Penn State destroy Eastern Ilinois

The world is great again. The Penn State Nittany Lions have not had any problems, the defense is great, and we even love the special teams after Penn State beat the crap out of Eastern Illinois by the score of 52-3.

Actually, the special teams - on the offensive end - could do with some work, and we still can't work out why in God's name Evan Royster is returning kicks. Seriously.

But the running backs - as you'd expect, were awesome all day, with Evan Royster running for 94 yards and Stephfon Green for 58. Darryl Clark even ran for 11 - and a touchdown - while replacement Kevin Newsome ran for nearly 50 in seven attempts.

Quarterbacking-wise, Clark was nearly perfect, throwing for three touchdowns for 234 yards in a 13-19 effort as Derrick Moye, Chaz Powell and the rest of the receivers outmuscled Eastern Illinois' much smaller defenders.

Our only complaint in Newsome: we noticed that he fumbled the ball a couple of times on a single drive, which irritated me. So did the fact that he took his helmet off and then argued with Joe Paterno when he was told he wasn't coming in. The kid needs to learn some manners. Saying that, if he's passed Michael Robinson for Penn State's all-time pass record and led us to a couple of National Titles, we might just forgive him this once.

Defensively, the 'D' was stifling, giving up 206 total yards - with most of them after half time. London-born Jack Crawford was in good form, and so was Jared Odrick. The ESPN guys said they'll both be playing on Sundays - as they did with Navarro Bowman - which shows their confidence in the defense.

All in all, a good performance against weak opposition. But now we can go into the Big Ten schedule with good heart.