Position Grades: Buffalo

As expected, Penn State dominated and covered the spread against a hopelessly overmatched Buffalo squad. But, how did the performance itself grade out? Let's find out!

It felt like a hot and cold performance for Rocco Becht . On the one hand, he still had his inexplicable moments of running out of bounds when being chased and losing yards instead of just throwing the damn ball away, not to mention he locked in so hard on Koby Howard in the red zone when Howard was double covered instead of firing to a wide open Chase Sowell in the middle of the end zone for an easy pitch-and-catch touchdown. On the other hand, he had some awesome moments like finding Koby for a 70-yard TD strike along with some other downfield shots. Given that he threw for 212 yards and a pair of TD's with no turnovers, it's hard to ding him too much. Alex Manske did a serviceable job in backup duty as well, as he continues to get back up to speed with game experience.

You wanted explosive runs? You got them! Quinton Martin led the way with a 61-yard dash that he would've housed, had the turf monster not tripped him up around the 10-yard line. Cam Wallace also had a lovely 59-yard scamper to the end zone. Meanwhile, James Peoples racked up a pair of TD's, as he showed more decisiveness and vision than he had in the first two games. Carson Hansen to his credit, did have a nice scamper to the end zone later in the game, but I think the "RB1" title should belong to Martin or Peoples at this point.

In addition to racking up another 100-plus yard receiving performance (115), Koby also took a 20-yard reverse to the house for his second of two TD's on the day. Chase also made an amazing leaping grab on a jump ball thrown by Becht for 35 yards, and Brett Eskildsen also caught a couple balls for 24 yards. That being said, there were a few too many drops from this group at one point when the offense hit a lull for a few straight drives in the second quarter, so I'm gonna have to ding them half a grade.

Andrew Rappleyea had a TD catch and later on was forced to leave the game favoring his right arm. Thankfully, it sounds like it's nothing that will keep him out of game action going forward, according to Matt Campbell's post game presser. Shout-out to Finn Furmanek who had an awesome 31-yard catch late in the game.

Vaea Ikakoula had some snapping issues substituting under center for Brock Riker, who only played the first couple of series before sitting the remainder of the game. Other than that, the running backs typically had lanes to run through and Becht had time to scan the field and find an open receiver.

Caleb Bacon forced a fumble, which Ike Ezeogu pounced on. PSU would ultimately cash in on said fumble recovery to take a 17-0 lead just nine minutes into the game and never looked back. The entire front seven did a good job for the most part not allowing Buffalo to get any sort of rhythm going offensively. Buffalo was held to 173 total offensive yards, with 113 of them on the ground, many of them being earned later in the game when it was all second and third-string guys on defense for the Nittany Lions . I would have liked to seen a sack from the group, so going with an A-minus here.

Kooper Ebel continues to impress at linebacker, garnering a team-high five tackles and a sack. Alex Tatsch also saw plenty of action, picking up four tackles himself. Much like the D-line, the linebackers did a good job of keeping the Buffalo ground game in check when it mattered.

Buffalo only garnered 60 total yards of passing, despite coming into the game with their top receiver Chance Morrow averaging nine receptions and over 100 yards and two TD's per game. That's a testament to the blanket coverage the secondary provided. Marcus Neal forced a fumble, which he recovered and PSU also cashed in for six on their subsequent drive.

I predicted going into this game that Zay Robinson would take a punt or kickoff return back for a TD, and on his first punt return, he came damn close to making me look like a genius. Zay returned a whopping eight Buffalo punts for 109 total yards, one of the best single-game punt returning performances since Daequan Hardy set a program record 129 yards against UMass in 2023. Ryan Barker nailed a 48-yard field goal to open up the scoring and later added a chip shot one, so I think it's safe to say he's fine. Nathan Tiyce had a less than stellar punt that gave Buffalo starting field position close to midfield and ultimately led to a Bulls' field goal, but he did pin them inside their own red zone once again.

The staff really emphasized getting the running game going this week, and delivered. The offensive lull in the second quarter and some of the red zone offense issues were more due to poor execution, as opposed to questionable play calling. They also did a good job of getting a big enough lead early on to get all of their starters out by mid-third quarter.

Some folks might complain about the defense garnering several penalties, but most of them were very ticky-tack and probably shouldn't have been called. Each of Buffalo's scoring drives relied upon said penalties helping move the chains, because they sure weren't capable of doing it on their own.