Could Penn State football’s blowout against Maryland serve as a turning point to the season?
Theo Johnson didn’t hesitate when he was asked if he thought Saturday was Penn State’s most complete win.
“Yeah I think we had a really great game today,” the tight end said. “We started fast. Scoring on the first drive was huge for us. Continued that momentum going into the second half. So I think we had a really great game across the board offensively today.”
The redshirt junior, who caught four of his five targets for 19 yards and a touchdown, was one of five Nittany Lions to find the end zone in the team’s 51-15 domination of Maryland on Saturday. And while those types of games have been the norm throughout the history of the matchup — PSU has won eight of the last nine and the last two by at least 30 — that doesn’t change how much value this one had.
Penn State put together its most complete victory of the season thanks to an offense that was finally firing on all cylinders, ahead of its most important test of the season in Michigan.
The unit clicking resulted in Drew Allar’s best performance of his young career. He completed 25 of his 34 passing attempts for 240 yards and four touchdowns in the game, but what happened beyond the numbers was more important.
He continued building off last week’s game — when he hit KeAndre Lambert-Smith for a 57-yard touchdown that essentially sealed the 33-24 victory over Indiana — by hitting several shots downfield and placing perfect passes into the arms of his receivers. That came despite the team’s No. 2 receiver, Harrison Wallace III, missing the game after he suffered an injury in last week’s matchup.
With him down, Allar and the rest of the offense needed someone to step up at receiver. The group as a whole has struggled most of the season, but on Saturday night, another starter emerged in Dante Cephas, who hauled in six passes for 53 yards.
“Ceph has been a great asset to our team,” Allar said. “He brings a lot to the table even maybe if it hasn’t shown up in games. He’s definitely one of the hardest workers in that receiver room. He’s always learning, he’s always growing, not only physically but mentally. I’m just super happy for him because he deserves this type of game.”
Cephas, who has seen an increased workload of late, scored his his first two career touchdowns as a Nittany Lion on Saturday. His growth is going to be even more important with no timeline put on Wallace’s injury and with a team that is in desperate need of production from its pass catchers.
Cephas, who transferred in from Kent State this summer, put in plenty of work with Allar — with the receiver being one of the quarterback’s lift partners during the week — to get on the same page. That happened, in part, because Cephas is in a different place mentally than he was when he first transferred into the program.
“I feel I’m the most confident, comfortable I’ve ever been,” Cephas said. “I mean, I’m in, I’m doing what I need to do, helping the team win. ... I’m just playing faster, playing with more confidence. I’m just out there flying around.”
The mood among most of the players, including Cephas, following the game was one of joy. Some took on-field photos with friends from Maryland’s team, while others paraded around, celebrating their victory with hugs from staff and words of praise from fans in the stands. That’s something Penn State head coach James Franklin said he wants his team to take part in, the celebration after wins, because as he noted postgame, wins are not guaranteed.
That was evident elsewhere Saturday. The Hoosiers that Penn State struggled with last week defeated Wisconsin. A top-10 team in Oklahoma fell to Oklahoma State in a rivalry matchup. No. 15 Notre Dame lost to Clemson. Previously undefeated Air Force dropped its first game to Army. Those games, and this one over Maryland, were not guaranteed results.
And, given those reminders, neither is Penn State’s matchup next week with No. 3 Michigan.
On Saturday night, Penn State did everything it could to capture its momentum and show it still belongs in the College Football Playoff conversation — one that its initial ranking of No. 11 may suggest it’s on the fringes of, at best. But, at this point, it remains unknown whether Saturday was the first hint the Michigan game might go differently than most suspect — or whether it was the high point of the season.
For a few hours Saturday night, it felt like it could be the former.
