Penn State still perfect, but is it ready for Iowa?

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. -- Penn State cruised past Indiana this time around, with no need for interference from the refs in a game that was never in doubt.

The Nittany Lions once again played tremendous defense in a 24-0 shutout of Indiana in a Saturday night stripeout at Beaver Stadium. The outcome was never in doubt, although it felt like it could have been much, much worse if not for some of Penn State's lingering offensive issues popping up at times.

How's this for a cool note about the shutout:

So, here we are with Penn State 5-0, ranked No. 4 and getting ready to play a terrific Iowa team, ranked No. 5, on the road next week. You'd think we would know a whole lot about this PSU team and what it's truly capable of accomplishing by now.

Nuh uh.

But we will find out next week.

Right now, all we know is that the Lions are undefeated but haven't played a really good team yet. Wisconsin has its worst team in 20 years and an abysmal offense, so that win to start the season looks less and less impressive each week for Penn State. Auburn picked up a nice road win at LSU late Saturday night, so PSU's win over the Tigers looks a little better. But Auburn isn't great by any stretch.

What we're left with is this: Everything Penn State has achieved during its 5-0 start has to be viewed through the lens of how it all has prepared the team for Iowa this week and, eventually, Ohio State at the end of this month. Both on the road.

Because when your goal is to reach the College Football Playoff, the bottom line is you'd better be ready to play complete games against the teams that matter most. Penn State has struggled putting everything together during its 5-0 start, but really, nothing else matters right now because the Lions are indeed 5-0.

Whether they'll be 6-0 at this time next week will depend on a whole bunch of factors.

With that, here are my takeaways from the win over Indiana, focusing heavily on what we know and don't know about the Lions at this stage.

1. The defense is really freaking good

The thing I can say with the most certainty right now is that Penn State's defense should be able to keep the team in any game against any opponent.

The Lions pitched a shutout against Indiana and made the Hoosiers look bad.

"We take that really serious," lineman P.J. Mustipher said of the shutout. "I think when you can stop offenses and lead offenses like Indiana in the red zone, where they are comfortable, it speaks dividends to what type of defense you play and the style you want to be. When teams get in the red zone, we don't panic, we just continue to play the ball we play. I think that showed up again today."

Now, the Hoosiers also looked bad in a 34-6 season-opening loss at Iowa, so we need to keep that in mind with Penn State getting set to face those same Hawkeyes.

The Lions' defensive line has been good, led by Arnold Ebiketie. The linebackers have been good, led by Ellis Brooks and Brandon Smith. The secondary has been fantastic, with all of those guys having a good season.

There's no weakness on the defense, no soft spot. And the defense has been exceptional in the red zone.

"To me, what you're seeing in the red zone is very similar to what you're seeing out in the open field -- we're just playing good defense," James Franklin said. "Yeah, I know there's some people out there in the country that may be playing more suffocating defense just in overall, but our defense is something that I hope all of our fans and lettermen are very proud of."

It's really hard to run the ball on Penn State. And the Lions have blitzed a ton this year, forcing opposing quarterbacks to make quick decisions and get rid of the ball before they're really ready.

Now, we do need to point out that Penn State hasn't played a good offense yet. Wisconsin's offense is hot garbage. Auburn is extremely inconsistent, and it scored 20 on the Lions. Again, Indiana's offense was terrible against Iowa, and Indiana's Michael Penix Jr. has had a bad season (more on him later).

Still, I have a lot of faith in this Penn State defense being able to make plays when they need to be made, especially in the red zone.

2. Jahan Dotson looks like the best wide receiver in the country

I vote for the Biletnikoff Award each season, which goes to the best receiver in the nation, so I try to keep track of guys from all across the country throughout the season.

I know it's easy for Penn State fans to think this, because he's on their team, but at this point, I truly do believe it: Dotson is the best in the nation right now.

Dotson just catches everything. We already knew that, so we shouldn't be surprised anymore. This was an excellent catch in the back of the end zone for a 14-0 lead in the second quarter.

Dotson caught two TD passes from Sean Clifford, setting an impressive Penn State record in the process. Those two have now connected for 18 career touchdowns, the most of any QB-WR duo in program history. They surpassed the record of 17 held by Todd Blackledge (the analyst for Saturday's game) and Kenny Jackson.

"I don't really know about all the records kind of just out there playing. just having fun," Dotson said. "It's pretty cool to hear when you break some sort of record. Coming from a historic program like Penn State is literally what I came here for. Just have fun. Have fun with the guys break records. It's all fun.

Franklin had a good line when asked why Clifford and Dotson work so well together.

"I think the first thing is Jahan's good. That helps," he said. "Then, I think the combination of Jahan's talent, and the time that Sean and Jahan have spent together, whether it's on the practice field, whether it's watching film, whether it's in meetings. And then, they've played a lot of games."

