Penn State’s bye week fell smack-dab in the middle of the season, making for a clean landmark for those who like to take stock of what a team has done prior to the bye and predict what it will likely do the rest of the way (or for those who have a weekly column space to fill and no game to fill it with).

Few would have been all that surprised if you had told them back in August that the Nittany Lions would arrive at this point at 5-1, though the way they got here would have been a lot more difficult to nail down. Penn State’s defense, which had question marks up front and at one safety spot, has been an absolute terror, answering all of those questions and a few that weren’t even asked while staking its claim as the nation’s fourth-best scoring defense and second-best red zone defense and one that matches up well against a variety of styles.

The offense, at different junctures and at various position groups, has been a pleasant surprise, all-too-predictable disappointment, and more than a bit of a mystery, sometimes in the same quarter (and all that was before it lost its quarterback!). The special teams, after a couple of early hiccups, have been mostly solid, if lacking some of the game-breaking firepower they’ve displayed the last few years.

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Enter Understudy, Exit Undefeated Season as Penn State Fans Overload WebMD’s Servers in the Wake of Losing a 23-20 Heartbreaker to the Hawkeyes

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Late in the 4^th Quarter, well aware they couldn’t come close to running out the clock, Iowa’s coaches chose to take consecutive knees on 2^nd and 3^rd down.

I’m gonna type that sentence again for emphasis: Late in the 4^th Quarter, well aware they couldn’t come close to running out the clock, Iowa’s coaches chose to take consecutive knees on 2^nd and 3^rd down.

Pause a second and just let that sink in.

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Up a field goal – not 4 points, 5, points, 6 points, or 7 points, or 11 points – and with a makeable 10 yards standing between them and certain victory, Iowa stiff-armed the plausible approach faster than a broke dude shooing away the dessert menu on a crappy first date and instead WILLINGLY surrendered possession back to Penn State with more than 40 SECONDS remaining.

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Introduction

Oh man, what a terrible loss. After winning nine straight games following the home loss to Iowa in 2020, the Nittany Lions’ streak is over. The team jumped on top of the Hawkeyes 17-3 and then the bottom dropped out when Sean Clifford left the contest with an apparent upper body injury. After he departed, Iowa outscored Penn State 20-3. The difference in offensive performance before Clifford’s injury and after was stunning. It’s borderline masochistic to evaluate the team before and after Cliff left the game but that’s what I’m going to do. I hate that Penn State lost the game but I also firmly believe they were the better team and it makes me feel better to show it.

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There was a moment late in Saturday’s game when Iowa running back Tyler Goodson picked up decent yardage and, on his way back to the huddle, took some time to strut and pound his chest, as a crammed Kinnick Stadium wildly roared its approval, the momentum firmly on the side of the home team.

Penn State linebacker Ellis Brooks, a few feet away, watched Goodson with a somewhat incredulous look on his face, as though he were wondering if his opponent had forgotten about the three previous hours, when the Nittany Lion defense had Goodson and the Hawkeye offense in figurative shackles.

Look, let’s give Goodson and his teammates and crusty old Kirk Ferentz and the Kinnick crazies their collective due for Iowa’s very Iowa 23-20 win on Saturday. Let’s also not pretend that, if not for one incomplete pass early in the second quarter, this game was well on its way to a wholly different result.

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• Well, this is the risk you knowingly take when you construct a beautiful sand castle so close to the edge of the beach during high tide. In the blink of an eye, it can all violently wash away. Penn State’s inability to land a competent backup in the Transfer Portal, (or its misguided assessment of its current quarterback situation beyond Sean Clifford) meant the 2021 season would always be a heartbeat away – or in this case, a wrapped right shoulder away – from flatlining.

• Granted, Ta’Quan Roberson was dropped into an unenviable scenario – on the road, at Kinnick, facing a desperate crowd searching for any reason to use (and likely by now, lose) its collective voice. In the Big Ten, that’s pretty much the deepest of deep ends…but, good lord, Roberson did NOT look prepared for the moment. Took about 4 seconds to figure that out after the third-year, former 4-star belly-flopped on a bobbled snap. From there, Roberson piecemealed together a clunky 3^rd Quarter scoring drive full of Sandlot scrambles and dump offs. Sure, those 3 points upped the Nittany Lions’ lead to 20-10 but they also revealed to Iowa DC Phil Parker that this hobbled offense was no longer a threat to do anything downfield or capable of completing levels concepts (like Clifford did repeatedly in the first half) that put Iowa’s zone defenders in damned-if-you-do, damned-if-you-don’t conflict scenarios.

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Introduction

Raise your hand if you predicted back in August that this Saturday’s Penn State-Iowa tilt shoehorned inside Kinnick Stadium would feature a pair of Top 5 teams.

Put your hand down, liar.

Sure, Blue-and-White/Black-and-Gold LASIK patients might have envisioned early season success for their OWN team, but given the September gauntlet the Nittany Lions and Hawkeyes both faced it’s a minor miracle neither squad has a blemish in 2021. And so here we are, just a few days away from the biggest Big Ten game that didn’t include Ohio State since…since…man, IDK. The 2015 Big Ten Championship between Top 5 Iowa and Top 5 Michigan State?

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