Saturday showed why Penn State is even more dangerous than it was last year

I know.

You watched three quarters of Saturday waiting for that magical Saquon Barkley run. Shoot, you were probably just waiting for a run of positive yardage. You thought to yourself, “where’s the Heisman Trophy candidate?”

You were ready to sell Barkley candidate. Maybe you even fired off a tweet like this:

So, unless something big happens in the 4th quarter, Barkley Heisman campaign has to be on the ropes.

— Dan Wolken (@DanWolken) October 7, 2017

I can sit here and argue the lunacy of Wolken’s tweet (or any like it) for hours. Fortunately, Barkley scampered for a 53-yard touchdown minutes later and quieted any notion that his Heisman candidacy was “on the ropes,” so I’ll spare you some time.

While Barkley’s day dominated the narrative, Penn State’s defense quietly continued its dominant start. Trace McSorley quietly completed pass after pass. The Lions receivers quietly got open play after play. And quietly, Penn State improved to 6-0.

If Barkley struggles that much last year, I’m not sure Penn State is winning, much less up by three scores on the road early in the second half. But the Lions are a better team now than they were when they began their turnaround 12 months ago.

And for the rest of the B1G, that’s an even more dangerous sight.

James Franklin won’t need to turn on the film to see that his offensive line was lackluster at best on Saturday in Evanston. With a bye week preceding matchups against Michigan and Ohio State, you can bet that will be the biggest point of emphasis in the coming days. The message will probably be “if we block like that, we’ll get destroyed against better teams.”

But will they? I mean, think about it.

The Lions were dominated by Northwestern in the ground game. The Wildcats sold out to stop Barkley, and to their credit, they succeeded.

Let’s pretend that Michigan and Ohio State do the exact same thing. That is, they make McSorley beat them. They have all eyes on Barkley and they prevent him from getting anything going in the running or passing game.

RELATED: Rapid Reaction: Penn State defense dominates at Northwestern

Cool. They’ll be in position of losing the same way Northwestern did. They’ll have single coverage on big, physical receivers. They’ll risk watching McSorley pick them apart and capitalize on the play-action. That’s why he completed 14 straight passes against Northwestern.

For all the attention on Barkley, McSorley showed on Saturday why he’s a vastly improved passer since he faced Michigan and Ohio State last year. He picked apart a talented Northwestern secondary. Was it more talented than Michigan’s or Ohio State’s? Probably not, but it was plenty capable of making McSorley pay for his mistakes.

That didn’t happen. Instead, McSorley found everyone. He even targeted backup quarterback Tommy Stevens on his lone touchdown pass of the day:

Ok, enough about the offense. Saturday was for the defense.

Once again, the Lions were lights out on that side of the ball. Northwestern had three first-half turnovers and never got so much as a sliver of hope. Between Curtis Cothran and Shaka Toney, the mobile Clayton Thorson was harassed all afternoon.

Northwestern had one garbage time touchdown. That’s it. It was the sixth straight offense that failed to score in the first quarter against Penn State (nobody else in FBS can say that), and it was the fourth Power 5 offense that was held under 20 points.

Penn State held four Power 5 opponents under 20 points in the ENTIRE 2016 season.

No, the Lions didn’t stymie a bunch of offensive powerhouses, but that’s still impressive. Just for a little perspective, Penn State entered Saturday trailing only Alabama and Georgia in scoring defense. That’s how good this unit has been.

Compare that to last year when Penn State wasn’t even in the top half of the B1G in scoring defense. That’s a drastic turnaround if I’ve ever seen one. A lot of that credit should go to defensive coordinator Brent Pry, who has his unit playing like a historic Penn State defense.

All the attention was supposed to be on the offense this year. And as long as Barkley is on the field, it will be. But the Penn State defense has been the real M.V.P. so far. That’s not a bad thing.

It’s also not a bad thing to still have the best home-run play threat in college football. As we were reminded on Saturday, an entire afternoon of defensive dominance can go to waste with one play by Barkley.

That’s the frustrating thing about facing Barkley. He won’t always break off long runs like he did against USC last year and against Iowa this year. Sometimes, teams bottle him up. Indiana and Northwestern did it. So what did that do to Penn State’s chances of winning?

Nothing. The Lions outscored those teams 76-21.

Penn State looks like a more complete team now than it did at any point last year. This Lions defense isn’t allowing 50-plus points like it did against USC. McSorley isn’t completing 35 percent of his passes like he did against Ohio State. The Lions aren’t digging themselves a three-score hole like they did against Wisconsin.

They aren’t perfect. It would be nice if the offensive line made life easier on Barkley. And what’s up with Tyler Davis?

But Penn State is heading into its most important stretch of the season looking every bit like a top-four team. That was the goal this year.

Right now, it’s hard not to like the Lions’ chances of reaching it.

Connor O'Gara

Connor O'Gara is the senior national columnist for Saturday Tradition. He's a member of the Football Writers Association of America. After spending his entire life living in B1G country, he moved to the South in 2015.