Instant Analysis: Penn State dismantles Delaware with "efficient" performance
Penn State football defeated the Delaware Blue Hens 63-7 in front of a full crowd at Beaver Stadium. Blue White Illustrated was on hand to watch and brings its instant analysis from ground level at the stadium. Sean Fitz, Greg Pickel, and Nate Bauer give their insights into how the Nittany Lions performed in a game where they clearly overmatched their opponent from a talent perspective.
Fitz starts out by stating the obvious: Delaware wasn’t able to compete with the Nittany Lions, and Penn State got whatever they wanted on Saturday. However, today’s word is efficiency.
“Penn State did what they had to do. [They got] 63 points in a very efficient manner. There were only two drives where they didn’t score [excluding the end of the game]. There were even some instances where they were testing their fourth-down offense. Drew Allar, very efficient once again,” Fitz said.
Allar’s efficiency was 22-26 for 204 yards and one rushing score. Allar’s rushing touchdown complimented his five rushes for 27 yards as well. Also, Allar’s completion percentage was over 10 percentage points higher than his impressive mark from week one against West Virginia.
Penn State backups hold the standard
But Bauer, who expected some hiccups from the offense leading into this game, was impressed not just by the first string but also the backups.
“For them to have 35 at halftime and then to kick it up to 63 by the end of the game, it really resonated with me. The dropoff between the starters and the second-string really wasn’t there,” Bauer said
Second-string quarterback Beau Pribula scored twice, running in on a read-option play for a touchdown and then throwing to Omari Evans in the back of the endzone on a goal-line play for another. Third-string runner Trey Potts led the way from an efficiency standpoint, gaining 8.4 yards per carry in relief duty. He ripped off the game’s long run of 20 yards.
Overall, Penn State rolled up 541 yards of offense on 91 plays and held Delaware to six three-and-outs with another negated by a fourth-down penalty. Penn State enters Big Ten play 2-0 and heads out to Illinois to face the 1-1 Illini next Saturday.
The team will try to round out September undefeated the following week when they host Iowa for the 2023 White Out Game at Beaver Stadium on Sept. 23. Subscribe to Blue White Illustrated on YouTube so you don’t miss any post-game information and reactions from our staff.
