STATE COLLEGE - Since its week one performance and upset scare against Appalachian State, Penn State’s goal was to improve, get better and clean up some fundamental aspects of the game that plagued its performance against the Mountaineers.

The Nittany Lions (3-0, No. 10 AP) took a big step in week two, defeating in-state rival Pitt 51-6. In week three, facing an up-tempo Kent State offense with a talented quarterback, Penn State continued on the road to getting better.

Big plays and a dominant effort in the trenches on both offense and defense helped the Nittany Lions come away with a 63-10 win over the Golden Flashes.

Trace McSorley didn’t waste any time getting things going for Penn State, throwing a 40-yard strike to DeAndre Thompkins to put the Nittany Lions up 7-0 on their opening possession. McSorley actually threw a 56-yard bomb for a touchdown a few plays earlier to KJ Hamler, but it was negated because of a holding penalty.

Kent State then made it seem like it was going to go toe to toe with Penn State, answering with a touchdown of its own when Woody Barrett hit Mike Carrigan for a 47-yard score that was just out of the reach of Penn State cornerback Amani Oruwariye. Some costly offside penalties extended the Golden Flashes drive a few times with Barrett taking a shot on one of those miscues, which ended up in Carrigan’s hands to even the score.

“There’s times we look like a Super Bowl team, flashes of really good things. Then, there’s other times where we’re really hurting ourselves, and the opponent had nothing to do with it.,” said Franklin. “We can’t do that. So, we have to be more consistent in everything we do, especially defensively. We have to eliminate pre-snap penalties.

“Think about this, we had one penalty that we jumped offsides on third down, which created a first down. Then, we came back, did it again. As a smart football team, they took a shot on that play, scored a touchdown. So, two penalties. One equaled a first down and another equaled a touchdown for them.”

The Nittany Lions didn’t have many blunders in this one besides the opening possession miscues that setup the Kent State scoring opportunity. The offense continued to click for the rest of the first quarter, tacking on two more scores to make it 21-7. Two McSorley rushing to touchdowns put the Nittany Lions up two scores, while the defense settled in set the tone for the rest of the ball game.

Penn State got consistent penetration from the middle and pressure from the edge, forcing five first half Kent State punts. On the Nittany Lions final possession of the first half, McSorley hit Hamler for a 22-yard gain to set up a third rushing touchdown for McSorley from 13 yards out to give the Nittany Lions an 18-point advantage at the half.

When the the Penn State rushing game is successful McSorley usually has his way with opposing defenses on the ground and through the air, which is exactly what happened on Saturday with the Nittany Lions rushing for 297 yards on the afternoon. McSorley’s stat line was the benchmark for how dynamic the Penn State offense was on the day as he threw for 229 yards and two scores, while rushing for 54 yards and three touchdowns.

“If you’re a young quarterback out there, watch Trace McSorely. The guy has been winning since he was in diapers,” said Franklin. “That’s all he does is win and it’s because of all those things that he doesn’t get enough credit for.

“It’s how he is as a teammate, it’s how he supports the guys, it’s how he is when they makes mistakes, it’s how he is when they make big plays. And when he comes in here, he’s always giving credit to the O-line, receivers and the running backs.”

In the second half, Penn State wasted no time putting the game away, scoring on all three of its possessions in the third quarter to extend its lead to 49-10. The Nittany Lions would actually score on five of their six possessions in the second half. McSorley was the offensive catalyst, but Miles Sanders continued his impressive 2018 campaign, rushing for 86 yards on 14 carries.

The story of this one could be the big offensive numbers (643 yards) or the dominant defensive effort in the trenches (41 yards rushing), but the consensus is that the real story is that the Nittany Lions continue to get drastically better from week to week. That’s a good sign with Big Ten play starting this week as Penn State will travel to Illinois and the game everyone is looking forward to with Ohio State coming to Beaver Stadium in two weeks.

“I’m just going to keep believing in these kids. I’m going to keep loving them,” said Franklin. “Like I said earlier, we have shown that we can be big-time players. We just need to be more consistent.”