Minimal pressure on Clifford

[aubiefifty 18,235]

Minimal pressure on Clifford in Penn State victory

ByMark Murphy

3 minutes

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STATE COLLEGE, Pennsylvania–Coming into the game with nine sacks Auburn’s defense needed to continue the trend, but that didn’t happen as Penn State quarterback Sean Clifford was a key reason his Nittany Lions defeated Auburn 28-20 on Saturday night. At times it seemed Clifford had enough time to re-tie his shoes or do other maintenance while waiting for his receivers to find an opening.

Clifford completed 28-32 passes for 280 of his football team’s 376 total yards and connected on two short touchdown passes. His only interception didn’t cost his team because it was a long pass picked off by the Tigers just before halftime.

"There was one he stood back there for what seemed like 10 seconds early in the game," Coach Bryan Harsin said. "I thought we had a better pass rush after that, but you've got to find ways to get after the quarterback, and you've got to find ways to get the ball out of his hands. He escaped a couple times from what I remember and made some throws on the perimeter."

Auburn’s defense made 67 tackles, with 11 1/2 behind the line of scrimmage, but none were sacks.

Compounding the problem is the visitors from the Southeastern Conference were credited with just one quarterback pressure. That came from Zakoby McClain, which happened on the interception play by Roger McCreary.

Unfortunately for the AU defense, McClain was ejected from the game on a targeting call with 12:21 left in the third quarter.

With Auburn’s other starting linebacker, Owen Pappoe, out with an injury backup linebacker Chandler Wooten led the Tigers in tackles with six solo stops, four assists with 1 1/2 tackles behind the line of scrimmage.

Sean Clifford launches a pass before T.D. Moultry can affect the throw. (Photo: Jason Caldwell, Inside the Auburn Tigers, 247Sports) 18COMMENTS

Another senior, safety Smoke Monday, added six solos and two stops for the visitors, who dropped to 2-1 on the season while Penn State improved to 3-0 in the first meeting between the two programs in 20 years to the delight of a crowd of 109,958 at Beaver Stadium.

Another big problem for the Tigers, both defensively and offensively, was production or lack of it on first down plays. The Nittany Lions 7.3 averaged yards on first down plays, more than double Auburn’s 3.6 average.

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