Penn State football: 3 takeaways from thrilling overtime loss at Indiana

1. Turnovers, turnovers and more turnovers.

If one were asked to describe Penn State’s ball security in the first half, they’d probably respond with something along the lines of “yikes”. This is a team that gave up only 14 turnovers all of last year. In the first half against Indiana, they gave up three. All things considered, they were lucky to go into the half down only 10 points.

The first of Sean Clifford’s two interceptions was just ugly. It didn’t look like what we’ve grown accustom to from Clifford during his time in navy and white. He would throw one more interception, but had a solid day otherwise. The redshirt-junior completed 24 of his 35 passing attempts for 238 yards and three touchdowns through the air.

Indiana didn’t play a flawless game, either. The Hoosiers would turn the ball over twice, with a interception and a fumble alike. However, Penn State wasn’t able to capitalize on these mistakes like Indiana did.

This was a game characterized by mistakes. The key to winning was which team would better use them to their advantage. Without these blunders committed by the Penn State offense, Indiana probably doesn’t come out on top. Obviously, this was the first game of their season and players are going to be a little rusty. But for the Nittany Lions to recover, they’re gonna have to clean up the offense.