Lions clobber Auburn, put Big Ten on notice with complete effort

AUBURN, Ala. -- All the pieces are there. We saw them all come together Saturday. And if what we saw is truly for real, we need to start thinking about this possibly being a really special season for Penn State.

The Nittany Lions annihilated Auburn, 41-12, at Jordan-Hare Stadium in one of the most surprising performances in the program's long and storied history.

"It's just a great team win," quarterback Sean Clifford said. "I'm just so proud of this team."

Now look, most Penn State fans and the majority of media predicted the Lions would win. And there was a feeling that maybe Auburn wasn't all that good.

But did anyone -- ANYONE? -- anywhere even consider the possibility that the Lions would humiliate a traditional SEC power the way they did in front of 75,000 stunned and bewildered orange-clad Tigers fans? (The other 12,000 or so were Penn State fans, who traveled very well, as they always do for big games.)

The line was Penn State -3. Computer models had Penn State winning, 25-23. My score prediction was 22-20. We all thought this game would be close.

The Lions not only looked amazing in thrashing Auburn, they also looked like the kind of team that actually could give Ohio State and Michigan all they can handle later on in a tough Big Ten East. Penn State visits Michigan this season, but Ohio State does come to Beaver Stadium, and the location of that showdown is always big when considering if the Lions have a realistic shot of winning.

We can start thinking about that kind of big-picture possibility for these three big reasons:

1. Penn State can run the football!!!!! Yes, really. That should give everyone in the Big Ten reason to do a big old "uh oh," because this team with a running game figures to be a very dangerous thing.

2. The defense looks legit. Of all the good things we can say about the rout of Auburn, it has to be noted that two giant stops inside the 10-yard line in the first half -- forcing field goals instead of giving up touchdowns -- set the tone for the entire day and made it clear that this one actually could get out of hand. The defense forced four turnovers and made all kinds of big plays.

3. This is now a super confident team. After going 7-6 last year and finishing poorly, these players needed a good start and have gotten one, starting with the close win at Purdue. The past two weeks haven't been close, with the Lions playing superbly and showing everyone -- including themselves -- what they're capable of.

This was a statement win in every way, shape and form, including the fact that it was a nationally televised game in the middle of the afternoon for all the country to see just how good Penn State can be.

"We want to do that every week," linebacker Curtis Jacobs said when asked about this being a statement victory. "We want every week to look like this. Just just come out and be dominant."

MORE FROM THE GAME

• Penn State finished with more rushing yards (245) than passing yards (232), which is nothing short of unbelievable. While Auburn struggles on offense throwing the ball, its defense was supposed to be good. It was just last week that Penn State still had massive question marks about the running game, but those questions have been silenced in a big way the past two games.

This is freshman Nicholas Singleton below taking it to the house from 54 yards. Singleton finished with 124 yards and two TDs on only 10 carries, one week after torching Ohio for 179 yards and two TDs on 10 carries. So, in his last two games, Singleton has averaged an amazing 15.2 yards over his 20 carries.

"Nick definitely took a huge step today," Clifford said of the 2021 Gatorade national High School Player of the Year. "He did it last week; I thought it was impressive. But to do it on on a big stage like this, a lot of people have been talking about him, and I think that he's he's coming around."

Fellow freshman Kaytron Allen, another highly touted recruit, also had a big day with 52 yards and two TDs on nine carries. When you consider the potential of the Penn State offense with those two freshmen, the sky would seem to be the limit.

James Franklin said he's never seen two freshmen running backs have such a big impact together this early in their careers.

"We were pretty excited, obviously, signing them," Franklin said. "We were pretty excited once they got on campus because recruiting is wonderful, but you never truly know till they show up on campus. And they kept making plays and doing things. They have kind of a complimentary style, but they both have the ability to make plays.

"I think Kaytron has got really good vision, and he takes a 4-yard run to a 12- or 16-yard run on a consistent basis. And then as we know Nick has the ability to go 80."

Clifford also had a 7-yard TD run, so the Lions scored five rushing touchdowns, which would have seemed impossible to most people.

• The great running day wasn't just about Singleton breaking outside and outrunning people on this day, as was the case last week against Ohio. The running success against Auburn was largely because the offensive line and tight ends did a great job all day winning the battles in the trenches, which was a giant question mark coming in.

Everyone knows Penn State's O-line has struggled the past two years. But, like with the running backs, if the line can keep playing like this, it would be that "uh oh" kind of thing for Big Ten opponents.

"The offensive line, we don't really listen to the noise man," left guard Landon Tengwall said of the unit being a big question mark. "We come out, and we did what we knew we could do."

Tengwall loves seeing the running backs take off.

"It's fun to watch those guys run down the sideline run for 60-, 70-yard touchdowns," he said. "It's just the best feeling in the world for an offensive lineman."

• Penn State's defense was phenomenal Saturday. Yeah, Auburn had 415 yards and moved the ball well at times, but that's not what matters against any defense.

The Lions had the two huge stops inside the 10-yard line in the first. If Auburn scores touchdowns there, this game would have been a much different story. But the Tigers don't have a great passing game, so them throwing for a score was going to be difficult, and Penn State's defenders stuffed the run in those spots. Later in the game, Auburn had first-and-goal at the 8 and wound up with third-and-goal at the 24.

That's the kind of day it was for the defense.

