Penn State-Villanova Takeaways: Ryan Barker shines, third-down struggles persist, more

By Greg Pickel

For the third week in a row, Penn State hardly looked a team that was six or more touchdowns better than its opponent despite beating in-state FCS foe Villanova 52-6 on Saturday at Beaver Stadium to close out the non-conference slate. This may be reactionary, but it may be the most uninspiring 3-0 start in school history. At the very least, it is for a team that entered the year with the kind of roster and coaching talent that this one has.

At any rate, we have a whole bye week to relitigate expectations vs. reality. Our top takeaways from the Lions’ latest win are below.

1. The good and bad of Ryan Barker’s start

I feel bad putting the Penn State kicker’s name in a headline that includes negativity, because if anyone hasn’t earned it, it’s him. Entering Saturday, the redshirt sophomore was among the nation’s leaders in made field goals. That isn’t going to change after he was perfect on three tries. If not for a teammate messing up a blocking assignment on a 57-yard attempt last week, he might even be perfect on the year. If we’ve learned anything over the last three weeks, it’s that Penn State has a kicker it can trust: He’s now 9 of 10 on the year.

So, what’s bad about that? Well, the fact that Barker is also among the nation’s leaders in attempted field goals. And, most of them have been in advantageous opponent territory, with a handful coming in the red zone. And, that’s a problem. This Penn State offense should be built to score. But, in far too many instances, including today, it gets close to or into the red zone, and then stalls out.

It’s something that must be fixed during the bye week. As for Barker, he must keep chugging along as is.

2. What’s the third down fix?

Entering Saturday, Penn State ranked 94th in third down conversion percentage nationally. Part of the issue is play calling. Part of it is not getting enough push in short yardage situations. Other problems tie back to either bad Drew Allar throws or receivers not getting open. As James Franklin likes to say, it’s all of it. And, all of it is currently a big problem for this offense right now, and perhaps its biggest.

When the fourth quarter started with the Lions leading 31-0, Penn State was 5 of 11 on third down, which is a slightly better mark (45 percent) than its two-week average of 36 percent. But, it’s still not good enough in a game like this. Penn State was 1 of 6 when it needed five yards or more. And there within lies the problem. Either via penalty, incompletions, or short runs, this team puts itself in too many situations where it needs too many yards on third down. It did it today. And, it did it over the first two weeks, too.

The final drives in this game may make the numbers look a bit better. But, overall after three weeks, they are what they are and not good enough.

3. At least the defense came to play.

While Penn State’s offense didn’t attack Villanova’s defense in a way befitting a FBS vs. FCS matchup, the Lions’ defense certainly did. Jim Knowles’ bunch was aggressive and suffocating, for the most part. Elliot Washington II secured the first interception for a Penn State defensive back of the year, courtesy of a Dani Dennis-Sutton hurry. Amare Campbell had three tackles for loss and a sack. Tony Rojas had two of the latter. And the Lions had a handful of quarterback hurries, regardless of what the official stat sheet will say (it claims three with 10:43 to go in the third quarter).

Nice day for this group, despite the backups giving up the late touchdown. It wiped out Penn State’s chance to have back-to-back shut outs for the first time since 1996.

4. Odds and ends

–While both the snap count and series split might not end up being this way upon review, it felt like Nick Singleton had a two-to-one edge on Kaytron Allen Saturday. In our view, one-to-one would make more sense, or perhaps even the reverse, as the latter looks more effective at this point despite the former’s two touchdowns. The proof is in the numbers: Singleton averaged 4.2 yards over 20 carries. Allen averaged 8.6 on 10.

–Freshman defensive end Yvan Kemajou played in his third game of the season on Saturday. It means if Penn State wants to preserve his redshirt, he can only suit up for one more. A fifth would burn his redshirt. It looks clear that the plan is to do that at this point.

–Mark it down: James Franklin will not be happy with the number of pre-snap penalties in his postgame news conference.