Penn State certainly didn’t make it easy on the Nittany Lions faithful last week as it did just enough to escape Purdue with a 35-31 victory and a comeback victory at that. But in the end, the Nittany Lions got a win against a solid Big Ten opponent in a pretty raucous atmosphere. It was a good early season test for Penn State, which will now open Beaver Stadium this afternoon as Ohio (Noon ET, ABC) comes to Happy Valley for the non-conference bout.

The Nittany Lions are certainly familiar with teams from the Mid-American Conference as they have faced an opponent from the MAC in 19 of the last 20 seasons, with an all time mark of 28-3 against MAC teams.

As noted, it took an eight-play 80-yard drive late in the forth quarter to edge the Boilermakers. It was by far quarterback Sean Clifford’s best drive of the game. Clifford put together a typical “Clifford-esque” performance against Purdue filled with highs and lows. It’s been those inconsistencies that always have Penn State fans fractured on the likeness of the sixth year signal caller, which will especially be heightened this season with talented five-star recruit Drew Allar waiting for his opportunity.

Clifford finished with 282 yards passing with four touchdowns and one interception. The interception was a costly one, however, as it went for a 72-yard pick six, putting Purdue up 31-28 with 8:30 remaining in the game. Clifford redeemed himself a few drives later, but Allar, who actually got into the game in the third quarter because Clifford was cramping, looked good throwing the football. There’s no denying Allar can spin it and he is physically impressive standing at 6-5 and weighing in at 242 pounds. Clifford did enough to squash the potential quarterback controversy, but it’s a situation to definitely keep an eye on with the always unpredictable up and down play of Clifford.

Clifford will certainly have some opportunities to put together a good day against Ohio, which gave up 364 yards passing to Florida Atlantic last week in a 41-38 win. The Bobcats were just 3-9 a season ago and seem to have a lot of the same issues this season as they has last year.

A bright spot for Ohio last Saturday was the play of quarterback Kurtis Rourke, who threw for 345 yards and four touchdowns with a completion percentage of 79 percent. James Bostic was Rourke’s favorite target against FAU, catching six balls for 136 yards and a touchdown.

So, as you can see secondary play will once again be the key this week and obviously Rourke will be seeing some different guys out there defensively than what he saw last week against FAU. Joey Porter Jr. will look to build upon his impressive week one performance where he broke up six passes, tying a Big Ten record. The Penn State defense had 16 pass break ups overall last week, which was the most in a game by an FBS team since 2018.

The positivity of coming away with a win certainly does trump all, but still a disappointing takeaway from last week’s game was the run game. Penn State finished 118th in the country last season in run offense and it didn’t show any improvement against Purdue. Now, I will say this, freshmen Nicholas Singleton and Kaytron Allen certainly possess a burst that Penn State hasn’t has not had over the past two seasons at the running back position, but the end result was still just 98 yards on 32 carries. That just simply isn’t going to get it done and you’re going to continue to see a three-man rotation of Keyvone Lee, Singleton and Allen until one of the running backs separates themselves.

I would argue that with just eight or nine carries split up between the three that is hard to do, but that’s the approach the Penn State coaching staff is taking. But it’s evident Singleton and Allen have much more of a burst than Lee, so let’s see if head coach James Franklin opts to go with one of the freshmen to start the game on Saturday to provide a little more explosiveness in the backfield.

The Nittany Lions hold a 5-1 series lead against the Bobcats, with this being the first meeting between the teams since 2012, when Penn State actually lost that game, 24-14. All six games in the series have been played in Happy Valley. Ohio is tied with Akron as Penn State’s most-played MAC opponent. As was the case last week against Purdue, I believe the secondary will step up when it needs to and the Nittany Lions passing attack should have a big day through the air.

Penn State is a 25-point favorite. My pick is Penn State 44, Ohio 10.