"It was big," defensive end Adisa Isaac, who had three tackles for loss, said of the red-zone stops. "We always (take pride in) they're not going to score. We just keep telling ourselves, telling each other, 'They're not gonna score. And that's what happened. We just held them to a field goal twice, and it was big for us, especially the way the game went. Those two early scores might have shifted the game, so those are big stops for us."

• You just can't say enough about the job first-year defensive coordinator Manny Diaz has done so far. WOW! This defense, which we knew would be aggressive, has a lot of talent and guys getting after it at every position. The defense did give up 415 yards, but only 119 on the ground against a very good running team.

I'll have much more on Diaz coming up Sunday. Here's a hint: Don't count on him being at Penn State too long.

• Speaking of coordinators, Mike Yurcich had another excellent day calling plays. He has been terrific all three games. He dialed up a fantastic trick play where Clifford threw backwards to KeAndre Lambert-Smith, who then threw a pass to Clifford for a 25-yard gain that set up a touchdown.

"He's done a fantastic job," Clifford said. "It's nice to be able to balance each other out and really help each other throughout the week to get to the point on Saturday. Just the communication between us, it's very open, very honest communication. I'm not saying that it wasn't last year, but just second year, I've never had that before. So just being able to say like, 'Hey, I really just don't feel comfortable with a play or call this play,' that changes the game for me personally. And he's super receptive to it. It's helping us out a lot."

• Clifford finished 14-of-19 for 178 yards. He wasn't needed to do more because the running game was so effective.

Clifford took a massive hit on Penn State's first series of the day, while scrambling out on a keeper. This is about as big of a hit as we've seen on a PSU quarterback in a while. Clifford is one tough dude, as he got up and ran the next play, a QB keeper on 4th-and-1, but he was stuffed by the Auburn defense.

"Yeah, it's football," Clifford said. "They got players, and that dude definitely rocked me. I saw the video, too. It looked even worse than it felt. But it's football, we take hits. That one was definitely a huge, but at the same time, you gotta get back up and keep fighting."

• We did get to see backup QB Drew Allar on one series in the fourth quarter, after the Lions were up big. Allar led the team down the field and to the 1, but Auburn held and forced a field goal. Allar was 2-of-2 for 29 yards, and just getting those reps in an SEC environment -- albeit a quiet one by the time he came in -- will only help him.

• Speaking of the environment: Auburn's crowd noise played a big factor in the first half, leading to four Penn State false starts. But as the day went on and the Lions kept building their lead, the crowd not only was a non-factor, the silence was amazing and a lot of fans left early.

This was one of my favorite tweets of the day:

• Penn State got a big break at the end of the first quarter, on a play that might have cost Auburn points. The Tigers were trying to get a play off before the quarter ended, and the stadium clock did hit 0:00 before the snap. But the officials let the play continue, and T.J. Finley threw an interception, getting picked off by Zakee Wheatley.

TV ref Gene Steratore said on the broadcast that the play could have been reviewed, but it didn't happen. Had it been reviewed and ruled that Auburn still had the ball, the Tigers would faced had third-and-6 at the 28. That would have been a 46-yard field-goal try had the Tigers come up empty on third down.

At the time, it seemed logical that the play might have a big impact on the final score. Ummm ... no.

Here's the TV feed, and you can clearly see the clock hit 0:00.

• PK Jake Pinegar had a good day, drilling a 48-yard field goal and a 22-yarder. The long make surely will give him confidence if he's called upon to kick one of those in a more meaningful situation later on.

• The other guy: Embattled Auburn coach Bryan Harsin is in big trouble. This was a butt whooping, and the proud Auburn folks will not tolerate that kind of beatdown. The Tigers went 6-7 last year in Harsin's first season, and while they are 2-1, the two wins were over cupcakes (Mercer and San Jose State), and they looked about as bad as any SEC team can look in this blowout.

Harsin was asked about his job after the game and had this to say:

"I can't control that. I can control what I do each and every day. What I've always done is coach for this team, these players, these coaches, make sure I'm doing my job having our team prepared and all that. I don't control those other things, other than what I do each and every day. That's been no different since I've been a GA to being a head football coach. I've operated the same way and had the same mindset.

"We put more expectations on ourselves than anybody else. And that's always been that way. So, at the end of the day, I'm disappointed for our football team, and my job is to make sure that that we put together a plan and put a football team out there that could go compete and play at a high level. That's always the expectations. So, the standard needs to be better than what it was, and that's really all we're gonna focus on."

• Penn State could make a significant jump in the rankings on Sunday, after the dominant win. The Lions were No. 22 in the AP poll and No. 23 in the coaches poll last week.

THE ESSENTIALS

• Box score
• Live file
• Scoreboard
• Schedule
• Standings
• Statistics

THE INJURY REPORT

The Lions had some players banged up in the game, but all returned to action.

Keyvone Lee was announced as the starting running back, which came as a surprise. But Singleton instead got his first-career start. Lee got the first carry of Penn State's second series and got banged up. He was down for a minute but was able to limp off the field and returned to the game.

Jacobs was banged up late in the first quarter and limped off but did return.

Jaden Dottin was announced as a starting wide receiver, while Parker Washington was not. But Dottin wasn't even on the travel roster, so Washington did indeed start.

Tight end Theo Johnson played for the first time this season after sitting out the first two games for undisclosed reasons.

THE SCHEDULE

The Lions play their final non-conference game next week at home against Central Michigan. Kickoff is at noon and will air on BTN. James Franklin will have his weekly press conference Tuesday, and we'll hear from players on Tuesday and Wednesday.

THE CONTENT

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