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their red-zone performance was up and down, but the good outweighed the bad on opening day. Here's a look: THE GOOD • A?er a 2015 season in which it didn't do as much ball-hawking as it had been looking to do, Penn State's secondary had two huge takeaways against Kent State: a Marcus Allen fumble recovery that set up a touchdown and a 30-yard pick six by cornerback Amani Oruwariye. The secondary has been billed as a team strength this year, and it delivered in the opener. • A?er giving up some big plays in the first half, the defense clamped down in the second. Penn State allowed only 117 yards in the game's final two quarters, with two takeaways, including Oruwariye's pick six. • In addition to the secondary, the re- built defensive front had a big a?ernoon. Or, to be more precise, a big late a?er- noon. Of its seven sacks, six came in the second half. Redshirt freshman end Sha- reef Miller had two. "That was great to see," Franklin said. • Penn State's wideouts had some fine moments in the opener, particularly Chris Godwin, who finished with seven catches for 67 yards. DeAndre Thomp- kins only had one catch, but it was a great one, a contested 43-yarder to set up a third-quarter touchdown. • True freshman punter Blake Gillikin enjoyed a superb debut. His first punt at- tempt was 49 yards, and he went on to average 47 yards in his first college game. "He punted extremely well," Franklin said. • Joey Julius, Penn State's 258-pound kicker, put Kent State return man Kavi- ous Price on his back on a second-quar- ter return attempt, provoking a roar from the crowd and no doubt earning himself a place in a few plays-of-the- week roundups. Julius also had six touchbacks on seven kickoffs. "He had a great day on kickoffs," Franklin said. "[And] he probably had the biggest hit of the day." THE BAD • The red zone offense still needs work. The Lions did go 4 of 5, with a 4-yard touchdown catch by DaeSean Hamilton and a 9-yard sweep by Saquon Barkley, but they also settled for field goals twice. "We le? between 14 and 21 points on the board," Franklin said. • Barkley o?en found himself dodging tacklers in the backfield. He still finished with what Franklin described as a "very sneaky" 105 yards on 22 carries, but the Lions are going to see their fair share of a Barkley-centric defensive game plans and don't want the standout sophomore running back having to use all the moves in his considerable repertoire just to make it back to the line of scrimmage. "We have to sustain and finish our blocks on the offensive line," Franklin said. • Two first-quarter personal fouls – a facemask on Allen and a late hit by Robert Windsor – were costly, with both furthering Kent State scoring drives. Allen's penalty wasn't flagrant, but the late hit on the Kent State sideline is one that Penn State could definitely have done without. • Attempting two-point conversions in the first quarter, a la Oregon, is a gambit that PSU might want to rethink. THE TAKEAWAY Kent State hung in there for nearly 60 minutes, depriving Penn State of the lopsided victory that some had fore- seen. A worrisome sign? Maybe. But it could also be an indication that the Lions will need a bit of time to adapt to all the off- season changes. The nonconference schedule is look- ing a little less formidable in the wake of Temple's 28-13 pratfall against Army on Friday night. But first things first. Next week's matchup with Pitt is a huge game for the Nittany Lions for all kinds of reasons, on the field and off. The Pan- thers had to shake off a slow start against Villanova of the Football Cham- pionship Subdivision, but they eventu- ally pulled away for a 28-7 victory at Heinz Field. In its opener, Penn State put together two very solid quarters on defense while moving the ball on offense in fits and starts throughout the game. That was more than sufficent in week one. Week two should prove more challeng- ing. "We've got a lot of things that we've got to get cleaned up," Franklin said. "I know people say we've got a big game coming up this week. We'll clean up the things from this past week and learn from that and move on to the next one." S E P T E M B E R 4 , 2 0 1 6 B L U E W H I T E O N L I N E . c O M 2 PSUtixman@gmail.com www.PSUtixman.com Get your PSU Football Tickets at go t ti cke t s? k c i t t t e k man@g .PSUtixm www.PSUtixman.com at ootba Get yo k c i t t o gm .PSUtixman.com all ur s t s e k

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