5 takeaways from Penn State’s rout over Buffalo

Now that looked more like Penn State football. Head coach Matt Campbell was clearly unsatisfied with his team's performance last week in a sloppy game against Temple , and he took it out on Buffalo today.

The Nittany Lions had all three phases working again in Week 3, with 55 points from the offense, another masterful performance from the defense, and a couple of special punt returns by wide receiver Zay Robinson . The team looked like a well-oiled machine as they wrapped up their final game before they start competing against Big Ten opponents next week.

Of course, there are always things to clean up, but today was much prettier than last Saturday. Let's look at five things that were key to giving Penn State a win today.

We have highlighted defensive coordinator D'Anton Lynn before, so the fact that he's still impressing shows just how dominant his defense has been. He does such a good job of mixing up the pressure packages, often sending linebackers on blitzes and then fooling the defense when they switch it up and drop back into coverage.

The open-field tackling has been one of the glaring strengths so far this season, with a swarm of Nittany Lions defenders around the ball as soon as it is caught or handed off. Lynn's impact has been evident, as the defense has yet to surrender more than one touchdown in a game this season. Now, it's time to see if his unit plays at the same level when conference play begins.

Offensive coordinator Taylor Mouser finally got the ground game going today. Penn State flashed potential in that area in the first two weeks, but the strong runs were few and far between.

This week, running backs James Peoples and Quinton Marin Jr. finally made some explosive runs, with the latter having the highlight of the day, which was a 61-yard burst up the sideline. Martin Jr. nearly scored on the run but tripped over his own feet before he made it to the end zone.

The run blocking was great, each rusher that got carries made an impact, and the young men in the backfield just jumped off the screen all day. It won't be as easy to throw up and down the field against Big Ten teams, so the emergence of the run game is a welcome sight.

The Nittany Lions have been solid on special teams to begin the year — they just lacked the splash plays to prove it. Robinson changed that this week with two punt returns that went for more than 30 yards. He almost added a third to his total, but it was called back due to a questionable block in the back call.

Nonetheless, he set his team up with excellent field position all afternoon and managed to be one of the most impactful players without touching the ball much on offense. It will make Penn State much tougher to defend if it gets the ball in the opponent's territory as often as today.

Robinson did get banged up in the second half, but returned to the game shortly after. Hopefully it wasn't just adrenaline allowing him to push through and he's truly healthy.

Defensive end Max Granville was tragically lost to another season-ending injury before last week's win over the Owls. That meant that some of the other pass rushers, like Yvan Kemajou and Alexander McPherson , needed to step up.

That's exactly what they did, sacking Bulls quarterback Jason Wright once and getting in his face a bunch more. Penn State's defensive line was in the backfield all day long and it made it difficult for Wright to have any success throwing the ball. He threw for only 60 yards thanks to the relentless pass rush of the Blue and White and the sticky coverage from the secondary.

Wide receiver Koby Howard looked like a star in Week 1, but we needed to see more to make sure it was real. If you weren't sure before, you should be now, because Howard showed everything you'd want to see out of a receiver against Buffalo .

His first catch of the game was a phenomenal leaping grab over a defender in the first quarter on an underthrown ball by quarterback Rocco Becht . In the second quarter, Mouser got creative and got the ball to Howard on a double reverse that he took 20 yards for a touchdown.

Then, he had a 70-yard catch-and-run touchdown later in the quarter to put his team up 31 points. Howard continues to dazzle audiences and put new ceilings on just how successful this passing game can become this season.

5 takeaways from Penn State’s rout over Buffalo