Penn State is good at football again

Penn State beat No. 2 Ohio State on Saturday, 24-21. It was a thriller ...

... and then it turned into a big party in the happiest iteration of Happy Valley possible.

Penn State will go to sleep on Sunday night as a ranked team for the first time since 2011, the year Joe Paterno was fired and the program’s downfall began.

This is James Franklin’s third year at Penn State. He’s had to deal with scholarship reductions that have made 2016 his first year with a full roster and with rivals who have used someone else’s scandal as a way to recruit against him. And until Saturday, he’d been dogged by a pestering lack of any signature wins.

That last thing’s over now. Penn State is likely not going to win the Big Ten, though it is now tied for second in the East, but the Lions look better than they’ve looked at any other point in the 2010s. Their offense is talented and young, and their defense just held the nation’s No. 4 scoring offense to 19 (of 21 total) points.

What happened on Saturday wasn’t fluky. The Lions earned it, and their performance should be a hint that this team’s going to remain good.

Ohio State, a 20-point favorite, only got 5 yards per play. That’s the Buckeyes’ lowest total of the year by far, and for comparison, .55 yards per play worse than what they could muster last week on the road against Wisconsin’s elite defense.

It was absolutely Penn State’s best defensive showing of the season. So, what happened? A few things.

The drizzly conditions weren’t offense-friendly, but Penn State figured some things out and executed well. They pierced a usually excellent Ohio State offensive line to sack J.T. Barrett six times, with two solos and an assist by lineman Garrett Sickels, and chased him on seemingly every other dropback.

“Offensively, we didn’t control the line of scrimmage,” Urban Meyer, whose 20-game road winning streak is over, said to reporters after the game. “[Barrett] was under pressure all night when we threw it, and then we didn’t move them off the ball in the run game.”

PSU kept Ohio State to 4.2 yards per carry, just a hair above what Wisconsin did last week, with a healed-up linebacker corps leading the way.

Welcome back, Jason Cabinda and Brandon Bell. The weakest unit on the entire team a month ago has returned to form, and in what way. Bell, Cabinda, and Manny Bowen combined for 42 of the team’s 102 tackles Saturday (yes, Penn State had ONE HUNDRED TWO tackles in this game).

Penn State had to replace an entire, skilled defensive line after last season. There were a few rough rides at the beginning of the year, most notably in a loss to Pitt. But Penn State’s front looks a lot better now, and the secondary’s always been talented.

Ohio State plays great defense, but Penn State’s offense still needed help. Sophomore running back Saquon Barkley was good, running 12 times for 99 yards, and Penn State’s overall numbers were deflated by a couple of huge losses, including a snap that bounded into the Lions’ end zone for a safety.

But QB Trace McSorley was just 8-of-23 for 154 yards. There were some drops. Receivers DaeSean Hamilton and Saeed Blacknall had one 34- or 35-yard catch apiece but nothing else all night.

The encouraging thing: Penn State’s offensive line stood up. This was a hilariously bad unit for the last two years, but it’s quietly made huge strides in 2016.

Penn State entered 16th in the country in Adjusted Line Yards, which measures a line’s contribution to a running game. It was 40th in Adjusted Sack Rate allowed, a testament to the line’s newfound solidity and McSorley’s ability to run away from pressure. And that was before Ohio State had one sack and an unimpressive six tackles for loss.

Even with the scholarship cuts it saw every year until this one, Penn State has the nation’s No. 21 roster by recruiting-ranked talent, according to the industry-generated 247Sports Team Talent Composite. This roster isn’t national title-caliber, but it’s third-best in the Big Ten and has the upside to keep growing.

Barkley’s just a sophomore. Only a couple of key contributors are out of eligibility after this year. Last year’s top-20 signing class includes a few blue-chip prospects who aren’t contributing yet but will soon. There’s a four-star QB on the way next year. Things are going to get better, not worse, than they are now.

And they’re pretty good now. Penn State is 5-2, and the Lions will probably be favored in each of their last five games. Good times are about to roll in Happy Valley, and really good times don’t look so far away.