Penn State Football: Week Three Review and Week Four Preview

Week Three Review:

Syracuse offered no resistance to the Nittany Lions last Saturday, as Penn State easily garnered a 55-13 victory.  In my article from early on in the summer, I had predicted PSU to only win this game by a score of 24-17, but last week I changed that predicted score to be 38-13.

While I had the Syracuse point total exactly right, I continue to under-estimate the Penn State offense.  I thought they might get off to a slow start in their first road game, but that was not the case at all.  The Lions scored a touchdown only one minute and twenty seconds into the game, and went on to put up a total of 21 points in the first quarter.

Darryl Clark, Evan Royster, and Jordan Norwood continued their streak of highly impressive performances.  Norwood had 113 yards receiving and two touchdowns.  Royster had 104 yards rushing on only 13 carries.  Clark had 163 yards passing, with two touchdowns.  

A minor concern for Clark in this game was that he completed less than half of his passes (10 of 21).  However, I was happier to see that he didn’t throw any interceptions.  Clark has not been intercepted at all this season.

Some other players also stepped up to have big games against the weak Syracuse defense.  Star receiver Deon Butler made his first real impact on the season, with 110 yards receiving and two touchdowns.  Back-up running back Stephfon Green enjoyed much more success than last week, running for 52 yards on 10 carries.  Quarterback option No. 2, Pat Devlin, also had his most successful game thus far, passing for 130 yards and two touchdowns in only 13 pass attempts.

Highly touted receiver and kick-returner Derrick Williams seems to be the only Nittany Lion that has yet to get on track.  Williams had a kick return for a touchdown in the opening game against Coastal Carolina, but has had little success in the return game since.  He also only has 6 catches for 88 yards for the season (three games).

The PSU defense continues to be solid, yet unspectacular.  They have been able to cope with the suspension of All-American DE Maurice Evans and several injuries on the defensive line so far, but a more powerful offense might be able to take advantage. That powerful offense won’t come for another week though, when Illinois visits Beaver Stadium.

Week Four Preview:

Penn State has an inter-state match-up with Temple this weekend.  Temple is 1-2 this season, with two overtime losses.  While Temple has shown tremendous improvement over the last two seasons, the Owls are still well out of the league of PSU.

In my prior article, I had predicted for Penn State win easily by a score of 49-7.  I still think that Penn State will win easily, but I think I’ve learned my lesson from underestimating the Nittany Lion offense in every game this season so far.  I think Penn State will score a few more points, and Temple has the potential to score more as well. My new prediction is for Penn State to win by a score of 59-12.

Playing against Penn State is a game that Temple focuses on every season, and I fully expect the Owls to play to the best of their ability in this one.  Unfortunately for them, I also expect Penn State to play well.  There is a slight chance that the Lions could be looking ahead to Illinois already, but it’s more likely that Penn State will want to put this one away early.

Temple did a decent job of containing the Penn State offense last season on their home field, but don’t expect that again this season.  In addition to the switch of home-field advantage, the “Morelli era” of offensive ineptness is also well in the past for this year’s PSU squad.  

I expect more of the same incredible performances from Clark, Norwood, Royster, and Butler.  I also expect for Devlin and Green to get even more opportunities this game. They both should be able to build on their confidence from last week and have very good games.

The Penn State offense will try to get Derrick Williams more involved this game, but I don’t expect him to have much improved success in this one.  William’s success this season will come when defenses start to focus too much on Norwood and Butler.

Finally, it will be important for the psyche of the PSU defense to hold Temple to a low point total heading into next week against Illinois.  There are too many holes right now, but I would like to see the defense only allow field goals and no touchdowns in this game.