Penn State Football: Positional report card for win over Northwestern

It wasn’t a flashy performance by any means by Penn State’s receiving corps against Northwestern. Trace McSorley spread the ball around to nine different receivers. While none of them had over 100 yards on the day, their performance was solid.

The top performance was by Saeed Blacknall, who caught four balls for 74 yards and had the longest catch of the day of 38 yards. DeAndre Thompkins, Juwan Johnson, DaeSean Hamilton, and even Brandon Polk contributed on the day. Late in the fourth quarter, Thompkins had a spectacular punter return for a touchdown called back on a penalty.

Adding another wrinkle to offensive coordinator Joe Moorhead’s dynamic offense, backup quarterback Tommy Stevens caught the only touchdown pass of the day. He lined up in the backfield to the right of McSorley and went right by the linebacker to end up wide open in the endzone from 10 yards out. Look for that play again down the road for the Lions.

Overall a good, but not great day for the receivers. When Saquon Barkley was being held in check, they stepped it up to help McSorley.