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Penn State stopped the bleeding Saturday that was dripping from its three-game losing streak with a 31-14 win at Maryland and, in doing so, the Nittany Lions can approach the remaining three games of the regular season with a positive vibe.
Sean Clifford acknowledged this particular 1-0 -- the program's mantra -- could be listed in bold-face type.
"We were on a losing streak," he said. "Every win feels good (but) we put in so much effort and so much time. A lot of teams might have folded with what we've gone through, but we just went back to work."
Heading into a stretch that includes a pair of Top 10 teams, Michigan this Saturday and at Michigan State to close the season, no doubt a record of 6-3 is a heckuva lot better than 5-4 with a four-game losing streak.
At the same time, Saturday's final point differential of 17 is not a good indication of the competitiveness of the game, which was much closer than the score indicated.
Jahan Dotson, the Nittany Lions' star receiver who is enjoying an All-American type season, was the difference between two otherwise pretty even teams with two good quarterbacks, Sean Clifford and the Terps' Taulia Tagavailoa.
Maryland thought it could contain Dodson in mainly man-to-man defense. It thought wrong as Dotson torched the Terps for 11 catches, a Penn State single-game yardage record of 242 yards and three touchdowns.
"We knew who (Dotson) was," Maryland coach Mike Locksley said. "We knew what he was capable of. To look at the stat sheet and see him with 242 yards (receiving), it's really, really disappointing."
Dotson's yardage total included 125 yards after the catch, a large chunk of which came on an 86-yard catch and run touchdown that gave the Nittany Lions a 21-14 lead early in the fourth quarter.
"He ran slant routes ... against man coverage," Locksley said. "We've got to challenge a good receiver like that."
Clifford threw for 363 yards, the three TDs to Dotson, and no interceptions. Tagovailoa completed 41 of 57 for 371 and a TD.
Two red-zone turnovers doomed the Terps. One came on a fumbled high snap that the Lions recovered at their 12. The other happened with Penn State leading 24-14 but Maryland facing second-and-3 after driving to the Lions' 13.
That's when PSU safety Ji'Ayir Brown stepped in front of a Tagovailoa pass and returned it 87 yards to seal the game with 2:39 remaining.
"The big turnover at the end was huge," James Franklin said. "Defensively tonight, as well as all year long, they've kept us in games and they've battled. They've played really championship-level defense all year long."
The offense was a different story. Penn State still can't run the football effectively and led just 7-6 at halftime, which ended with a feeble display of timeout management in which the Lions didn't call timeout, even after advancing out to their own 40.
Until they did with three seconds left, only to take a knee.
Franklin offered this explanation of the bizarreness.
"We weren't playing great, and we were going to run the time off the clock. So that was a discussion I have with Brent (Pry) and Mike (Yurcich). And then we got a couple plays and moved the ball a little bit; thought about taking a shot. So we called a timeout, had a discussion of what we wanted to do, and then decided that wasn't the right thing. And then obviously kneeled it and went into halftime, and made the adjustments. And adjustments worked out."
Franklin forced a smile.
"I want to make sure that you guys have enough things to talk about and argue about and criticize during halftime," he said. "Without that, what would you guys have done all halftime?"
Maybe get a hot dog.
Rudel can be reached at nrudel@altoonamirror.com.