JD PicKell: Penn State could be dangerous team in the postseason picture

No. 14 Penn State made a statement on Saturday in a win over Auburn on the road, one that announced to the college football world that the Nittany Lions should be taken seriously. On3’s JD PicKell has taken notice, dubbing Penn State a ‘dangerous’ team in the postseason picture at this point.

Saturday’s win showed something that Penn State is beginning to turn into a habit early in 2022: The Nittany Lions can pound the rock.

“I think to zoom out a little bit here, if Penn State can play the way they did yesterday against Auburn, if that can be even moreso their formula the rest of the way — if they can be balanced offensively, take some pressure off their veteran quarterback and they can be physical both on offense and defense, which sounds simplistic to say, but I assure you it is not a simplistic thing to execute — they’re going to be dangerous,” PicKell said.

The Nittany Lions ran for a season-high 245 yards against the Tigers, with freshman running back Nick Singleton once again looking fairly unstoppable.

Multiple times Singleton got to the second level of the defense and simply outran Auburn defenders. He finished the game with 10 carries for 124 yards and a pair of rushing scores.

Can Penn State’s resurgent ground game lead to playoff run?

Look, Penn State’s a dangerous team if it can sustain the type of play it’s getting right now.

Quarterback Sean Clifford led an excellent fourth-quarter drive to secure a tough win at Purdue in Week 1 and while his upside may be limited, he’s plenty good enough to win you a lot of games if Penn State has other answers. Like that ground game.

Along with Singleton and his 334 rushing yards this season (on an 11.1 average yards per carry), Penn State has also gotten contributions from backs Kaytron Allen and Keyvone Lee. That’s the difference PicKell sees right now in the Nittany Lions from the preseason.

The ground game is emerging.

“I like the experience, like the maturity, and I love the ingredient of being able to run the football at Penn State,” PicKell said. “Because they went into an SEC environment (Saturday), it wasn’t like that game was in Happy Valley. They went into a raucous, hostile environment in Jordan-Hare and took care of business and dictated their tempo to Auburn. Well over 200 yards on the ground. If that can be their formula, Penn State’s going to be a force to be reckoned with the rest of this season.”

That said, two weeks does not make a trend.

After all, Purdue managed to limit Penn State to just 98 yards on the ground a little over two weeks ago. So it’s a big if. Still, the potential is now pretty clear.

“Are they going to win the Big Ten?” PicKell wondered aloud. “I don’t know if I’m ready to say that, but I promise you they’re going to ruin a lot of people’s postseason hopes by playing this brand of football. Now can they do it week in and week out? Remains to be seen.”