Grading Penn State’s Week 2 performance against FIU

No. 2 Penn State continued its nonconference stretch on Saturday with a 34-0 win over FIU that was comfortable but not convincing. The Nittany Lion offense was sluggish in the first half with only 10 points, but the defense more than picked up the slack by pitching a shutout and preventing the Panthers from making this game close. Here’s a position-by-position breakdown of how Penn State fared.

Quarterback: C

It certainly wasn’t Drew Allar’s cleanest performance on Saturday. The senior quarterback wasn’t as accurate as we’ve come to expect, especially in the first half. He underthrew a few deep passes, threw behind receivers on several plays and completely missed Nick Singleton on a swing pass on a third-and-7. His highlight of the first half was the touchdown pass to Khalil Dinkins, where he was flushed out of the pocket and put a nice touch on the ball to get it over the defender.

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Allar and the offense as a whole looked better in the third quarter. Allar hit quick passes and used tempo well to move the ball downfield. His 42-yard touchdown pass to Devonte Ross was a pretty rainbow, and his Ross came through with a great catch. He finished the game with 200 yards and two touchdowns on 58% completion.

Running Backs: B+

Penn State ran the ball well against FIU, with Kaytron Allen and Nick Singleton combining for 220 yards and two touchdowns on 29 total carries. Allen had the best play of the game late in the fourth quarter, showcasing his vision and balance by tightroping the sideline for a 67-yard touchdown. During the first half, the running backs were contained pretty well by FIU, but over time, they started getting bigger gains. You’d like to see the big plays come earlier, but overall not much to complain about.

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Receivers and Tight Ends: B

Penn State worked a lot of short passes against the Panthers, but didn’t have as many explosive plays as you may have hoped for. There was a nice catch and run for Trebor Peña, followed by the circus touchdown catch by Ross, but that’s about it. The Nittany Lions are going to need receivers who can make those great plays —whether it’s creating yards after the catch or making contested grabs. We saw those flashes, and hopefully we’ll see more of that moving forward.

Tight end Luke Reynolds had a really solid game, leading the team with seven receptions for 58 yards. Similarly to Tyler Warren last year, Reynolds looks like a security blanket for Allar and someone he can look to on third and fourth down. Wide receiver Kyron Hudson had five catches for 37 yards and also seems like one of Allar’s favorite targets so far this season.

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Defense: A

Regardless of opponent, pitching a shutout is an automatic A for the defense. Like last week, the defensive line overwhelmed FIU. Dani Dennis-Sutton and Zane Durant are consistent game-wreckers, and the depth looked great with Enai White and Chaz Coleman making plays. It was also nice to see Zuriah Fisher coming back from injury and getting involved off the edge. It didn’t translate to sacks, as FIU quarterback Keyone Jenkins did a great job of escaping, but the constant pressure is going to lead to a lot of wins.

FIU moved the ball pretty well during the game, but it could never quite finish drives. The Panthers were stopped on two fourth downs and threw an interception to defensive tackle Alonzo Ford Jr. Safety Zakee Wheatley also made an outstanding play in coverage to save a potential touchdown in the third quarter. There’s room for improvement, such as in run defense, but all in all, Penn State’s defense dominated in the way it was supposed to.

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Special Teams: A

We learned why Gabe Nwosu won the starting the punter job today. He showed both power and precision, as his first punt was perfectly placed and downed at the 2-yard line, and his next punt was a rocket that went 67 yards. On the punt return team, special teams ace Dom DeLuca had a clean block in the first half. At kicker, Ryan Barker made field goals from 34 and 41 yards, though he had his 53-yard kick blocked. The block is the only thing keeping this from an A+ performance, but there was still a lot to like from special teams today.

Coaching: B

As can be expected in this kind of game, Penn State’s play-calling was pretty vanilla, which I think contributed to the slow start for the offense and the poor third-down efficiency (3 for 12). I liked the aggression from James Franklin to go for it on fourth-and-short several times in the game, and I think we can expect to see more of that as the season continues. They went 2 for 4 on fourth downs, but I don’t think there were necessarily bad play calls in those situations.

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I liked how Penn State managed the middle eight (the final four minutes of the first half and the first four minutes of the second half). After a Penn State field goal drive, FIU got the ball back with 53 seconds, and Franklin aggressively called timeouts to get the ball back. The ensuing drive ended in the blocked field goal, but it was a good use of time to get that extra scoring opportunity. At the start of the second half, the Nittany Lion offense moved with tempo and urgency, which was refreshing to see after a pretty sluggish start to the game.

Overall: C+

This was not an inspiring performance by Penn State, especially offensively. By no means do I think this makes the Nittany Lions a bad team or overrated, but I don’t think they played their best football. A win is a win, and there were positives to take away, but fans would’ve hoped to see a more dominant performance against FIU.

Penn State will be home next week for one more nonconference matchup. Penn State will host Villanova on Saturday, September 13 for a 3:30 p.m. ET kickoff in Beaver Stadium. The game will air on FS1.

This article originally appeared on Nittany Lions Wire: Week 2 postgame report card for Penn State