Lions prevail, but don't exactly inspire, against Chippewas

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. -- Penn State looked fantastic the past two weeks in easy wins over Ohio and Auburn, raising the bar of expectations for everyone.

Maybe, just maybe -- many were thinking -- this is an outstanding Nittany Lion team that is on the verge of doing really special things.

But after Saturday's teeth-pulling 33-14 win over Central Michigan at Beaver Stadium, a couple of different possibilities presented themselves.

Either ...

1. The No. 14 Lions were due a little bit of a letdown performance after last week's emotionally charged 41-12 blowout at Auburn, and so this 19-point, closer-than-the-score win over the Chippewas shouldn't be overanalyzed. Or ...

2. Central Michigan exposed Penn State in some ways, so maybe we need to pump the brakes a bit for now with the overall expectations.

Whatever the case, a win is a win, and the Lions were never in any kind of jeopardy against the Chippewas. That's the good news.

The not-so-good news is that Penn State, which was favored by 28 points, looked pretty blah for a good portion of the game and didn't exactly inspire a lot of confidence with this performance.

The players, to their credit, agreed and didn't try to sugarcoat the relatively ho-hum performance.

"A lot of sloppy play," tight end Brenton Strange said.

"I thought we still played, not terrible. It wasn't bad," Sean Clifford said of the offense. "We won the game by a decent amount. But at the same time, it's our standard, I thought that we didn't meet it today."

I asked James Franklin how the team responded coming off last week's big win at Auburn and what the squad needs to do to bring it at that level against every opponent.

"I think most importantly we were 1-0," the coach said. "I thought, obviously, I did see some of the things that you talked about today.

"I thought we had a really good week of practice and preparation. But the game left you sitting here saying, whether it was our focus, whether it was scheme, whether it was big-play potential, I'm not sure. But when you look again at the stat sheet you feel good about it. But it didn't necessarily always feel that way during the game. We weren't as consistent as we need to be with with some of the things that we're doing."

Penn State jumped out to a 14-0 lead, and it looked like it would be blowout city. But the Lions' defense fell apart in the second quarter, and Central Michigan rallied to tie. Penn State scored late in the half to take a 21-14 lead into the locker room.

The game could have been a whole lot closer had Central Michigan not shot itself in the foot on three huge plays.

The Chippewas muffed a punt deep in their own territory early in the third quarter, with Curtis Jacobs recovering to set up a touchdown that made it 27-14. Jake Pinegar's PAT was blocked, and Pinegar later missed a 38-yard field goal.

Central Michigan was going in for a touchdown that would have made it 27-21, but the visitors were called for a huge pass interference. They still ended up getting to the 5 and going for it on fourth down, but Penn State held to keep it at 27-14.

The Chippewas later threw a pass to the PSU 1 on another drive, but that was negated by a holding penalty.

So those three plays -- the muffed punt and two enormous penalties on plays that may have led to touchdowns -- played a big role in the final score. Penn State still would have won, but the margin could have been a whole lot closer than 19.

I asked Clifford if this kind of inconsistent game is maybe what the team needed in some ways after all the recent hoopla following the Auburn win.

"I don't think it's ever what you needed," Clifford said. "We have a standard that we try to uphold every single day, and I thought that -- don't get me wrong, the week of prep that we had was was fantastic, so it wasn't that we had a bad Wednesday or a bad Tuesday or we weren't locked in on Thursday. This team is very locked in.

"But at the same time, when Saturday comes around, we gotta make sure that we're executing at a high level, and I thought that it was just up and down for everybody."

MORE FROM THE GAME

• Kaytron Allen was the star of the day for the Penn State offense, not Nicholas Singleton. Allen ran for 111 yards and one TD on 13 carries, giving the true freshman his first 100-yard day.

Singleton struggled early and for much of the day, finishing with 42 yards on 12 carries. He led the nation in yards per rush (11.1) entering the day and was coming off back-to-back 100-yard days.

Penn State didn't have a 100-yard rusher for 17 consecutive games until week two this season, and now they've had two different freshmen go for 100 in the last three weeks.

