Superlatives from the first half of Penn State's 2017 season

MOST VALUABLE PLAYER - No need to overthink this one. Saquon Barkley lived up to his considerable advance billing in the season’s first half, ranking second in the Football Bowl Subdivision through six games with an average of 217.0 all-purpose yards. Barkley was accounting for 38 percent of Penn State’s yards from scrimmage and enters the second half of the season as the Nittany Lions’ most serious Heisman Trophy contender since Larry Johnson in 2002.

BIGGEST PLAY - Penn State was trailing Iowa, 19-14, with 1 minute, 42 seconds left in the game when Trace McSorley led the offense back onto the field. The Hawkeyes had broken Penn State’s heart on previous occasions, most notably with a last-second victory at Kinnick Stadium in 2008 that ended PSU’s national championship bid. They seemed poised to do so again, but McSorley was having none of it. He engineered a 12-play, 80-yard drive, and he capped it by throwing a perfect pass between two defenders to Juwan Johnson in the back of the end zone as time expired. The 7-yard touchdown clinched a 21-19 win.

BEST PASS - See above.

BEST RUN - So many to choose from. Let’s go with Barkley’s 44-yarder in the third quarter of the Iowa game. He made two tacklers miss while darting to the left sideline, then juked so abruptly that All-Big Ten linebacker Josey Jewell went sprawling out of bounds on his attempted tackle. Did Barkley’s knee touch the ground on that dazzling pivot move? We’ll probably never know. But for purely aesthetic reasons, this play deserved to stand.

BEST CATCH - Yep, Barkley again. Against Indiana, he pulled in an overthrown swing pass with one hand, gaining control of the ball just in time to shake loose All-America linebacker Tegray Scales for a 36-yard gain. Honorable mention: a 10-yard third-down completion against Iowa on which Barkley hurdled cornerback Joshua Jackson and landed on his feet despite being hit in midair by safety Amani Hooker. Amazing.

BEST TACKLE - Marcus Allen went shooting into the end zone and dropped Pitt running back Darrin Hall behind the goal line on a short pass in the flat, giving the Nittany Lions a safety, a 30-14 lead and possession of the football with just under six minutes to play in a closer-than-expected game against the Panthers. The senior free safety finished with 12 tackles.

BEST RETURN - The Lions had two returns for touchdowns in the first half of the season – a 61-yarder on a punt return by DeAndre Thompkins against Akron and a 98-yarder by Barkley on the opening kickoff of the Indiana game. Let’s go with Thompkins’ return, simply because the Lions hadn’t returned a punt for a touchdown in nearly a decade.

BEST KICK - Blake Gillikin continues to be one of Penn State’s standouts. He had seven punts of more than 50 yards in the Lions’ first six games, including a 57-yarder against Indiana. But his best game might have been against Pitt. Of his six punts that afternoon, four pinned the Panthers inside their 20-yard line. Quadree Henderson, one of the most dangerous return specialists in the country last season, was held to zero net yards on three attempts.

MOST ENCOURAGING STAT - After receiving frequent criticism for its slow starts last season, Penn State outscored its opponents by a combined margin of 76-0 in the first quarter of its first six games.

MOST WORRISOME STAT - For all the improvements they’ve made elsewhere on special teams, the Lions’ field goal unit has regressed. Tyler Davis, who went into the season having hit 30 of 32 career attempts, was 6 of 13 overall, including a 2-of-8 mark from beyond 30 yards. Those numbers can’t help but give pause with some of the toughest games of the season coming up.

MOST TELLING MOMENT - The Lions needed six points with less than two minutes remaining, and in front of a hostile crowd in Iowa City, against an opponent with a history of upsetting highly ranked teams, they found a way. The final play was so dramatic it’s easy to forget that their comeback bid could have fizzled on fourth-and-2 at their own 40-yard line earlier in the drive. But McSorley hit Saeed Blacknall for 6 yards to keep hope alive. It’s also easy to forget that Barkley touched the ball only twice – on catches of 8 and 14 yards. When it mattered most, Penn State showed it has a lot of ways to get the job done.