Penn State post mortem: They're all playoff games from here on out
No, Penn State did nothing Saturday to push back against the claim, which got some traction in the national media last week, that Penn State is overrated because it hasn't beaten anybody good.
Smashing 1-9 Purdue wasn't moving the needle in that regard.
But there were positives is the Nittany Lions' 49-10 romp beyond the ones (Tyler Warren's tour de force, for example) already picked over by analysts.
Such as:
*The two key Nittany Lions who've been banged up lately, running back Nick Singleton and defensive end Dani Dennis-Sutton, seemed unencumbered for the first time in the while.
Singleton is still apparently being used carefully, but he ran seven times for 40 yards (5.7/carry) and caught two passes for 20. When you have quarterbacks and tight ends running the ball, why push it?
Dani-Sutton had three tackles and a sack, was around the ball a lot and simply played more than in the previous two weeks.
"The fact that we were able to win those (previous two) games, manage him and then get him back close to 100 percent this week was really important,'' coach James Franklin said.
*The participation report had 67 names on it. That's a lot. The Big Ten only allows dressing 74 for road games.
Part of that was the blowout, of course. Another is we're at the stage of the season where younger players can play and still redshirt, if they appear in four games or less.
One guy to watch in this regard in Tyseer Denmark, a true-freshman wide receiver from Pittsburgh Central Catholic. Denmark missed the middle portion of the season with an apparent injury; otherwise, he may not have redshirted, given the situation at wide receiver.
Denmark was targeted once as a wideout Saturday, ran the ball once and had a 16-yard punt return.
*Remember when slow, sluggish starts to games were an issue? Seems long ago and far away.
Against Washington week nine, Penn State's first five drives resulted in, in order, field-goal miss, touchdown, touchdown, touchdown, touchdown: 28-0.
Saturday it went touchdown, touchdown, punt, touchdown on the way to 42-3 before a JV game broke out.
The Lions' dominance of the third quarter continued even though no halftime adjustments were necessary against Purdue. Penn State won that quarter 21-0, and the Boilermakers' four possessions results in one first down and 19 yards of offense.
So, ... is Penn State overrated because they've haven't beaten anybody?
You can probably imagine what Franklin thinks.
"You look at our conference, the Big Ten and the SEC, and I don't think it's even close,'' he said postgame Saturday.
"And you better be ready week in and week out. I don't think the staff and the players get enough credit for how hard that is.
"You see some of these schools that have maybe have one or two big games a year that they got to get up for. That's different.''
(Wonder who he was talking about with that last part - Notre Dame? BYU? Miami?)
Anyway, you're seeing the outline of the near future: Two giant, power conferences with unbalanced schedules. Of the four playoff-worthy teams in the Big Ten, only Ohio State plays the other three (Oregon, Penn State, Indiana), and the other three play only one of the four.
Also, as it appears now, there's a much bigger dropoff after the top four in the Big Ten. The SEC has, it says here, seven playoff-worthy teams: Texas, Georgia, Tennessee, Texas A&M, Alabama, Ole Miss and South Carolina.
The fifth-best team in the Big Ten is probably Iowa, which wouldn't be favored against any of the above seven.
All of which means at least one two-loss SEC team is getting in the playoff. A two-loss Penn State may not.
So they're all playoff games from here on out.