That is quite a 1-2 punch, and will be for some time to come with the talented tailbacks.

"That's the key with Kaytron Allen is his vision," Clifford said. "He's extremely gifted naturally, and he's got a lot of room to grow and he knows that. He comes to work every single day, he takes criticism, he takes the competition."

Allen had a 37-yard run, and while he doesn't look like he has the game-breaking burst to the outside that Singleton has shown, Allen could prove to be the better tailback when it comes to running up the middle.

• There's no turnover chain in this Manny Diaz defense, but Penn State once again proved to be very effective at taking away the ball. The Lions forced four turnovers for the second consecutive week, and would have had a fifth if not for an illegal substitution penalty.

Zakee Wheatley and Johnny Dixon had interceptions, and Kalen King had a fumble recovery.

We heard a whole lot of talk in the preseason about Wheatley being the "takeaway king" on defense, and he's shown why the past two games. He had his first interception last week at Auburn and followed it up with a big pick in the first quarter Saturday.

• Clifford had quite an up-and-down day. Or, looking at it in another way, his day kind of mirrored his career.

The quarterback started 8-for-8 with 103 yards passing as Penn State built a 14-0 lead. But Clifford struggled for a while after that, then finished strong. His final line was 22-of-34 for 217 yards and three TDs, but he was just 14-of-26 after his hot start.

"I thought it was inconsistent, starting with myself," Clifford said of the offense. "I thought that, obviously, when you start the game with two touchdowns, going pretty well, and then it was kind of a little rocky after that."

Clifford and Franklin noted Central Michigan was playing a lot of Cover Zero, and while the offense was ready for it, the quarterback said they just didn't execute the plays.

Things went so well for Penn State early, though, with Clifford finding wide-open receivers as he started 8-for-8. Central Michigan was loading up to stop Singleton on the ground, and that allowed Penn State's receivers to roam free, as Mitchell Tinsley did on the first TD of the game.

• Punter Barney Amor had a phenomenal day and has really been one of the most important players on the team so far this season. Amor pinned Central Michigan inside the 10 early, and when the defense held, the Lions took over with good field position and scored a touchdown. Amor later had a gorgeous high punt that was muffed inside the 10 early in the third quarter that led to a big touchdown.

• The Clifford family had a cool moment late in the first quarter when Sean threw a completion to little brother Liam for the first time in their careers. The quick pass was blown up for a 1-yard loss, but it still had to be neat for the brothers and their family. Liam had his first-career catch, for 12 yards, against Ohio on a pass from Allar.

• What does Penn State do now in the coming days to regain focus and make sure it doesn't play another uneven kind of game next week when Big Ten play resumes against Northwestern?

"Just coming together and being able to critique each other and get on the same page of why maybe this didn't work or maybe why weren't we on the same page," said Parker Washington, who had six catches for 64 yards.

"It's a good learning experience being able to come together and talk and communicate. I feel like it'll be the big thing for us coming up and be able to get ready for next week."

Clifford said everyone on the team handles critiques well and takes it as constructive criticism. Washington echoed those sentiments.

"We all learn a lot each each day, and we know Coach is going to be tough on us because the expectations are just high. And just knowing that as a team, I feel like that helps us to be able to learn in those situations and hear the message."

• The expectations are different now for this team, which began the season unranked but is now No. 14. A sluggish game like Saturday might lower the expectations for some, but the players still embrace the high expectations.

"We definitely want to keep this thing pushing, always continuing to work to be 1-0," Washington said. "But we know expectations are high for us, and we just want to be able to exceed those."

THE ESSENTIALS

• Boxscore
• Live file
• Scoreboard
• Schedule
• Standings
• Statistics

THE INJURY REPORT

RB Keyvone Lee did not play. He suffered a leg injury last week at Auburn, and Franklin had said during the week he wasn't sure if Lee would be able to go.

THE SCHEDULE

The Lions get into the bulk of the Big Ten schedule next week, hosting Northwestern. The Wildcats were 1-2 with two straight losses heading into their Saturday night home game against Miami, Ohio.

THE CONTENT

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