I can only describe another Penn State win as "pedestrian" or "ho-hum" so many times before you stop reading me, right?
If the lack of energy and the empty seats in the student section these past three weeks are any indication, then I'm not taking any chances.
Really though, who could blame you for not buying into these first three games, mere formalities before the real season everyone's been waiting for kicks off this Saturday?
Heck, even the Nittany Lion players feel as much.
"Today was a little sluggish. As the game went on we started to pick everything up," cornerback Knowledge Timmons said. "By next week, this is our last exhibition game, so the season really starts this week."
A ringing endorsement from a man never at a loss for words.
Still.
What exactly can be gained from a 3-0 start?
In 2007 it turned out to be not much. Last season it was a stepping stone to a Big Ten title.
Even now, a quarter of the season already in the books, it's difficult to gauge where this team's at as it readies for conference play, although early returns indicate somewhere between the past two years.
"I'd like to say something about our medical people. Dr. Aukerman and Dr. Sebastianelli just did a terrific job," Joe Paterno said after Penn State's win Saturday.
"Nobody's got better people. They come to practice. We've got two doctors in practice just about every time we suit up. Dr. Aukerman was on top of those kids all the time."
With all due respect to the physicians -- whose roads to medical degrees just might have been a tad more rigorous than, say, a journalism one -- it's never a good sign when the coach's highest praise is reserved for those without helmets and shoulder pads.
Still.
What more can you ask of Evan Royster, who couldn't feel those same legs that ended up carrying the Lions into Big Ten play with one less question mark than it had before Saturday?
Replacing that question mark is now a No. 5 ranking, one universally believed to be too high for a team that's looked (biting my tongue) ordinary for much of the past three weeks.
This year, ordinary (or any variation of that term) has been more than enough in what is shaping up to be a season not unlike that wild campaign two years ago, when a multi-loss team ended up raising the coveted crystal football at the end of the season.
In Columbus and L.A. and Norman and Stillwater fans are all hoping that kind of history repeats itself.
Here, the hope is simply that the ground game builds off Saturday, that the linebackers aren't as banged up as they look, that the secondary will be ready should it ever get challenged.
All remain valid concerns following three (resisting) lukewarm wins against overmatched opponents.
Still.
Take a look around the country.
It could be worse.
