Takeaways from Penn State’s 38-15 season opening win over West Virginia

Penn State secured its first win of the season in its season opener Saturday night against the West Virginia Mountaineers in Beaver Stadium, 38-15. The game — with 110,747 in attendance — saw a first career start from a blossoming star and a few questions for the team down the road.

Here are our takeaways for the Nittany Lions’ season opener.

Allar gets rolling early

Sophomore quarterback Drew Allar was always going to be the focal point of discussion after this game and his first career start could not have gone much better early on. He threw a laser to wide receiver KeAndre Lambert-Smith for a 72-yard touchdown on a play that could have easily broken down. Allar stepped up in the pocket but kept his eyes downfield, releasing the ball while he was on the move and hitting Lambert-Smith after the ball traveled 40 yards in the air.

He followed that up with more high level pocket navigation, continually showing off his poise as he moved his feet around with defenders around him. It’s only one game and it doesn’t necessarily mean Allar will play at this level week after week, but Saturday was exactly what you would hope to see from a young quarterback making his first career start.

Run defense tested

West Virginia was always going to try to run the ball against the Penn State defense. It’s the Mountaineers’ biggest offensive strength and one of Penn State’s perceived weaknesses coming into the year. West Virginia running back C.J. Donaldson did a good job of using his power and size at 6-foot-1, 238 pounds to work through the Nittany Lion defense. Early on, it looked like the matchup could be enough to derail the season opener for the Nittany Lions.

However, Penn State defensive coordinator Manny Diaz made the necessary adjustments and the unit started to force West Virginia quarterback Garrett Greene to throw the ball. Once that happened, the Nittany Lions settled in and took care of business. The run defense will be worth monitoring this season, but it’s a good sign that the group passed a solid test early on.

Kicking game is a problem

Penn State is going to need to find a solution when it comes to field goals. Sander Sahaydak missed two first half attempts from within 40 yards, pulling both to his right as a left-footed kicker. The entire special teams group was a question coming into the year, but it’s hard to ignore just how bad things started on field goals. Yes, the punting game was not great, but the team lost six points from a distance where the group should have converted. The switch was made from Sahaydak to Alex Felkins after the two misses.

It remains to be seen where head coach James Franklin will go from here and what the future will hold, but it seems safe to say the team is not locked in on one solution given the results in game one. It did not end up mattering against West Virginia, but the team will surely need a reliable option when it takes on teams like Ohio State and Michigan later on this season.