Here's something novel: Penn State being carried by the offense while the defense figures itself out.
Maybe that was what could be culled from Penn State's 66-10 demolition of hopelessly outmanned Coastal Carolina at Beaver Stadium Saturday.
Certainly nothing else could be culled from this one, unless it's still news to anyone that 106,577 would show up at the Beav to watch an utter noncompetition.
Coastal Carolina is a Football Championship Subdivision (formerly Division I-AA) opponent that went 5-6 last year. Penn State's physical advantage was evident all over the field, but especially when the Nittany Lions had the ball. Its veteran offensive front was 40 pounds per player heavier than Coastal Carolina's defensive line, and the Chanticleers allowed almost 220 rushing yards per game last year.
The Lions should have been able to steamroll these guys and did, scoring on six of their seven first-half possessions. Before halftime, after which was garbage time, Penn State had 311 yards from scrimmage and outrushed the Chants 121-20. For the game, rushing was 334-52.
"You've got to be careful not to go overboard over one game," Penn State coach Joe Paterno said. "You can do more things when you dominate the line of scrimmage. We could have thrown the ball more."
Three Penn State tailbacks (starter Evan Royster, redshirt freshman Stephfon Green and redshirt junior Brent Carter) hauled it 15 times for 110 yards. Penn State quarterbacks Daryll Clark and Pat Devlin — adding or subtracting nothing from any QB controversy that may or may not exist — completed 13 of 16 passes for 190 yards.
Again, this was all in the first half. The second half was merely for accounting purposes.
There was little evidence of any schematic change in the offense. The Spread HD remains mostly a rumor, although the coaches could be saving it for a serious opponent.
There was evidence, on offense, of sharpness. The Lions were in and out of the huddle quickly. Eleven Lions were on the field at all times, not 10 or 12. There was no staring at the sidelines, arms outstretched in confusion.
Nobody looked lost. Nobody cut the wrong way. Nobody dropped or fumbled the ball. In August.
You don't have to go back too far, in Penn State history, to be reminded that none of that goes without saying.
The first time Penn State made what a reasonable, objective person could call a mistake, on offense, was with 6:30 left in the second quarter, a holding penalty with the Lions knocking on the goal-line door.
Just before the half, they messed up a goal-line sequence a bit and thus settled for a field goal. That made it 38-7.
Other than that, even JoePa had little to complain about.
"In most cases, the kids had some poise," he said. "They did things fairly well. [We got] about as much as you can expect to get from [the game]."
All the disturbing notes, if that's what they were, were on the other side of the ball. The first clue came just two plays into the game, when Coastal Carolina QB Will Richardson (brother of former Penn State QB Wally) drilled a strike over the middle, to running back Trent Usher, for 16 yards.
A possession later, Richardson found another RB, Eric O'Neal, again over the middle, for 29 yards.
Three more times, over the Chants' next couple of possessions, they found receivers mostly alone, in the middle of the field, for good yardage and/or first downs. The last of those, to Usher, was good for 33 yards and an absurdly easy touchdown.
In fairness, Penn State got caught blitzing on that one.
"Some days you're the bug, some days you're the windshield," defensive coordinator Tom Bradley shrugged.
Usher's TD made it 14-7, still in the first quarter, and at least theoretically interesting. Until Derrick Williams returned the ensuing kickoff 89 yards for a touchdown.
Williams, the country's top high-school recruit four years ago, has had an uneven career in Happy Valley, but it looks like he'll be able, at the very least, to return kicks for a living.
Anyway, Penn State has seemed vulnerable to a short, over-the-middle passing game in the past. But not to this degree, against this weak an opponent.
In fairness, it seems fixable. Maybe it was fixed when, late in the first half, LB Bani Gbadyu reacted well to a ball in the flat and made a juggling, backpedaling interception.
Bradley did play a lot of people. Sophomore end Aaron Maybin, a third-stringer on the depth chart, was in the game and knocking quarterbacks around before the first quarter was over.
Actually, Paterno said later that Maybin made a grade he's been waiting for, and is really not a third-stringer. Still, at least nine defensive linemen played in the first half.
Oregon State comes here Saturday, and you've got to wonder if the Beavers' coaches will be psyched by this game film. Oregon State passed for 404 yards in a 28-26 loss to Stanford Thursday, a game the Beavers probably should have won.
On the other side of it, Penn State's offense has three four-year starters at wide receiver, three fifth-year seniors starting on the offensive line, and proven veterans everywhere except quarterbacks.
And two quarterbacks looked very firmly in possession of themselves Saturday.
In short, it's one of the most experienced offenses in the country. It should be ahead of most people on opening day, and it was.
That's about it. Move along, folks. Nothing more to see here.
Mike Gross is assistant sports editor of the Sunday News. E-mail him at mgross@lnpnews.com.
