I don't want to say I was impressed with what Penn State did against Temple, despite winning the game. Winning 27-9 against Temple simply isn't what Penn State has to do on both sides of the football. The harsh reality for the Nittany Lions is that if they're going to be the team that everybody expects them to be from top to bottom, they need to be a lot better.
Among the concerning things I saw in this game, Carson Hansen just wasn't great again.
There were times when Hansen was able to move the football at a somewhat high level, but he finished with just 84 yards on 19 carries. His inability to break off a big run has been somewhat of a problem, too, something Penn State ultimately has to figure out over the next couple of weeks.
With Big Ten play set to start in two weeks against Wisconsin at Beaver Stadium, Hansen and the Nittany Lions need to improve in that area. Speaking to reporters, head coach Matt Campbell said this isn't the standard Penn State has on that side of things, adding that things are just a bit slower than they should be to start the year.
"There were some really great Carson Hansen runs," Campbell said in his postgame press conference, per Yahoo. "I feel like I probably felt last week, you know? We're like a hair off on some things and I thought there was probably good growth. I thought we were really physical at the point of attack again today, I thought that we took a step forward. But, the team that we want to be and the team that we were today is still not equal to what we want to become."
I think there are a couple of things to consider here, and one of them is simply that this is a new look for a lot of these guys.
Not that it's a new system, because Campbell brought a lot of these same guys over from Iowa State, including Hansen, who rushed for 952 yards and six touchdowns last season, but there's a lot more pressure playing at Penn State than there is at Iowa State, and there's absolutely no debate about that.
