Penn State beats Buffalo for first win

STATE COLLEGE, Pa. - It wasn't a huge leap, rather a small step for Penn State in the rain Saturday at Beaver Stadium, as the Nittany Lions attempted to get their season going in the right direction after the nightmarish season opener of a week ago.

The Lions didn't gain a bunch of yards, and Buffalo wasn't exactly bottled up on its side of midfield for the entire game, either. But the positive signs - no sacks of Christian Hackenberg, a spectacular home debut by true freshman Saquon Barkley, improvement along the offensive line - were enough for encouragement in a 27-14 victory before a sopping-wet crowd of 93,065.

No one was suggesting afterward that a win over the Bulls (1-1), a team predicted to finish in the middle of the pack in the Mid-American Conference, would propel the Nittany Lions (1-1) into Big Ten title contention. Still, a win after last week's debacle at Temple meant progress.

"I thought it was good," said Hackenberg, who threw his first touchdown pass of the season, a 5-yarder to DaeSean Hamilton. "I'm not going to say that we made huge bounds. I thought it was really good to be able to go out and execute and overcome the adversity when we needed to. Now I think it's just given us a lot more momentum to be able to focus."

Barkley, a 5-foot-11, 215-pound former star at Whitehall High School in the Lehigh Valley, rushed for 115 yards on 12 carries, playing only in the second half. He scored on a 9-yard run in the fourth quarter for a 27-7 Lions lead, but his truly electrifying moment came earlier, when he busted up the middle, hurdled a potential tackler, and carried for 17 yards.

"Saquon used to hurdle people all the time in high school, and he said: 'I'm not going to do that in college,' " Penn State coach James Franklin said. "I'm glad he brought that back out of his bag of tricks."

For the game, 200 of Penn State's 327 total yards came on the ground. Akeel Lynch had 45 and true freshman Brandon Polk 45, including a 22-yard touchdown run.

Defensively, the Nittany Lions made big plays and big stops when they had to. Carl Nassib, the fifth-year senior defensive end out of Malvern Prep, led the way with an interception, three sacks, and two forced fumbles. The interception, off a deflection from tackle Anthony Zettel, set up one of two short field goals by Joey Julius.

The starters on the offensive line and at linebacker were reshuffled during the week by Franklin and his staff. Paris Palmer was benched at left tackle and redshirt sophomore Andrew Nelson shifted over from the right side to replace him. When Nelson suffered an injury on the final play of the first half, Palmer took over and played the entire second half.

At linebacker, sophomore Jason Cabinda was moved from the weak side to the middle, flanked by Troy Reeder on the weak side and Von Walker on the short side.

Franklin said he would be more involved with the offense this past week, but he sidestepped a question on whether he took a role in play-calling.

"I was more active all week long," he said. "I think all the coaches did a nice job having a plan and to have our guys prepared. There's still a lot of things we need to get cleaned up, and a lot of things we need to get better."

So it's progress, even if it was modest for Hackenberg, who completed 14 of 27 passes for 128 yards. But the Lions may have found the road to success.

"We're on to Rutgers now, make sure that we're getting prepared for them," Hackenberg said. "We know what that challenge brings. We played them last year. We're really excited about the atmosphere that we're going to have here."