Sunday Column: Nittany Lions Chew Up and Spit Out The Longtime Thorn In Their Side, Putting The Rest of the Big Ten on Notice In The Process

Was Penn State playing a little possum in the first three weeks of the season? Did it decide sometime this week or even this summer that it was going to beat Iowa in pitch-perfect Kirk Ferentz fashion? Does Drew Allar owe Jalen Hurts usage rights fees for the Tush Push?

These are the things we found ourselves pondering late in the rarest of rarities, a 31-0 Penn State blowout/shutout of perennial nemesis Iowa. In what looked like the perfect conditions for a classic Hawkeye Cro-Magnon rock fight, in which the punters are the best and most active players on the field and modern offense is rendered moot, James Franklin’s team started slowly but steadily, took reasonable control of the game in the first half and then blew it open after halftime, doing so with a running game that continued to wear down a very good Iowa defense, a diverse passing attack that utilized the tight end in very much the same way Iowa has haunted Penn State defenses over the years, and a defense that made a Brian Ferentz offense look even more feeble than usual, if such a thing is actually possible.

Whew.

The Nittany Lions, who moved to 4-0 in their final big test before the Oct. 21 showdown with Ohio State in Columbus, had shown hints that they were capable of this level of play from just about every one of their position groups at varying points over the first three games, but in none of those did they come close to clicking across the board the way they did Saturday night. The running game, which had been struggling to find second gear, hit third and fourth, grinding out 6- and 7-yard runs with regularity. Allar stayed patient with the short throws in the rain, picked up some key first downs with his legs/length/Tyler Warren rocket boost from behind, then showed off his breathtaking blend of zip and accuracy with touchdown tosses to Khalil Dinkins, Tyler Warren, and KeAndre Lambert-Smith.

I mean, the kid made the fade route work, for crying out loud.

Allar’s play, which has—even during last week’s uneven performance in Champaign—been far steadier than his age and level of experience would suggest, is of course the X factor in whatever Penn State will or won’t accomplish in 2023. But he won’t be able to do it alone, and the help he got from his offensive line, his backs, his receivers, and his play-caller on Saturday is what will make him a truly dangerous player, and his offense a truly formidable unit, moving forward.

And the offense isn’t even the best unit on the team right now.

Manny Diaz’s defense, in what should come as little surprise but is impressive all the same, has apparently spackled over the few spider cracks it showed in the opener against West Virginia, which now feels like two months ago. Iowa couldn’t run the ball, couldn’t protect Cade McNamara, and couldn’t get anyone open even if he had had time to throw. This defense, which attacked the Hawkeyes with three defensive ends on several plays and with four linebackers on another, has the depth and diversity of personnel to attack multiple schemes in multiple ways and it is humming as the weather turns to hittin’ season. But as Franklin will probably tell his team and anyone who will listen 19 times this week, complementary football is the best way to win big or win at all. The fact that Iowa ran five (5!!) plays during the third quarter is clearly a testament to the performance of the Penn State defense, but that ridiculous statistic wouldn’t have been possible had the Penn State offense not controlled the ball, and the Iowa defense, for the rest of the period.

Now, to expect this sort of well-rounded dominance in every game moving forward is ambitious, but that it came against this particular opponent should not be overlooked. Four of the last five meetings against Iowa had been decided by one score. Ferentz, and his wily defensive coordinator Phil Parker, had tormented Franklin and the Lions over the years like few other Big Ten teams, certainly as much as any team that didn’t have a decided edge over Penn State in raw talent. Saturday, the Hawkeyes, a legit top-25 squad, looked like the JV scrimmaging against the varsity … and the varsity had spent its lunch break drawing up the JV’s plays. Penn State didn’t exorcise gold-and-black demons as much as it eviscerated them, and if winning handily without playing its best game during the first three weeks had given the Nittany Lions some confidence, making the Hawkeyes look more like an FCS opponent than the actual FCS team that had been here two weeks earlier should have sent that confidence through the roof.

The challenge for Penn State leading up to this week was establishing some momentum and elevating its overall standard of play after three solid but largely uneven performances. The challenge the Nittany Lions face now is figuring out a way to carry the continent-shifting momentum they established Saturday into the most important stretch of the season. The world has now seen what happens when Penn State puts it all together. More importantly, the Nittany Lions have, too. Playing to your potential isn’t easy, especially when you’re a team with as much potential as this one has. Doing it on a regular basis is even harder, but you can’t do the second part without doing the first, and that’s exactly what the Nittany Lions did as the rain, and memories of Iowa nightmares past, dripped off their backs on Saturday.