end room is deep with talent and production when it gets its chances, but hasn’t always gotten the attention this year because of the lack of receptions — and most of the attention has been about that lack of touches.
But the group has stayed the course and has accentuated a great running game by helping it out mightily with its blocking. Brenton Strange and Theo Johnson have led the way with Johnson drastically improving as a blocker. It’s not just the blocking, though. Those guys are seemingly always open. Strange has a knack for finding open space against zone defenses while Johnson, well, is enormous. He’s actually always open because he’s 6-foot-6 and an excellent athlete. The statistical production hasn’t always been there this season but this is a group that is — and will continue to be — important.
Abdul Carter: Curtis Jacobs missed Saturday’s game and that’s the type of absence that is usually noticeable. He’s a dynamic linebacker who makes plays in space, can cover, can blitz and has a nose for the ball. But Saturday, I didn’t really notice he was out. That’s because Abdul Carter filled those shoes and looked like a pretty similar player. He was the one making tackles when needed, dropping into a zone and disrupting pass plays and getting after the quarterback when needed.
He’s a great athlete who is clearly going to live up to the hype that comes with wearing No. 11 at Penn State. Franklin has said it’s hard to get him on the field with Jacobs because one of them would come off in clear passing situations. At this point, it’s hard to deny that those two are the best linebackers on the roster. Franklin and Diaz need to find a way to ensure both are out there as often as possible when Jacobs is healthy.
Bad
Sean Clifford: Yes, I know Sean Clifford became the school’s all-time leading passer Saturday. Yes I know he’s the first player in program history to surpass 10,000 passing yards. Those things should be applauded. He’s had great longevity. That’s not easy to do. But he also wasn’t good against Maryland.
Clifford left about 200 passing yards out on the field in the game and finished with 139 on 12-of-23 passing. He missed a wide open Mitch Tinsley down the field in the second quarter. Same with Allen on a wheel route. And he overthrew an open Parker Washington for touchdowns — twice. Tinsley and Allen were visibly frustrated in those moments.
I’ve said my piece on the quarterback situation more than once. But Clifford just has to be better. He’s in his sixth season with the program and his fourth as the starter. Those mistakes can’t happen. But at this point there’s no reason to believe things will change.
The weather: Saturday was cold and it was rainy. And it made things kind of sloppy. It wasn’t like these teams were playing in heaps of mud or anything like that, but it did make the atmosphere a little worse than usual and the footing a little harder to gain for players. Of course, it’s equally as impressive that the stadium was still very loud and very full, which is a testament to Penn State fans.
But it’s still not often that you see Beaver Stadium almost completely empty at the final whistle. Part of that is because the game was in hand fairly early, but also because it was downpouring at times. Some people love games like that one, but I am not one of them. Give me both teams playing in optimal conditions every time. This was not that. Truth be told, this being here is also a sign that very little went wrong for Penn State in this game because there isn’t much bad to discuss.
Ugly
Maryland: Coming into this season I thought this was a Maryland team that would be heard from. I thought the Terps would find an upset somewhere against Penn State, Michigan or Ohio State. Well, they’ve lost to the first two and are probably going to get smoked by the Buckeyes next week (I’m also pretty sure I have now jinxed that game for Ohio State with that sentence).
Instead this is a team that looks listless on both sides of the ball. The Terps can’t get Dontay Demus Jr. the ball much at all and they can barely even get it to Rakim Jarrett who is legitimately a star at wide receiver. Not to mention the defense was physically dominated the entire game. I’m not sure where the program is headed as a whole, but Saturday was not a good indication by any stretch of the imagination.
This story was originally published November 13, 2022 at 10:55 AM.
