The No. 8 ranked Penn State Nittany Lions jumped all over the Akron Zips Saturday afternoon in the first half, en route to a 31-7 victory at Beaver Stadium.

The Nittany Lions led 31-0 at half and did not allow the Zips to pick up a first down in the first half, whiling gaining 16 for themselves.

For the game Penn State gained 515 yards of total offense compared to 186 yards for Akron and 25 first downs to eight.

Evan Royster capped Penn State’s opening drive with a five yard touchdown run. The drive was clearly Penn State’s best of the game and saw them go 84 yards in seven plays.

Later in the first quarter, Daryll Clark found Chaz Powell for an 8-yard touchdown pass, putting the Nittany Lions up 14-0.

After missing a 28-yard field goal earlier in the second quarter, Colin Wagner connected on a 29-yarder, making it 17-0. With 1:33 left in the first half, Clark connected for his second TD pass, this time to Derek Moye on a 22-yarder.

After stopping the Zips on three-straight plays and using two timeouts, Penn State got the ball back looking to put the game away before the half. They did just that, when Graham Zug made a nice catch in double coverage to score on a 19-yard TD from Clark, making it 31-0 at the half.

More so than the offense, the defense was the story in the first half. The unit held Akron to seven three-and-outs and negative six yards of total offense in the half.

Chris Jacquemain did not have time to throw because the front-seven for Penn State dominated the half, led by tackles, Jared Odrick and Ollie Ogbu. They also led the rush defense, stuffing Akron every time they tried to go to the run.

Akron’s one bright spot in the game came on their second drive in the third quarter after Brett Brackett fumbled for Penn State. Jacquemain struck for a 40-yard TD pass to Deryn Bowser on the very first play, yielding the eventual final score of 31-7. Bowser beat safety Nick Sukay on a post pattern for the score.

Odrick finished with four tackles, two for loss, and a half a sack. Ogbu made six stops, 2.5 for loss.

Sean Lee returned from missing last season by registering seven tackles, two for loss.

However, everything was not great for the defense, as Navarro Bowman left the game midway through the first quarter with an injury. Nathan Stupar, a special team’s standout, saw more action because of the injury and ended up leading Penn State with 12 tackles and one sack.

The main question on defense for Penn State was the new secondary, but an answer was not clear at the end of the day. Akron completed 13 of 24 passes for 158 yards for an average of 12.2 yards per completion. When the Zips had time to pass the secondary was not particularly strong.

Clark had solid numbers to start the season, going 29-40 for 353 yards and three TD’s. He threw one INT near the goal-line in the first quarter, on a ball that Powell could not handle across the short middle. He also missed some open throws and forced some into places he should not have tried but overall he played well.

Royster finished with 14 carries for 61 yards. The offensive line, which started three new faces, was not particularly impressive. They left a lot of questions heading into next week, especially with run blocking.

The wide receivers were also a question for Penn State heading into the opener but they performed well.

Moye broke out as a clear number one option, catching six balls for 138 yards and one TD. Powell played well, catching seven for 65 yards and a TD and Zug snatched five for 62 and a TD.

True freshman Devon Smith saw the field a lot and finished with two receptions for 25 yards.

As well as the offense played in the first half, it wasn’t nice to see them go dormant in the second half. They had 181 yards, but saw drives end in a fumble, missed field goal and two punts, before having the final one end with the time running out.

On the final drive, Clark was relieved by true freshman Kevin Newsome. He went 3-4 for 26 yards and rushed two times for 12 yards.

Heading into next weekends matchup with Syracuse in Beaver Stadium, the biggest question still remaining might be the kicker position. Will Wagner be able to rebound from a 1-3 game on field goal attempts? Misses from 28 and 49 yards leave a lot to be desired.