Saturday Blitz
Fansided

Penn State Football: 3 takeaways from Nittany Lions’ scare vs. App State

By Connor Muldowney

STATE COLLEGE, PA - SEPTEMBER 01: Trace McSorley #9 of the Penn State Nittany Lions celebrates after rushing for a 12 yard touchdown in the first quarter against the Appalachian State Mountaineers on September 1, 2018 at Beaver Stadium in State College, Pennsylvania. (Photo by Justin K. Aller/Getty Images)
STATE COLLEGE, PA - SEPTEMBER 01: Trace McSorley #9 of the Penn State Nittany Lions celebrates after rushing for a 12 yard touchdown in the first quarter against the Appalachian State Mountaineers on September 1, 2018 at Beaver Stadium in State College, Pennsylvania. (Photo by Justin K. Aller/Getty Images) /
facebooktwitterreddit
Prev
1 of 3
Next

Penn State football was able to overcome a potentially disastrous season-opening loss to Appalachian State. What did we learn?

When Penn State fans saw Appalachian State on the schedule for the 2018 home opener, their minds automatically flashed back to when the Mountaineers pulled off the shocking upset of top-10 ranked Michigan over a decade ago in Lloyd Carr’s last season.

The upset-minded Mountaineers played with nothing to lose on Saturday afternoon in Happy Valley, giving the Nittany Lions the same scare treatment they gave Michigan over 10 years ago.

Appalachian State is clearly better than people gave it credit for, but that doesn’t mean the Nittany Lions should feel better about this close win.  They played a sloppy defensive game and allowed the Mountaineers to stick with them for too long — it should have been over once Penn State went up 31-17.

It took overtime to decide this one, surprisingly, acting as the most exciting game of the opening weekend thus far.

What’d we learn about Penn State from its win over Appalachian State?

3. Jury’s still out on Miles Sanders

What we learned about Miles Sanders is that we really didn’t learn much about him. That’s a confusing statement, but the jury is still out on the junior running back and former five-star recruit.

The talent is there, but when Sanders was placed in his new role as starting running back on Saturday, he was relatively quiet in the run game. He finished with 91 yards and two touchdowns on 19 carries.

Sanders definitely has the potential to break out as a Saquon Barkley-like back, but he didn’t put it together in the opener against Appalachian State. Part of it was the offensive line’s failure to open the holes for him, but he also didn’t show many flashes of what he can bring to the table.

If he’s not careful, he may soon be splitting carries with freshman back Ricky Slade who had a nice day on limited carries.

Home/Penn State Nittany Lions