Sunday Column: The Curtain Opens on 2020…and Penn State Wishes it Hadn’t

This was not the opponent that Penn State wanted to see for its season opener. Not in any season, really, but certainly not this (insert whatever adjectives you’re using to describe 2020 these days) season.

Indiana, the punchy punchline of the Big Ten. Maybe someday someone will come along and lead the Hoosiers to back-to-back-to-back conference titles, and they’ll smack around Alabama in a playoff game, and the five-stars will flock to Bloomington. Until that day arrives, though, Indiana is not a name that will be taken seriously among fans of other Big Ten programs. On the contrary, people will expect Indiana to find new and creative ways to hand opponents the game, because, well, that’s what Indiana does.

The Nittany Lions themselves had little reason to take the Hoosiers lightly after getting healthy scares last season (34-27) and the season before (33-28), but players hear the Indiana jokes, and they know who they’re playing next week.

The problem is, after four quarters and one overtime, we don’t know if they took the Hoosiers lightly … or if they just aren’t that good.

 The first game of the season isn’t as much about the outcome as it is about providing a measuring stick. Normally, it’s against an opponent from Directional Midwestern State, and Power Five teams like the Nittany Lions – particularly those ranked in the Top 10 – can play terribly and still emerge with a three-touchdown victory. Coaches get some bad film they can use to scold and sharpen, the young guys get to deal with some jitters, and you take the W and go back to work.

 Instead, this year James Franklin and Penn State were handed an opponent good enough to beat them but without the reputation that would allow their fans to truly accept a defeat without losing their minds, even if the actual Indiana team seemed legit.

 For most of the game, the hosts did not impress, even as they built a lead. Michael Penix Jr. missed open receivers and covered receivers with equally high velocity and stayed mostly in the pocket. Whop Philyor was a ghost. Stevie Scott went nowhere. Indiana’s defense held its own more than most would have thought, but there were yards and points left all over the field by Sean Clifford and the Nittany Lions, and as it was a Penn State offense that was fantastic for the opening series and utterly devoid of rhythm after that STILL put up damn near 500 yards of offense.

You kept waiting for Penn State to wake up and play to its talent level, or at least stop tripping over its own feet, and when it seemed it finally had – Shaka Toney got downright unblockable and Clifford decided he was tired of piling up rushing yards long enough to throw a perfect touchdown strike to Jahan Dotson – the Nittany Lions decided to pull an Indiana and invent mind-boggling new ways to give the momentum back to the opponent.

And then, not wanting to be upstaged at its own game, Indiana said, “We’ll see your scoring the touchdown we wanted you to score and we’ll raise you a botched squib kick after we tie the game, leaving you with the time and field position to set up a game-winning field goal try.”

Penn State re-raised, failing to get Jordan Stout any extra yardage before his 57-yard attempt traveled 56 yards, and the game that no one seemed to want to win crept into overtime, where Penn State once again – with another clutch touchdown throw from Clifford – took a lead and sent its defense onto the field to shut the door.

You know the rest. Penix, who seemed to throw only two kinds of passes Saturday – unnecessarily wild or insanely perfect – found Philyor with a step on Lamont Wade in the corner for six, then extended the football into the pylon after, ahem, bouncing it off the ground first, for a two-point conversion that will live in infamy in both Bloomington and State College, or at least until the next time Penn State visits Memorial Stadium.

So, where does a one-point road loss in an empty stadium to an unranked team leave Penn State on its measuring stick? Asking for a new stick, for starters. The Nittany Lions, who committed 10 penalties and three turnovers, beat themselves with a frequency and variety of ways usually reserved for teams like … Indiana, not teams that challenge for conference titles or playoff berths. 

Is it too early to make any serious judgments about Clifford, about the offensive line, about a running back group suddenly a lot less deep than it was two weeks ago, about the new offensive scheme, the secondary, the (gulp) special teams, the in-game coaching decisions? Of course it is. It’s one game. But when that many question marks pop up in the opener and the biggest game on the schedule is seven days away – against an Ohio State team that had a lot less rust and looked far more explosive on Saturday – it becomes a question of time, and is there enough of it to fix the numerous problems before new problems arrive. The breakdowns at critical moments were one thing, but the fact that there were so many critical moments at all against this opponent is telling and sobering. Yes, the talent is there, but the scoreboard doesn’t care how talented you are.

Considering all that’s gone on this year, the Nittany Lions were entitled to a little first-game-of-the-season sloppiness. But so were the Hoosiers, and though they delivered some, they still emerged with their first win over a Top 10 foe in more than 30 years.

Even if, in true Indiana fashion, that win came against a team that probably wouldn’t have lasted very long in the Top 10 even if the officials had made the correct ruling on the pylon play.