Blue White Illustrated

reminder that Penn State is being meas- ured not against the Big Ten's middling powers anymore but instead against the handful of teams that consistently in- habit the league's upper echelon, namely Michigan and Ohio State. If any particu- lar unit was raising con- cerns during the team's trip to Evanston, it wasn't be- cause the Nittany Lions had failed to seize control of the game – they were basically in control from the second quarter onward – but be- cause those flaws were likely to be exploited more adeptly by their remaining opponents. The Northwestern game brought an end to the first half of the Lions' regular season. They emerged from it without a loss, their first 6-0 start since 2008. The victory over the Wildcats made them bowl-eligible, and the fact that that development went basically unno- ticed afterward was, in its own way, an- other sign of progress. These days, bowl appearances are a given. That wasn't the case in Franklin's first two seasons. As for the Lions' postseason destina- tion, that will be decided in the coming weeks. They've already faced Michigan, and visits to Ohio State and a suddenly revitalized Michigan State are up next, so we won't have long to wait to see how they stack up against the conference's best. In the meantime, here's a look at how they graded out in the first half of the season: QUARTERBACK Trace McSorley's num- bers through six games were among the best in the Big Ten. He was leading the league in yards per game (266.2), had a Big Ten-best completion rate of 67.0 percent and was sporting a solid 13-4 touchdown-interception ratio. Also, he was superb during the most dramatic moment of the season's first half, com- pleting 7 of 11 passes on Penn State's last possession against Iowa, including the winning touchdown pass on the final play of the game. Said offensive coordi- nator Joe Moorhead, "When you look at objective, measureable criteria, I think Trace has done a very good job." If there's a caveat here, it's that Mc- Sorley hasn't had as much success with the deep ball as he was having at the end of last year. In 2016, he led the Football Bowl Subdivision in yards per comple- tion (16.13), but heading into Penn State's bye week he was 60th nationally (12.28). Consequently, some of the Heis- man Trophy buzz he was receiving after last year's Big Ten Championship Game and Rose Bowl has faded, as Barkley has been the team's highlight-roundup fix- ture on a weekly basis. But with oppo- nents determined to stop the standout running back at any cost, McSorley has needed to come through in order for the offense to be successful, and he did that in the team's first six games....GRADE B+ RUNNING BACK A few days before Penn State traveled to Evanston, writer Mar- tin Oppegaard of the website InsideNU.com put together clips of Barkley's 10 best plays of the season and admitted, "I have no idea how North- western is going to try to slow him down." As it turned out, the Wildcats did a terrific job of bottling up Barkley, hold- ing him to a season-low 84 all-purpose yards. And yet, he still managed to crush their upset hopes with a 53-yard touch- down ramble in the third quarter. The message to future opponents was clear: You can't let him get loose, even once, or he's going to gouge you. Coming out of the Northwestern vic- tory, Barkley was averaging 217.0 all- purpose yards per game to rank first nationally. He was in the thick of the Heisman Trophy race heading into the Michigan game, and deservedly so. Barkley's three scholarship backups – Miles Sanders, Andre Robinson and Mark Allen – had only rushed 19 times between them, so it's hard to size up the team's depth at the position. But even so, there's only one grade that makes sense here............................ GRADE A RECEIVER The Nittany Lions have CATCH OF THE DAY Johnson reaches for McSorley's pass at the end of the Iowa game. The 7- yard touchdown strike allowed Penn State to escape with a 21-19 victory. Photo by Steve Manuel

• Cover