Penn State football won its second consecutive game Saturday afternoon, as it took down Rutgers 23-7 in Piscataway.

The Nittany Lions dominated the Scarlet Knights on the stat sheet, out-gaining them 381-205, converting 11 more first downs, and possessing the ball for nearly 13 more minutes.

After defeating Michigan last week and now breezing past Rutgers, head coach James Franklin thinks some things are starting to come together.

“A lot of good things to build on,” Franklin said after the game. “Especially on the defensive side of the ball, especially in the running game.”

Sean Clifford did a solid job managing the offense Saturday. He completed 68% of his passes and threw a bullet of a touchdown to true freshman Parker Washington.

We could get used to the Clifford-Washington connection pic.twitter.com/Q8mLO6goJm

— Onward State (@OnwardState) December 5, 2020

He limited the mistakes, with his only turnover coming on a tipped pass. Clifford is no stranger to stacking up a few wins, as it’s something the Nittany Lions did all of last season.

“I mean, it’s always nice to stack up these wins,” Clifford said. “That’s what we did last year. That’s the thing — I continue to go back to, whenever we get down or the first five weeks, we still have the guys that were 11-2 and won the Cotton Bowl. We’re still that team, we’re still great players.”

Offensive lineman Will Fries was a part of the unit that completely dominated Rutgers’ defensive front. The Nittany Lions’ offensive line opened up holes for the rushers, allowing them to run for 248 yards and a touchdown.

In fact, Penn State’s offensive line had a similar performance last week when the team rushed for 254 yards. Fries feels the momentum building and highlighted that both wins were on the road.

“I think definitely any time you go on the road two weeks in a row and get two wins it’s a momentum builder, Fries said. “We’re excited about where we’re going and we still got a lot of work to do, but it definitely feels good to get a win, in the Big Ten, on the road.”

Running back Devyn Ford was one of the beneficiaries from the offensive line’s dominant performance. Ford ran the ball 11 times for 65 yards, which is good for 5.9 yards per carry. Additionally, he was responsible for one of Penn State’s two touchdowns on the day.

Welcome back to the end zone, Devyn Ford pic.twitter.com/FY2krIA6vs

— Onward State (@OnwardState) December 5, 2020

Ford has seen the Nittany Lions clicking over the past two games, and that’s made a difference in the win column.

“Obviously, getting any win is a great thing, so having two back-to-back is a wonderful thing, obviously from the coaching standpoint and what we’re doing and what we’ve been doing right,” Ford said. “We’ve been clicking, we’ve been making things work, and it’s come out in our favor.”