Clifford had this to say about Dotson, who finished with 12 catches for 84 yards:

"He creates a lot of space. And then, in addition to creating space, he catches everything that comes near him. So it's those two [things], and then he's fast, I mean he's just the whole package. He's the best wide receiver in the country."

Dotson certainly is a special receiver, and this week, ESPN's Mel Kiper Jr. named the Penn State standout as the best receiver available for the 2022 NFL draft. Kiper also slotted Dotson as the No. 8 overall draft prospect.

Kiper wrote this about Dotson:

"Dotson is an explosive wideout having a great season. Look how open he is on this 49-yard touchdown against Wisconsin. And check out Penn State's first offensive play against Villanova, a 52-yard strike to Dotson in which he showed acceleration at the catch. He isn't catching many screens and short routes — his average air yards per target is 12.2 yards, which is consistent with his four-year career at Penn State. He can break tackles after the catch. While Dotson had a few drops in 2019 and 2020, he hasn't dropped any of his 35 targets this season. He's on pace for a spectacular season."

Dotson even got to throw a pass on a reverse in the fourth quarter, tossing a completion down the right sideline to Parker Washington for 21 yards.

3. Lions still have major issues running in short-yardage situations

Penn State rushed for 209 yards on 42 carries, averaging 5.0 per attempt. That's plenty good enough to win a lot of games.

Keyvone Lee led the way with 74 yards on eight carries, including a 44-yard gain. John Lovett had 41 yards on 10 carries, and Noah Cain was held to 23 yards on 11 attempts.

However, the Lions continue to have problems running in short-yardage situations, which most believe will catch up to them at some point.

The biggest example Saturday was when they had third-and-goal at the 1 and were stuffed twice, failing to score.

Conventional wisdom says that, in the Big Ten, if you can't convert third or fourth downs of 1 or 2 yards on the ground, then you're not going to win the league. This Penn State team has been unable to do that consistently so far this season, and again, that kind of thing will be a major focal point next week against Iowa.

"Yeah, we got to be better," Franklin said.

"From a mentality standpoint, I think it's important to be able to run the ball in the little red zone," he added. "I think it's important to be able to run the ball in short-yardage situations, to be able to kind of impose your will on people. I think that's an important aspect of your program, so there's some things that we got to get cleaned up. I'm going to take the positive approach that we took a step, a big step today in the running game. Obviously, there's still some areas like that we got to get better at."

Lee was asked about the development of the running game this season.

"At the beginning of the season it started off slowly," he said. "We had to tell ourselves that this is us, we have to run the ball. This is Penn State, and this is where we can afford to run the ball. It started picking up over the weeks when the running backs started bonding with the offensive linemen. We got together outside of football and connected."

4. Iowa destroyed Maryland and looks legit

I watched Friday night's game between the Hawkeyes and Terps closely, trying to find out exactly how good both teams are -- or are not.

The Hawkeyes, who won 51-14, are legit contenders.

The Terps are total pretenders.

Iowa can defend every bit as good as Penn State and has 12 interceptions as a team. Those guys cover well and pressure the quarterback, so Penn State had better be ready for both.

"We know we have a very good football team that we're gonna have to travel to and play next week," Dotson said. "I watched the game (against Maryland). Like I said, a very good team. We know it's a very great challenge for us."

The Hawkeyes aren't going to allow Clifford to put up huge yardage through the air. And Penn State is going to have to run the ball to some degree in order to help keep Iowa's defense honest.

One area the Hawkeyes have excelled has been forcing turnovers, giving them short fields and quick scores. Penn State can negate that by protecting the football, but it must be able to sustain drives, as well.

Something that was interesting to watch with Iowa is that it threw the ball a lot on first and second down against Maryland. The TV announcers pointed out that the Hawkeyes were using the pass to set up the run, which is not something that team usually has done over the years.

I'll have much more on the PSU-Iowa matchup in my Sunday observations story later today.

5. Rough night for Penix, who made some bad mistakes before getting hurt

Sean Clifford's interception gave the Hoosiers a golden scoring opportunity late in the first quarter. But Michael Penix Jr. made a big mistake when, on a third-and-10 scramble from the 13, he gave himself up and slid down too soon, gaining only 9 yards. That brought up fourth-and-1, and the Lions got a big stop by stuffing Stephen Carr for no gain.

Quarterbacks clearly have to protect themselves when scrambling in the middle of the field. But Penix is a veteran QB who made a rookie mistake by failing to recognized where he needed to get to for the first down. (I also thought the ref shorted him a little on the spot, although not enough to get the first down.)

