Penn State Football: 3 overreactions from blowout win over Maryland

Penn State football hit the road in what looked to be a potential trap game but the Nittany Lions dismantled Maryland. Let’s overreact.

Nittany Lions fans would have been the first ones to tell you that they didn’t feel good about a Friday night battle in College Park with a Maryland team that beat a ranked Syracuse squad earlier in the season, 63-20. But it ended up being a blowout win for Penn State, 59-0.

The Nittany Lions are still averaging over 50 points per game on the season and the comfortable win was surprising given the 17-10 win over Pitt two weeks prior.

Penn State looked like one of the conference’s playoff contenders in the win while Maryland will likely slide back into the middle of the pack.

Let’s completely overreact to the Nittany Lions’ 59-0 win.

3. Penn State has Big Ten’s best defense

Josh Jackson had plenty of starting experience heading into this contest, albeit in the ACC with Virginia Tech, and he had been playing well so far in 2019, but Maryland completely held him in check. He was just 10-for-21 with 65 yards and two interceptions while Tyrrell Pigrome came in late and was 1-for-3 with three yards.

The secondary shut down any passing attack the Terrapins wanted to piece together — remember, this was the same offense that scored 63 on Syracuse and 79 against Howard in the season opener.

Against the run, Penn State continued to have success, holding the Terps to just 60 yards on 34 carries. That was especially surprising since Anthony McFarland Jr. had been playing well this season.

Penn State might just have the best defense in the Big Ten, at least so far. We will soon find out if it’s better than Michigan State’s, Wisconsin’s and Ohio State’s.