The Penn State Nittany Lions are 2-0 heading into Big Ten play this weekend. First, Penn State beat West Virginia to open the season. Next, the Delaware Blue Hens entered Beaver Stadium and went home with a loss. Now, the Nittany Lions will have their first away game, traveling to Illinois. The Fighting Illini are 1-1 on the season, with a narrow win against Toledo and a loss at Kansas. There was improvement for Penn State from week one to week two, the special teams specifically, but the one thing that stood out was the depth that was shown against Delaware. Penn State will look to continue improving against Illinois.
Penn State Looks to Continue Improving
After the win against West Virginia, we outlined several areas for improvement for the Nittany Lions. The first was the struggle to finish in the red zone. This was much better against FCS opponent Delaware last weekend. Penn State utilized several different playmakers to win 63-7. Three quarterbacks were able to get in on the action. Starter Drew Allar was 22 of 26 for 204 yards and one touchdown in short work. Fans saw the same accuracy as week one against West Virginia. While this was a lesser opponent, a young quarterback needs this type of game to continue the acclimatization process. However, Allar had plenty of time in this offense last season, just as we saw backup Beau Pribula have the first two games of this season.
One thing that Penn State didn’t use to have was depth at several position groups. One of those was at quarterback. The backups rarely saw the field, so when called upon it was not seamless. The last two years have been different. The backups have had the ability to see the field on many occasions. This builds confidence and rapport with the receivers if called upon in a big moment. Third-string, freshman quarterback, Jaxon Smolik even entered the game when Pribula had to come out in the second half. Overall, the Nittany Lion offense found the endzone eight times throughout this game. A big improvement from week one.
Penn State Special Teams Shows Improvement
The Nittany Lions started the season with two missed field goals in the first half against West Virginia. After that, Head Coach James Franklin made a kicking change. It was unknown heading into Delaware which kicker would take the duties. Fast forward to weekly team awards and former backup kicker Alex Felkins is the special teams player of the week. The former transfer converted eight extra points on Saturday. The Nittany Lion offense scored each time they got close to the end zone, so Felkins didn’t have to attempt a field goal, but he was perfect on kicks this week. Something that Penn State fans weren’t so sure of heading into this contest. This is an area where the opponent doesn’t matter as much. Yes, it depends on the defensive front and if they can get a push to block the kick or get a kicker to hurry and miss, but this part of special teams definitely improved from week one to week two.
Franklin didn’t completely abandon former starter Sander Sahaydak. Sahaydak converted one extra point. Keeping him fresh and working to regain his confidence is important as Penn State moves into conference play. It is a long season for the Big Ten East and a player never knows when they will be called on. It is unlikely that Franklin will deviate from Felkins as the season progresses, especially this weekend against Illinois.
Penn State Defense Gets Its First Takeaway
Two games into the season and the Nittany Lions got their first takeaway. There were several opportunities for interceptions against West Virginia in week one. This was also the case against Delaware in week two. The Penn State defense almost took the ball away from the Blue Hens multiple times in the first half. The defense finally grabbed one in the third quarter when linebacker Dominic Deluca got a pick-six. The Penn State linebackers have been relatively quiet in this early season so this was a breakthrough for the unit.
The linebackers still need to show improvement as the Nittany Lions start Big Ten play, however, there was a jump in the right direction against Delaware. Before the week two showdown, we indicated that the defensive line and the linebackers needed to shut down the opponents’ running game. While Delaware did get a rushing touchdown in the first quarter, the defense closed the lanes after that. The Blue Hens finished the game with only 82 rushing yards on 24 attempts. West Virginia definitely has a better running back, however, Delaware starter, Marcus Yarns did rush for 107 yards alone against Stoneybrook in week one.
The defensive line and linebackers are poised for a breakout game. Now that Penn State is taking on Big Ten opponent Illinois, look for Defensive Coordinator Manny Diaz to open the playbook a little bit and let these players loose.
Photo courtesy: William Bretzger-Delaware News Journal / USA TODAY NETWORK
