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phases, offense, defense and special teams," coach James Franklin said. "I thought we did that. That's a team that [went to] Wisconsin [last season] and had a lead in the fourth quarter on the road. I thought it was valuable for us to be able to talk to our team about that and show them that on tape." The Lions wasted little time ensuring that there would be no such fourth-quar- ter drama in this game. Here's a look at the good and the bad: THE GOOD • Saquon Barkley totaled 226 all-pur- pose yards, finding a way to make things happen even when the running lanes were clogged up, as they oAen were. His 85- yard catch-and-run for a touchdown in the first quarter helped Penn State get rolling, and he went on to finish with 142 receiving yards. Also, Trace McSorley completed 18 of 23 passes for 309 yards and four touchdowns. Both Barkley and McSorley exited the game in the third quarter. • The Lions got some nice contributions from their reserves, and not just in the second half when the score was out of hand. Backup quarterback Tommy Stevens caught a 10-yard touchdown pass to finish off the Lions' first possession, and Miles Sanders scored on a 29-yard run in the second quarter, bouncing off a pileup at the line of scrimmage and finding lots of open space on the right side. In the second half, Stevens stood tall in the face of a heavy rush and connected with Saeed Blacknall on a 35-yard touchdown pass. • The opportunistic play by Penn State's defense continues. Grant Haley's second- quarter interception was the Lions' fourth of the season, and it was quickly followed by No. 5, courtesy of Marcus Allen, and No. 6, by freshman cornerback Tariq Cas- tro-Fields. By comparison, the Lions had 10 interceptions in 14 games last season. In addition, Kevin Givens recovered a fumble aAer pounding quarterback Conner Man- ning, and Yetur Gross-Matos did much the same in the fourth quarter. • Penn State finished its three-game nonconference season having given up only 14 points and one touchdown. • To anyone looking for evidence that time-of-possession is becoming an in- creasingly irrelevant statistic, consider this: Georgia State held the ball for just under 39 minutes but was still outscored by eight touchdowns. • Tyler Davis had six touchbacks on six kickoffs. THE BAD • While the Lions were able to find cre- ative ways of getting Barkley into open space – wheel routes, kickoff returns, etc. – he didn't gain a lot of yards on the ground. Barkley finished with 47 rushing yards on 10 attempts. Starting guard Brendan Mahon missed the game for un- specified reasons, and Franklin said his ab- sence had an impact. "I would have liked to have seen us run the ball a little bit bet- ter," he said. "Not having Mahon in there affected us a little bit in the run game." • Georgia State did have some success running the ball early in the game and again at the end when the Penn State de- fense was made up of backups and walk- ons. The Panthers, who rushed for only 49 yards as a team in a season-opening loss to Tennessee State, gained 150 against Penn State. Taz Bateman accounted for 100 of those yards on 29 carries, and he also caught three passes for 19 yards. "You would love for us to be a more suffocating defense where they don't run the ball and don't throw the ball for the little dinks and dunks down the field," Franklin said. "But the most important thing is that we're keeping people out of the end zone." • Losing Torrence Brown early in the game to what appeared to be a knee or leg injury was a significant blow to the de- fense. The Lions have plenty of promising young defensive ends, but Brown, a red- shirt junior, is their most experienced player at the position. He was carted off the field, and his availability going forward is uncertain. • Davis missed a 39-yard field goal in the first half. It was his second miss of the sea- son, with both coming from inside 40 yards. LOOKING AHEAD On to the Big Ten. The Nittany Lions will open their conference season on Saturday at Iowa, where they will be meeting a Hawkeyes team that ran its record to 3-0 with a 31-14 victory over North Texas. Nate Stanley threw for 197 yards, while freshman Ivory Kelly-Martin rushed for 74 yards and two fourth-quarter touch- SCORING SUMMARY 1ST 11:48 PSU Stevens, Tommy 10-yard pass from McSorley, Trace (Davis, Tyler kick) 8 plays, 63 yards, TOP 3:12..........................................................0-7 0:49 PSU Barkley, Saquon 85-yard pass from McSorley, Trace (Davis, Tyler kick) 3 plays, 83 yards, TOP 0:58...................................................... 0-14 2ND 11:44 PSU Hamilton, DaeSean 27-yard pass from McSorley, Trace (Davis, Tyler kick) 3 plays, 86 yards, TOP 1:09....................................................... 0-21 8:55 PSU Sanders, Miles 29-yard run (Davis, Tyler kick) 1 play, 29 yards, TOP 0:09........................................................ 0-28 3:26 PSU McSorley, Trace 8-yard run (Davis, Tyler kick) 4 plays, 25 yards, TOP 2:02......................................................0-35 3RD 7:56 PSU Polk, Brandon 15-yard pass from McSorley, Trace (Davis, Tyler kick) 6 plays, 55 yards, TOP 2:45......................................................0-42 6:01 PSU Blacknall, Saeed 35-yard pass from Stevens, Tommy (Davis, Tyler kick) 4 plays, 42 yards, TOP 1:45...................................................... 0-49 4TH 8:55 PSU Robinson, Andre 41-yard run (Davis, Tyler kick) 4 plays, 69 yards, TOP 1:47.......................................................0-56 S E P T E M B E R 1 7 , 2 0 1 7 B L U E W H I T E O N L I N E . c O M 2

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