Penn State football: What went wrong vs. Indiana

Losing hurts, but it’s college football and that happens. But to be on the wrong side of a historically bad call makes going 0-1 even more painful. I could go on all day how the refs lost Penn State football the game, but at the end of the day, Penn State beat itself. There were plenty of opportunities to get out of Indiana with a win, but it didn’t execute when it needed to. Three missed field goals, three turnovers, questionable play calling and the list goes on and everyone has to be held accountable.

Offense

I wasn’t impressed with Kirk Ciarrocca’s play calling debut for Penn State football. While the ball was spread around to 12 different guys throughout the game, the personnel and designs of the plays were pretty vanilla. Sean Clifford’s stat line was impressive, though. He completed 68% of his passes and threw for three touchdowns on top of 119 yards and one touchdown rushing. However, his two first half interceptions resulted in 10 Indiana points and were downright inexcusable mistakes.

Pat Freiermuth opened up the scoring with a two-yard touchdown reception to give him the outright touchdown record by a Penn State tight end. Jahan Dotson played well as the No. 1 passing threat for Clifford. The junior racked in four catches for 94 yards and a touchdown. It was a good start for his season where he needs to step up and be a guy the quarterback can trust to make big plays.

With Journey Brown out, Noah Cain got the game’s opening touches but left due to an injury after just three carries. That left sophomore Devyn Ford to take the feature running back role. Ford rushed 20 times for 69 yards and a touchdown to give Penn State a 28-20 lead with 1:42 left in regulation. That should be the nail in the coffin, right? That’s what you’d think.

Defense

Until the final two minutes of the game, the defense didn’t play bad at all. Defensive ends Shaka Toney and Jayson Oweh put up the highest pass-rush win percentage in the country this week. Toney also had seven tackles and two sacks. Safety Lamont Wade played great causing two turnovers with an interception and a fumble recovery.

The offense and special teams didn’t help the defense by setting them up with horrible field position to work with. You can’t really blame Brent Pry for that. But what I can blame Pry for is the execution down the stretch.

Up a touchdown and Indiana has to march down the entire field with one timeout, and the Hoosiers did it with ease. Michael Penix led the Indiana offense on the last drive completing five of six passes for 54 yards and then proceeded to run for the touchdown and two-point conversion to tie the game. Two costly penalties and allowing the offense to pick you apart wherever you allowed it is on coaching, and the cautious play calling at the end of games has to change.

Special Teams

In my depth chart preview prior to the start of the season, I had high praise for kickers Jake Pinegar and Jordan Stout. The two have been consistent and have proved themselves as reliable kickers in previous seasons. Well I guess I jinxed them as they were 0-for-3 on field goal attempts. There are no other words to use other than unacceptable with Pinegar at the end of the first half to cut the deficit to seven and Stout’s miss at the end of regulation to win the game.

I have faith these guys will bounce back from their blunder in the season opener, but I fear they’ll be thinking about it too much. Kicking is such a mental game, and they just have to get over it and be ready for the next opportunity. I still have faith in the two for Penn State football.

What’s Next?

As James Franklin would say, Ohio State, Ohio State, Ohio State, Ohio State, Ohio State, Ohio State, Ohio State, Ohio State, Ohio State, Ohio State, Ohio State, Ohio State, Ohio State, Ohio State, Ohio State, Ohio State, Ohio State, Ohio State, Ohio State, Ohio State, Ohio State, Ohio State, Ohio State, Ohio State, Ohio State, Ohio State, Ohio State, Ohio State, Ohio State, Ohio State, Ohio State, Ohio State. See you on Halloween.

Photo courtesy of IUHoosiers.com