STATE COLLEGE — No. 6 Penn State eliminated Washington 35-6 on Saturday in State College. The Nittany Lions (8-1) never trailed and were dominant during the victory, even though the first half was certainly better than the second in front of more than 110,000 fans at Beaver Stadium.

“If you look at the game, in my opinion the game was won on third down,” Lions coach James Franklin said. “We were in third place with 77%, to their 30%. I think we started the game 7 on 7 in the first half. The turnover battle was even. Explosive game battle, we won. Not as explosive as we would normally like to be, but we still won that battle. I think it was 13% to 5% in the bag battle. That was a dominant aspect of the game.

Now that the game is over, a new report has arrived. How did the Nittany Lions get the win? We take a look below.

Penn State grade for offense: B+

This is actually a story of two halves. The first six months would be an A+. The second half effort would be a C+. That lands us at a B. Penn State scored just one touchdown after intermission as it capped a 16-play, 70-yard drive with a Kaytron Allen one-yard scoring scamper late in the fourth quarter. All told, Penn State certainly did more than enough to win on offense. It was almost perfect on third down and was perfect in the red zone. Those are two big differences between last week and this week. The protection held up very well, and quarterback Drew Allar was extremely effective.

We liked Andy Kotelick’s offense more this week than last week. Of course, that made all the difference in the world.

Nittany Lion grade for defense: A-

Penn State has answers for Washington at almost any time. The Lions had nine tackles and five sacks on defense. Abdul Carter was a star, finishing with six tackles (four for loss), two sacks and a forced fumble. A flag on Jalen Kimber negated a fourth-and-long stop, which was really the only negative of the night other than a few backfield chases and missed tackles. When the starters were in, Washington had less than 50 yards rushing and less than 130 total yards. It was a dominant performance from Tom Allen’s group.

Penn State special teams grade: C+

Ryan Barker had his first miss of the year. His 44-yard field goal in the second half sailed wide left. He also missed an attempt that didn’t count after Penn State called a timeout. A tacky phone call Luke Reynolds for holding has also wiped out a Nick Singleton kickoff return for a touchdown. Although special teams coordinator Justin Lustig was angry with the freshman, he will likely become even angrier with the officials upon review. Gabe Nwosu was good again at kick-off and Zion Tracy was fine as a punt returner.

Nittany Lion coaching grade: A-

You can probably quibble with James Franklin’s decision to use a timeout in hopes of getting an endorsement for Tyler Warren, even though officials told him it was being quickly reviewed in Chicago. That essentially froze Barker. Otherwise we have no complaints. Penn State made up for last week’s loss in a big way and played skillfully throughout the first half. The second half wasn’t as clean or pretty, but Penn State did its job to make it 8-1 on the year.

Overall Penn State grade in the Washington game: A-

We wavered back and forth between B+ and A-. The fact that the Lions didn’t put Washington on the scoreboard despite being in complete control for 60 minutes puts us where we do. But after a week of panic within the fan base over one loss potentially turning into two, Penn State started quickly and allayed those fears while dominating play for much of the contest. This was a very solid win.