Penn State Football: Nittany Lions Prove They Never Belonged in Early Top 25

The Penn State Nittany Lions began the season in the Top 25, but just like last year they showed exactly why they should have never been there in the first place. 

The Alabama Crimson Tide easily took care of the Nittany Lions, winning 27-11 with the only Penn State touchdown coming in the closing minutes of a blowout. 

You knew it was going to be a rough day for Joe Paterno and his team when they ran 16 plays in over seven minutes, used three timeouts and the result was only a 3-0 lead in the first quarter.

The Crimson Tide then went to work, and their talented defense only allowed the Nittany Lions one more first down for the rest of the half.

Paterno needs to make up his mind about his starting quarterback because playing both Matthew McGloin and Rob Bolden was part of the Nittany Lions problem this past weekend. 

As the saying goes, "If you have two quarterbacks, you don't really have any." 

There needs to be one leader of this team, and even though both quarterbacks struggled, it was Bolden who was under center on the only scoring drives for the Nittany Lions. 

After the loss, Paterno was quoted by Philly.com saying, "I thought the quarterbacks played a pretty good football game." 

He must have been watching a different game because Bolden was 11-for-29 with an interception, and McGloin was only 1-for-10. 

The Nittany Lions had the preseason hype, despite losing some key offensives stars from 2010, but when you struggle that bad against a top opponent it proves you had no business being there. 

Yes, the Crimson Tide are one of the best teams in the country, but as a Top 25 Penn State should have been able to at least compete with them, bu they failed to do so. 

Trent Richardson scored two touchdowns, and the Nittany Lions were unable to stop him and Eddie Lacey rushing for 196 yards. 

Penn State needs work on both sides of the ball, and they'll get it done in the next two weeks as the play Temple and Eastern Michigan. 

But after their sluggish performance in Week 2, they'll be out of the polls for a while, and it's not going to be easy to get back in either.