Penn State quarterback Sean Clifford wants to limit turnovers vs. Ohio State

Penn State quarterback Sean Clifford did quite a few good things in his team’s season-opening 36-35 overtime loss Oct. 24 at Indiana.

He completed 24 passes on 35 attempts for 238 yards and three touchdown passes. He also led the Nittany Lions in rushing with 122 yards on 17 carries and a touchdown.

But he wasn’t perfect.

He threw two interceptions in the first half.

“The one thing that I saw in my game was that I thought that I played well, but the mistakes that I made, it wasn’t just a minor mistake,” Clifford said in a video conference with media Wednesday. “It was the critical errors. … Those two (interceptions), if I miss it a different way or if they’re in a different coverage, yeah, it’s just an incompletion. But it was very evident after watching the tape how much that swung momentum and how much made us beat ourselves. That’s what I figured. It’s on me. It’s something that I’m going to grow off of. But overall, I thought that overall we moved the ball well the whole game. But turnovers is a very critical point that we stress all the time.”

Clifford was intercepted by Indiana defensive back Jaylin Williams with 39 seconds left in the first quarter. Then Indiana defensive back Jamar Johnson picked off Clifford with 7:06 left in the first half.

Limiting those mistakes will be key for No. 18 Penn State (0-1) as it hosts No. 3 Ohio State (1-0) at 7:30 p.m. Saturday in one of the marquee matchups of the abbreviated Big Ten season.

“The turnovers is the biggest things,” Clifford said. “If you just go back and look, the first interception that I threw, (Indiana) got three points on the board from that. The second one, they were at the 4-yard line. Starting field position at the 4-yard line and they score. … We’re going to control the ball. We’re going to make sure that we’re careful with the ball, but we’re still taking our shots. We’re taking what we want. I’m not going to be tentative, but at the same time, I’m just going to be a little more careful, more accurate, and I think that we’ll like the outcome.”

Tight end Pat Freiermuth (seven receptions, 60 yards) and Jahan Dotson (four receptions, 94 yards) were Clifford’s primary targets against Indians. Clifford professed confidence he can distribute passes to more targets moving forward.

“Pat obviously is an All-American for a reason,” Clifford said. “He’s a very talented tight end. Jahan is another guy who has the experience, so it’s easier to get him the ball early just because he knows what a game is like. He’s not feeling it out really. I think Parker Washington did some really good things in the game. He created space. He had a good touchdown at the end in overtime. Then he also had a great catch on the (10-yard line) on the left side. Then (KeAndre Lambert-Smith), he got his feet wet. Daniel George is somebody who I expect to keep making catches. Then Cam Sullivan … I’m very excited to see what he’s going to be able to do. We’ve got a lot of talent.”

Will that talent come through against the talented Buckeyes?

“It’s just working a little bit harder on making sure when we have our shots, we take them,” Clifford said. “And make sure that we’re accurate with it. We’ve got to attack the ball when it’s in the air. That also comes to the run game. For us, an explosive play is 15 yards passing or more or 12 yards rushing or more. When you have a hole, you’ve got to hit it. You can’t be dancing. You’ve got to make sure you’re explosive. That’s a big-time game changer.”