The Good, The Bad & The Ugly: Reviewing Penn State football’s 63-7 win over Delaware

It’s only been two starts, but somehow sophomore quarterback Drew Allar has the feel of a veteran for Penn State. He navigated the pressure of a season opener in front of a massive crowd and then deftly managed a game against a clearly inferior opponent. Despite playing differently in both games, Allar felt like the same quarterback.

Penn State head coach James Franklin said that’s one of his best qualities.

“Yeah, he’s just steady Eddie and like never gets too high, never gets too low,” he said. “You can pat him on the back. You can scream at him. He’s just steady Eddie and it’s preparation on a daily basis, on a weekly basis, obviously it’s a small sample size. But last year, I thought he prepared as if he was the starter and he’s taking it to another level this year. Doing a great job of managing the game, the clock, situational football, all those things. I’ve been; I’ve been impressed with him.”

Allar found himself at his Delaware postgame press conference with a smaller crowd than the previous one after West Virginia, but took each question much like he did the previous week — measured and thoughtful. He has passed all of the tests so far, giving him reason to be calm and cool when the cameras shine brightest.

Each game will prove to be a different test — the next one being his first conference start and first road start when the team plays Illinois. But for now, he’s passing with flying colors.

Good

Drew Allar’s precision: Last week was an important one for Allar. He helped carry Penn State in its season opener against a West Virginia opponent that was outmatched but had enough talent to put up a fight early. He was a large part of why the game was a 37-15 victory for Penn State. This week, he was closer to a passenger than a driver. That’s not to say he didn’t have a large impact — he did — but rather that he didn’t have to do anything extra to lead the team to a win.

He was more distributor than playmaker, finding open players when he was tasked with passing, and happily handing off to his running backs when it was time for them to take over. Allar took a back seat on Saturday in a game where he could, helping solidify that he won’t be the type of quarterback who gives away games for the Nittany Lions.

Depth at safety: The Nittany Lions may not have the top end talent at safety they had previously, but they do have a quality group of players — some of whom have the upside to reach that level. Jaylen Reed and K.J. Winston got the start, but Zakee Wheatley and Keaton Ellis have both proven they can do just as well when called into action in big moments. The depth may increase by one soon enough, with freshman King Mack playing extended snaps for the Nittany Lions, showing off his versatility in the process.

Mack can play in the deep middle, he can move close to the line of scrimmage and compete in the running game and as a blitzer, and he can slide to the nickel role and cover slot receivers. His versatility mirrors that of some of the former cornerbacks in the room — Wheatley and Ellis — which opens the door for him to get time this year in what could be key moments.

Pass rush: We all know how good Adisa Isaac and Chop Robinson are, and most know how good Dani Dennis-Sutton is, but another young player is looming to form a potential high level starting duo next year if and when Robinson and Isaac depart. True freshman Jameial Lyons — who is still probably a year away from being a major contributor — flashed elite athleticism against the exact type of players he should be dominating right now. Delaware is undersized and less athletic than Penn State on the offensive line, giving Lyons a massive advantage.

He should have won most of his matchups, but it’s one thing to say that and another to do it. Saturday afternoon he actually did it. Lyons has an elite first step with the size, speed and power to follow in Robinson’s footsteps as an elite player if everything breaks right over the next few years. He’s not there yet, and has a long way to go, but Saturday was a good glimpse into what Lyons could be later in his career.

Offensive line depth: Surprise, surprise. Another one of the best things to come out of this game for Penn State was about young players playing another position. This time, it’s along the offensive line and it’s not necessarily just freshmen. Of course, it helps that J’ven Williams played at left tackle for the Nittany Lions and looked good, but this is more about Vega Ioane and Drew Shelton, who took on bigger roles this week.

Ioane started in place of JB Nelson at left guard, showing off his strength and athleticism in the running game while walling off clearly weaker defenders in the passing game. Shelton played significant snaps at left tackle as Olu Fashanu sat most of the game because, well, they didn’t need him against the Blue Hens. The experience will be very good for Shelton and Ioane in the long run, who I think will both be starting next season for Penn State.

Bad

Trust in kicking game: The kicking game remains the biggest question on this team and nothing that happened Saturday will change that. That’s because Penn State did not attempt a field goal in the game. It’s not as if the opportunity didn’t present itself. The Nittany Lions had multiple fourth downs where a field goal attempt would be perfectly reasonable, especially in this type of game where the most important thing is learning about your team.

Instead, Franklin opted to go for it on fourth down and bypass the chance to see Alex Felkins or Sander Sahaydak attempt a field goal. That’s not a great sign for a kicking game that clearly doesn’t have the confidence of the coaching staff at this point in the season. More chances will arise for them to prove their value on field goal units, but for now we know just as much about the kicking situation as we did last week.

Mistakes at linebacker: Penn State was nearly flawless defensively but a mistake at linebacker cost the team a touchdown — the only one that prevented the unit from shutting out the Blue Hens Saturday. Inside linebacker Tyler Elsdon appeared to press too close to the pile — potentially missing a gap assignment, although it’s difficult to confirm without knowing the call — leaving an opening for Delaware.

Running back Marcus Yarns took advantage, bursting through the hole and taking off for his team’s lone score of the game. Elsdon tried to recover and make the tackle, but mostly whiffed on Yarns. The junior is a veteran after starting all 13 games last year, but still lacks the speed and general athleticism to be anything but perfectly precise in the middle of the field. Through two games, he hasn’t been the player he was last year and will need to improve if he wants any shot of taking the starting role back from Kobe King. For the time being, he could be fighting for snaps depending on how the players behind him on the depth chart perform in the near future.

Ugly

FBS-FCS matchups: Yes, I know. The purpose of this game was for Penn State to pay a bad team to come to Beaver Stadium and get torched while the Nittany Lions get reps for their young players and essentially get a brief reprieve from the usual grind of a game day. I fully understand the purpose of the game and why Franklin would like to face this level of opponent. That being said, this was brutal to watch.

Delaware was completely outmatched from the opening kick and essentially required an egregious Penn State mistake to score. I’m sure we’ll see more of these matchups in the future, but I could go without them. Maybe expanding conferences will lead to that in the future. But for now, we will all have to watch these glorified scrimmages for the foreseeable future.