The Hoosiers had not moved the ball much at all prior to that sequence, and a touchdown there could have made a big difference in the game. Instead, Penix's mistake cost his team a chance at first-and-goal at the 3, where a tying TD would have been a possibility.

And let's give credit where it's due -- to the PSU defense for coming up with the stop on fourth-and-1.

"That's the standard, that's what we do," Ebiketie said. "I mean, we believe it was going to do so, we had no doubt that was going to be an issue, and just taking the field in that position and being able to get the stop and giving the ball back to our offense. It was big time."

Penix made another bad mistake late in the first half when he threw an interception, with Joey Porter Jr. making a nice grab for the pick. Indiana had finally moved the ball with a couple of big passes and had first down at the PSU 33 when Penix, under pressure, tried for a pass deep right. It was an ill-advised throw, to say the least. Penix came into the game with six interceptions and only four TDs.

Penix has meant a lot to the Indiana program, and it was a shame to see him get knocked out of the game early in the third quarter with what appeared to be a shoulder injury. As they showed on TV, he suffered season-ending ACL injuries in 2018 and '20, plus an upper-body injury in 2019.

6. Clifford didn't play great, but continued to show increased maturity

Clifford finished just 17-of-33 for 178 yards with three TDs and the one bad interception. He wasn't overly efficient or accurate in several situations, but there were two plays in particular where he showed a lot of improvement over the QB he was last season.

Both plays were similar and led to touchdowns. They both involved Clifford scrambling and looking like he would take off and run -- freezing a defensive player getting ready to make a tackle -- before stopping just short of the line of scrimmage and throwing a dumpoff pass.

The first went to tight end Brenton Strange for a 10-yard TD, the second to Dotson for a 30-yard score.

Clifford probably would have just taken off and run on those kinds of plays last season, when he felt like he had to do everything and was always trying to make something happen. But this year, he has a much better grasp of keeping the play alive with his legs and then throwing at the last possible second. It also helps that his receivers are recognizing he's in trouble and coming back to the ball.

"We know that Sean is a very good runner," Dotson said. "He's very capable of making plays with his feet. And we know that we just have to stay alive and scramble drills. We literally preach it every single Sunday. Go over it and practice every single week. So just staying alive with him, making sure you keep your eyes on him while he's scrambling we know he's gonna make a play make the right decision."

7. Lions have shown good mental toughness this season

This is now nine wins in a row for Penn State since the 0-5 start last season. A program doesn't pull something like that off without having a lot of mentally tough players.

"To go on the road to Wisconsin to open the season and then having the Auburn program here, and obviously a Ball State team that were returning (conference) champs, we've been tested early on, we really have," Franklin said.

"I do think we are mentally tough. I do think we think we are physically tough. I do think we've been tested. But I also think this team that trusts and cares about each other a great deal. I think they trust the coaches. They can trust their teammates. You don't see guys outside of the system trying to make plays. They're doing their job at a very, very high and consistent level. It makes it fun. It really does."

8. Stout's long field goal a big plus

Jordan Stout booted a 50-yard field goal in the fourth quarter, the kind of kick that could pay big dividends next week or later on for the Lions.

Stout got off to a rough start with the place-kicking duties this season, but that's the kind of kick that can only give him confidence. Penn State didn't need those three points in this game, but him booting one through from 50 will give Stout and the coaches confidence if that situation arises in a close game the rest of the way.

9. Lions get commitment from 3-star WR

Penn State picked up a commitment Saturday afternoon from 3-star receiver Omari Evans from Killeen, Texas. He also had offers from Houston, Oklahoma State, SMU, Texas Tech and even Indiana.

Penn State still has the No. 1 recruiting class in the nation for 2022. The Lions have 26 commits.

10. Tough break for JoeMo, Ducks

Former PSU offensive coordinator Joe Moorhead, now with Oregon, did not make the trip with the No. 3 Ducks to Stanford on Saturday. And he was very much missed as Oregon fell in overtime, 31-24.

That loss is huge for a lot of reasons. Oregon, which won at Ohio State, has a pretty easy schedule the rest of the way and looked like it could go undefeated and earn a College Football Playoff berth. The Ducks do still have that great win, which will help if they're in the mix with a bunch of one-loss teams, so they're not out of the race yet.

As it stands, Alabama and Georgia continue to have a good chance to both make the playoff. Cincinnati has an easy schedule the rest of the way and could get in if undefeated. That's not a guarantee, though, but beating Notre Dame on Saturday gives the Bearcats one really good victory.

That could leave a bunch of teams fighting for only one playoff spot -- Penn State, Iowa, Ohio State and Oklahoma. If the Sooners go undefeated, they'd certainly get it. But if all those teams end up with one loss, along with Oregon, it could make for a wild situation of comparing resumes.