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The No.10 Penn State held on to defeat No.22 Penn State 28-20 in a Saturday night thriller in Happy Valley. The game saw both teams trade long touchdowns while dealing with questionable SEC refereeing decisions in what turned out to be one of the most entertaining three-week games of the season. college football 2021.
The match was played out in the final game as Auburn – down eight with no time out – led in the dying minutes. Ultimately, Tigers quarterback Bo Nix’s lift to the end zone when time runs out was halted to seal the Nittany Lions’ victory and give Penn State their second win over an already ranked team. this season.
Penn State QB Sean Clifford had a big night, completing an incredible 28 of 32 passes for 280 yards and two touchdowns. Nix completed 21 of 37 passes for 185 yards as running back Tank Bigsby carried the load of Auburn’s offense. Bigsby had 102 yards and two touchdowns, but it wasn’t enough to get an impressive road victory for the Tigers.
Penn State improves to 3-0 after the win, and with so many shaky performances from top teams in the college football standings, PSU is poised to climb into the top 25 polls this week.
Here are my five takeaways from a great game in an amazing atmosphere.
1. Clifford calmed many skeptics
There has been a lot of criticism of the Penn State quarterback, and I should know that better than anyone, seeing as I have been one of the most vocal. I’ve long argued that this Penn State team is a QB far from a legitimate contender in the Big Ten and for a college football playoff berth. While I’m not quite ready to change that opinion, Clifford put on a spectacular display on Saturday night.
His 28 goals out of 32 assists weren’t just dinks and dunks all over the court. Clifford averaged 8.8 yards per attempt and 10 yards per completion. That included a 37-yard connection with tight end Theo Johnson to establish a touchdown in the first quarter and a 40-yard pass to tight end Brenton Strange in the fourth quarter that led to Penn State’s final score. Whoever turns out to be the winner of the match.
If it’s the Clifford who show up every week, there isn’t a team in the Big Ten that Penn State can’t beat, and that includes an Ohio State team that looked fragile for the third consecutive game.
2. Penn State’s precipitous attack is cause for concern
Last week, Penn State rushed for 240 yards against Ball State in 48 carries, which concealed two poor performances. In Game 1 of the season against Wisconsin, the Lions only covered 50 yards on 18 carries, averaging 2.8 per touch. On Saturday, Penn State was limited to 89 rushing yards on 33 carries (2.7 per sack). And that’s with Clifford not being sacked, so these are pure, rushed numbers.
While the Nittany Lions’ offensive line has done a good job of passing protection and giving Clifford some time, there isn’t a lot of push up front when it comes to running play. While Penn State has managed to get away with three games, I can’t help but believe that there will be a time when it needs it but can’t perform, and it will cost PSU a game.
3. Nix has been improved but not good enough
While Nix has avoided the turnovers that plagued him in his previous road starts, his overall game hasn’t had enough impact. He averaged just 5.0 yards per attempt in the passing game and was fortunate not to be intercepted for a pick-six at one point. He also started a few prayers that never gave his receivers a chance to come down with the ball.
That said, Nix also did a terrific job of keeping the records alive. He completed 8 of 11 passes for 100 yards on the third down and kept six records alive. Other than for his third down shots, there’s no way Auburn can muster two touchdowns of 75 yards each that lasted 24 games in total. So even though it wasn’t a big game for Nix, if I’m an Auburn fan I’m still pretty encouraged by what I’ve seen from my QB through three games under this new coaching staff. .
4. SEC officials were awful
There is no other way to put it. I try to avoid criticizing officials too much because I make a lot of my own mistakes, so it’s hypocritical to hold a missed call or two against a crew when so much is going on in so many games. But the performance on Saturday night? It was catastrophic.
There were negatives, intentional ground calls that were and were not made, and of course, the questionable targeting call. Oh, and did I mention that Penn State had to score a third down in the first half because the refs mistakenly marked it as a fourth down? Yeah, it did happen.
Luckily Auburn kicked the disc that followed, so the call didn’t tip the outcome of the game, but it was a horrible performance nonetheless. The fact that this was an SEC crew would have led to a lot of conspiracy theories if Penn State hadn’t been victorious. Honestly, there will probably still be plenty.
5. The losing streak is over
Penn State had lost five straight games to SEC teams with its last 19-17 win over LSU in the Capital One Bowl 2010. Three of the five losses came in bowl games against Florida, Georgia and Kentucky. , but the streak also included two regular season losses to Alabama in the 2010-11 seasons.
On the other side of the coin, Auburn has now lost three in a row and four of five to the Big Ten. This is the first of those losses to come in the regular season. The others have all been in bowling alleys. One almost wonders how long it will be before Auburn makes another trip north to face a Big Ten team.
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