UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. -- Saquon Barkley's pent-up frustrations -- or at least some of them -- seemed to fade as he left his feet and leaped over a Rutgers defender, plunging toward the goal line.
On a day where the Lions' Heisman Trophy contender was drilled in the backfield and spent a good portion of the afternoon blocking instead of running, Barkley's 11-yard reception off a lateral pass from receiver DaeSean Hamilton gave the No. 14 Lions a much-needed lift in the third quarter and helped propel them to a 35-6 win against Rutgers on Saturday at Beaver Stadium.
"It's been two weeks, but it's felt like two years since we've had a win," tight end Mike Gesicki said. "We got back in there and everybody's dancing and Marcus had his phone out and everything was going the was our season was supposed to go and that kind of stuff. It was positive for us, and it's something we're looking to build on."
For a Penn State team that looked lackadaisical during the first half, failing to get to a short opening kick that Rutgers turned into a field goal and stalling out as an offense, Barkley's play helped the Lions pull away from an inept Rutgers offense that passed for just 43 yards. Down three starters with left tackle Ryan Bates and defensive end Ryan Buchholz missing their second consecutive starts, starting linebacker Manny Bowen also was a scratch, being replaced by Brandon Smith. James Franklin said Bowen, who was suspended from last year's Rose Bowl, missed this game for a violation of team rules.
Still, for all that's plagued the Lions the past two weeks -- and there's been plenty from problems with the offensive line to a lack of pass rush -- the Lions came to life in the third quarter, with Barkley powering in for a 1-yard touchdown run and then minutes later using a short field to score from 4 yards out. For a back who had five carries for -3 yards at the half and ended with 14 carries for 35 yards, the pair of third-quarter touchdowns had to help.
"The running game is kind of like a boxing match," Barkley said. "Throw the jab, throw the jab and when they get lazy hit them with the haymaker, meaning take the three [yards], take the four, sometimes even negative two, sometimes even negative three and when you get the chance split the big one. Obviously we didn't get a chance to split a big one, but that haymaker could still be what we did in the red zone where for two runs I was untouched in the red zone. ... Just gotta be patient and I can still grow in that area in my game."
If nothing else, it gave the homecoming crowd something to cheer about and for a team that still has many of the same issues it did three games ago, this time around the final result was different.
The Nittany Lions couldn't put their finger on why they seemed to sleep walk through the first half. Franklin said his team was the more physical one in this one, which is a positive, but it still needs to block better, protect more consistently and generate a pass rush. Sound familiar?
The fact that Barkley had two runs for negative yardage in the first half was a reminder of all that's been problematic with the Lions' inconsistent ground game and even the optimistic back took a long stroll down the Lions' sideline by himself in the first half, the only inkling that maybe -- just maybe -- he was at least a tad frustrated.
"He’s handled all this unbelievably well," Franklin said. "I just got done meeting with captains, and he’s been great. We don’t talk about a lot of things, but all these guys at this point in the season got a little nagging bumps and bruises, and things like that going on and he’s no different."
So perhaps that's some sort of admission that Barkley maybe is a little banged up? Given all the hits he's taken it'd be understandable. Regardless, Barkley's frustration seemed short-lived as he hopped back in for the Lions' next series after walking the sideline, did what was asked of him as he stayed in to help protect and stayed level headed.
"He's a different character," said wide receiver Juwan Johnson, who had a team-high five catches for 78 yards. "He's our leader. If he's down then we're all down so just having a leader like that who can be positive even when he's struggling is good for us."
Once Penn State found their footing in the second half where they connected on their shot plays, had Trace McSorley extending plays with his legs and even dug into Joe Moorhead's bag of tricks where a lateral from DaeSean Hamilton to Barkley got the Lions down to the one, Penn State looked like the team that bounded off to a 7-0 start to the season.
In reality, it's one that Franklin said let the loss to Ohio State linger too long as it snowballed into a second loss against Michigan State, but finding a way to still make this a one-sided game at least for a half and walk off their home field with a win was a feeling the Lions weren't taking for granted. Reminding themselves that there's still much more to play for this season certainly has been a topic of discussion in the locker room that past couple weeks.
Backing that up with a win certainly helped.
"We're 8-2, top-15 team in the country and everyone is like, 'Oh man, the season has gone to crap,' " Barkley said when asked about how this year played out compared to his expectations. "Realistically, it's not. We all wanted to have an undefeated season, but we didn't. We lost two games and now that's all in the past."