Notebook: Nittany Lions identify, make improvements with Auburn up next

Penn State left the field at Camp Randall Stadium last Saturday with two things on its mind:

The first was an appreciation and celebration of having opened the season doing what was necessary to get a win, both offensively and defensively. The second, and maybe more important, was to identify the areas in which it came up short and focus on making improvements to them before taking on Ball State this weekend.

Saturday afternoon in their return to Beaver Stadium for the first time in front of a full house since the 2019 season, the Nittany Lions accomplished many of those goals.

Postgame news, notes, and observations from No. 11 Penn State’s 44-13 win against the Cardinals:

Sean Clifford’s first two games, statistically, likely match the perception of those performances from the outside.

Completing 39 of his 63 passes for 477 yards and two touchdowns, Clifford’s passer efficiency rating of 138.2 ranks No. 62 nationally. At 12.23 yards per completion, he’s 55th. At 238.5 yards per game, he’s 42nd.

Some of his passes have been good. Some of his carries have been good. Some of both categories have been less than good.

Crucially, however, one category stands in stark contrast to his 2020 season that has altered the context of who Clifford is and what he can become for Penn State football this season:

Having thrown no interceptions through the Nittany Lions’ first two games of the season, Clifford is one of 46 quarterbacks as yet unscathed. More important, even in the transition from Kirk Ciarrocca to Mike Yurcich, the performance marks a carryover from the 2020 season that Penn State can live with from the fifth-year senior.

Since his two-interception evening in relief of Will Levis in a 41-21 loss to Iowa last November, Clifford has now thrown just one pick in his last six games. He’s also hit on 104 of his 162 passes for a completion percentage of 64.2.

Surely, Penn State and Clifford would both love to see those completion numbers continue to inch up while his interceptions remain stagnant, but there is little arguing that the intention set for himself through the offseason has very much, so far, come to fruition.

“It’s just being careful with the ball. That’s the biggest thing, and talking about it,” Clifford said Saturday. “The defense is going to make plays, too. People don’t understand that all the time. We have good players, but other teams also have good players, so they’re going to make plays.

“But could you have done something to make it more controllable, and if so, do you learn from it? But at the same time, just being smart with the ball is the biggest thing.”

Whatever you want to call it, a game against a defined lesser opponent wedged between traditionally successful programs, Penn State left Beaver Stadium Saturday night leaving no doubt about handling its business without letting up.

Particularly effective by jumping out to a 14-0 lead in the first quarter, Penn State’s lead would never be threatened even as Ball State offered some level of resistance in the second quarter. Emerging in the second half with similar efficiency as its start, then, the Nittany Lions had built a 34-6 lead before eventually having the opportunity to call in the reserves.

“I thought we practiced well. I think our standard of how we operate, no matter the competition, in conference or out of conference, has been pretty good,” Franklin said. “That's a good football team. That's the MAC returning champs.

“That's probably the best team in the MAC with, I think, 21 returning starters and 16 super seniors so give them a ton of respect. But we try to make sure we approach every opponent week-in and week-out like it's the most important opponent that we have on our schedule all year long.”

In every area of the game, the Nittany Lions were able to accomplish those goals.

Penn State Photo Gallery: Ball State

Will PSU jump into top-10 today? Recapping the Lions' win, more: Newsstand

Franklin acknowledged the obvious in his postgame comments immediately following the win:

“Our rep count was way too high last week at Wisconsin,” he said, responding to a question about load management leading into next weekend’s game against Auburn.

During his Thursday radio show this week, Franklin said that the program’s practice strategy for some of its high-rep players defensively, coming out of a game against the Badgers in which the Nittany Lions faced 95 total snaps, had been adjusted. Those affected presumably would have included Tariq Castro-Fields (93 snaps), Brandon Smith (85), Joey Porter Jr. (84), Ji'Ayir Brown (79), Ellis Brooks (73), Arnold Ebiketie (73), Curtis Jacobs (71), P.J. Mustipher (69), and Jesse Luketa (69).

Well, Brooks was forced out of action in the first half due to his targeting ejection in Madison, meaning a converse effect for Luketa, who helped fill in at Mike linebacker in Brooks’ absence.

But, in a game in which Penn State’s defense still needed to be on the field for 76 snaps against the Cardinals (with five penalties), no Nittany Lion performers reached 50 for the game. The highest among the defenders included some of Week One’s heavy participants, but Luketa (49), Castro-Fields (44), Ebiketie (42), Smith (41), Jacobs (30), Brown (24), and Mustipher (30) were all able to sharply cut down on their workload.

“To be able to play well today, getting some of those guys off the field and out of the game early so that we can be as fresh as possible come Sunday and practice well. But that wasn't going to come at the expense of winning today and playing well today,” Franklin said. “If I had to say before the game that it would play out that way, I would have been happy with the way it played out.”

One of the more interesting themes to emerge from Penn State’s performance Saturday against Ball State centered on the goals that were met juxtaposed with areas that can still improve.

Finishing the game with 493 total yards offensively, including a near 50/50 split between the run and pass at 240 to 253 yards, respectively, Penn State also took a sack, had six tackles behind the line of scrimmage, was forced to punt three times, and had to settle for field goal attempts four times, making three.

But in one of the major reversals from the opener at Wisconsin, Penn State’s offense made something out of nearly every opportunity it had to touch the ball on Saturday.

While Ball State managed to keep the Nittany Lions out of their comfort zone of ripping off backbreaking explosive-play touchdowns, holding Penn State to just two plays of 25-plus yards, the drive chart demonstrates the unit’s ability to adapt.

“I just thought this week on first and second down offensively we were more effective, so it created more advantageous third-down situations. I think we actually picked up more first downs on first and second downs, not even getting to third down, and that’s helpful, too,” Franklin said. “I just thought we more balanced, we were more efficient, part of it is how they play and they played soft. They were not going to allow us to throw it over their head. I think that was obvious in their game plan on the defensive side of the ball, but by doing that you create some free access throws and I think we threw for a pretty high percentage there in the first quarter and first half, so it’s kind of give and take. You got to pick your poison a little bit.”

It’s too early to make any broad conclusions, but two very different defensive approaches by Penn State’s opponents in the first two weeks have both been handled by coordinator Mike Yurcich’s group.

All that said, Penn State’s postgame comments from its offensive performers were largely in the vein of having seen growth this week with an opportunity to improve upon it.

“There is definitely a lot that we can improve on still at every position, including mine. I thought that we did a lot of good things today, though,” Clifford said. “I thought we operated with tempo, I thought we moved the ball well, especially going off of last week.”

Referencing something he’d noted in the immediate aftermath of the win at Wisconsin, Clifford continued with the primary takeaway of the afternoon for Penn State’s offense.

“We said that we wanted to build, and I thought that we did that. I think we started fast, which was huge,” Clifford said. “We did a lot of good stuff, but there’s a lot to fix too, so I’m excited about moving forward.”

Penn State returns to Beaver Stadium next Saturday for its annual White Out game when it hosts Auburn in a Top 25 clash. The game airs at 7:30 and will be broadcast nationally on ABC.

*******

• Talk about this article inside The Lions Den

• Watch our videos and subscribe to our YouTube channel

• Sign up for our daily newsletter and breaking news alerts

• Learn more about our print and digital publication, Blue-White Illustrated

• Follow us on Twitter: @BWIonRivals, @NateBauerBWI, @RivalsSnyder, @DavidEckert98, @GregPickel, @ThomasFrankCarr

• Follow us on Instagram

• Like us on Facebook