Notebook: Nittany Lions credit run-stuffing D for Pick City, Clifford, more

Penn State pieced together a fifth win in as many tries to open the 2021 season when it held Indiana in check from the opening whistle until the final seconds ticked off the game clock at Beaver Stadium Saturday night.

Postgame news, notes, and observations from No. 4 Penn State’s 24-0 win against the Indiana Hoosiers:

For the third time in five games this season, Penn State's defense held an opponent under 100 yards in rushing Saturday night when Indiana picked up just 69 yards on 24 carries.

The 100-yard threshold is somewhat arbitrary when considering just how good this Nittany Lion outfit has been at keeping opponents in check on the ground, though. While both Wisconsin on the road and Auburn at Beaver Stadium were both able to crack that number, each actually nearing 200 yards rushing with 174 and 182 yards on the ground, respectively, Penn State's bottom line proposition of limiting opponents' rushing success has very much been met.

Ranked 31st nationally now in rushing defense at 111.6 yards per game allowed, Penn State's 3.21 yards per carry average (holding all but Auburn under 3.00 this season) ranks even better at 25th nationally and fourth in the Big Ten behind only Wisconsin, Iowa, and Minnesota.

"Shoot. Stopping the run? I think that's (priority) one," senior defensive tackle P.J. Mustipher said Saturday night following the Nittany Lions' latest stifling effort. "I think when you stop the run, it's so much easier on the defense because if you're not able to stop the run, the offensive playbook is wide open. They can do whatever they want.

"So when you stop that run and you make the offense one-dimensional, it's huge just because we're not on our heels. We're confident in what we can do as far as stopping the run. So I think it's huge and I think it's No. 1 for me and No. 1 for our defense."

More important than any individual statistic is what the concept represents for this Penn State defense as it continues to find its groove in establishing complementary elements at every level of its effort.

Not only a point of emphasis for a front seven that has also only allowed four rushing touchdowns all season, the effort has paid dividends for the Nittany Lions' back end of the defense as it takes advantage of panicked, one-dimensional passing attacks.

Now up to seven interceptions for the season, a number tied for 10th nationally, Penn State corner Joey Porter Jr. spoke for his secondary teammates in acknowledging just how important the Nittany Lions' stout front has been to the effort.

"We love for our defense to stop the run," Porter said. "When they stop the run, they have to put the ball in the air. And after that, it's pick city for us. We just try to rack up the picks, so we love it for our defense to be able to stop the run."

The question to James Franklin was about the connection between quarterback Sean Clifford and receiver Jahan Dotson, one which yielded another two touchdowns Saturday night to become the all-time leaders for a duo in touchdowns thrown/caught with 18 for their careers.

While first noting just how good Dotson has been, what Franklin landed on eventually was a caveat whose importance was crucial to two of the Nittany Lions' biggest offensive plays of the night against Indiana.

"I think Sean's ability to extend plays and make plays with his feet puts the defense in conflict," Franklin said. "He steps up in the pocket, you got to decide 'Am I going to stay with my man or am I going to cover Sean?'"

On a night when the Nittany Lions scored three touchdowns, all passes from Clifford, the concept was put into motion on Clifford's first score of the night to tight end Brenton Strange. Facing a second-and-goal from the 10-yard line, Clifford working out of the shotgun, the Nittany Lion signal-caller patiently extended the play by moving to his left as his receivers worked to get open.

Moving up toward the line of scrimmage by the sideline, though, it was the threat of Clifford running the ball that enticed Indiana to bite and free Strange for the easy pitch-and-catch touchdown.

And Clifford would do it again in the third quarter to put the Hoosiers away for good, this time connecting with Dotson on a critical fourth-and-4 with less than five minutes to play in the period. At first finding nothing available on his initial reads, Clifford darted through the pocket again toward the line of scrimmage and the sideline first down marker as Dotson worked his way to the sideline.

"Jahan really has got a good feel of how to get open in those situations and the thing I love about him, he's always working towards the sideline," Franklin said. "As a quarterback, you want to step up in the pocket. You want to go to a check down right away, whether it's a running back tight end over the middle of the field. And then, once you extend the play, your eyes need to go to the sideline.

"I know everybody gets excited about this stuff you see where guys are throwing across their body, back in the middle, Mahomes doing all this crazy stuff, but more times than not, those are going to get you in trouble. Sean's doing a really good job at, so is Jahan, of stepping up in the pocket looking for check downs. I think we can do a little bit more of that. But then when he's extending plays, he's looking for people consistently on the sidelines. And I think when you do that you got a chance to do some good things on offense."

On that particular play, the dividend was an especially good thing for the Nittany Lions' offense.

Flicking the ball to Dotson at the 21-yard line, the receiver needed to make just one move, cutting in from the sideline, to secure the easy touchdown, his second of the night.

Whether or not Jordan Stout finishes with the recognition as the nation's top punter by the season's end really isn't important.

Awards that typically go to numbers and numbers only, Stout's night Saturday was yet another demonstration of just how powerful of a weapon he has become for the Nittany Lions as a program and particularly in concert with the defense that has worked behind him.

Finishing the night with six punts for an average of 46.3 yards per attempt and a long of 51, Stout was a major reason why Indiana repeatedly faced a long field when taking over possession on anything but Penn State's first quarter interception.

That meant drives starting at the Indiana 14, 9, 11, 32, 12, and 23-yard lines thanks to his consistently booming attempts, garnering not a single punt return try from the Hoosiers in the process.

For the season, Stout's 48.46 yards per punt average places him seventh nationally, but with 13 of his attempts being fair caught, plus 10 that have finished inside the opponents' 20-yard line and 11 going for more than 50 yards, the effort has been nothing short of excellent in Penn State's 5-0 start to the season.

Maybe I'm just a sucker for the visual, but it's hard to quantify how the value of attending a Penn State football game has changed, demonstrated expertly again Saturday night with the captivating 'Stripe Out' at Beaver Stadium.

In the immediate aftermath of the 2020 season in which Penn State and the rest of the Big Ten simply did not host fans due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the experience is something of a welcome return to normalcy in the first place. Granted, the sight of seeing Beaver Stadium empty was jarring in and of itself, but what has taken place on the back side of that loss for the community has been an effect even stronger than how it appeared before.

But even bridging the experience to before last year's blanked-out slate of Penn State home games, from the pyrotechnics displays, to the energy of the crowd, to the fact that the Nittany Lions have twice had opportunities to showcase the program's best self on a national stage in prime time in the past three weeks, the impact has been undeniable.

"I thought overall, it was an unbelievable environment—we've been fortunate, I think we've been over 105,000 each week, that's had a huge factor on our success so far," Franklin said after the game. "I also think just the energy after last year, I think it's been great for everybody. It's been great for our community and I know it's been great for our football program specifically."

At a time when getting disparate groups of people to align is exceedingly rare culturally, Penn State football's role in serving as a unifying force has been strikingly clear this year.

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