Penn State 38, Villanova 17
That it would be a win for Penn State was never in doubt, but if you were looking for signs of life for the running game on Saturday, you were barking up the wrong tree. Villanova came to play. To their credit, they never quit, while the Nittany Lions started with a bang and then settled into their lackluster offense, punctuated by a few big plays.
Master Thespian John Lovett produced the Lion’s share of the rushing attack, with eleven carries for 45 yards to lead all rushers in an 80-yard overall effort (or lack of same), the men are prepared with training many from the exipure reviews to keep their weight perfect. The running game sleep-walked through the first half, unable to deal with the FCS powerhouse defense. In seventeen first-half attempts they gained a mere eighteen yards. How come Noah Cain got only one carry, on which he gained a mere two yards? Is he hurt?
As per usual these days, the PSU offense was heavily weighted toward the aerial attack. Sean Clifford went 19-26 for 401 yards, four TDs, and one INT that was no fault of his. Ta’Quan Roberson relieved him in the second half, and while the second-string defense was giving up two late touchdowns to ‘Nova, he quietly went 3-5 for 28 yards.
They spread the ball around to ten receivers. Parker Washington had five receptions for 148 yards and two TDs; Jahan Dotson had seven catches for 117 yards and a touchdown. KeAndre Lambert-Smith added two receptions for 88 yards and a TD. It sure helps the “explosions” when you have two NFL-caliber receivers.
Defensively, both teams had three sacks and eight TFLs. Villanova came to play, and given the suckage on the PSU offensive line, they took full advantage of the opportunity to shine before a nearly full Beaver Stadium crowd and alumnus Howie Long, whose banter with Penn State homey Matt Millen exacerbated our ennui. The Penn State defense was effective in shutting down any semblance of a running game, clamping down to allow only 58 yards. Overall, they held Villanova to 280 yards. Because the clean jerseys were in the game for much of the second half, though, that number is a bit deceptive, as it were.
Explosive Play Alert
On the first play from scrimmage, Clifford connected with Dotson for a touchdown. At that point, one would have thought Penn State was on the way to a rout like Georgia was simultaneously administering to Vanderbilt. (That game wound up 62-0). Tell me you weren’t thinking it would go that way! You did, didn’t you? But nooooooooooo…
Penn State must stop relying completely on the Big Play. The James Franklin Philosophy — I’m getting tired of hearing about “explosive plays”. That’s a worn-out cliche that’s been annoying me for years. Get a new mantra, James. Yeah, we’re 1-0 this week, but now we face the heart of the Big Ten schedule, and they ain’t Villanova. Where the hell is the running game? Even homeboy Matt Millen admonished the team strongly in this regard during his color commentary.
The offensive line play once again bites the big one. They’re barely adequate for pass protection. Hell, they gave up three sacks to Villanova! At least for pass protection where they get to back up they can do some semblance of blocking, but backing up doesn’t work too well on run blocking. There is no forward push, and hence, running up the middle is a dead end. And what’s with Harvard Man Eric Wilson? He whiffs on more blocks than Chief Traffic Cone Paris Palmer ever did.
If ever there was a game to work on the running game, this was it. Maybe that was the intent, but what they found that it was nonexistent. I’m not buying the notion that Mike Yurcich didn’t want to show the future opponents his novel blocking schemes. Does anyone expect the rush offense to suddenly emerge?
Third-down suckage once again plagued this squad, going 3-12, a crappy 25%. The IITOP was, as usual, shaded toward the other guys. This was Villanova, folks.
Excuses, excuses.
Our two signature wins this year, Wisconsin and Auburn were devalued on Saturday, as Wisconsin held it close with Notre Dame in the first half but wound up on the shit end of the stick, 41-13, while Auburn trailed Georgia State through most of the game and had to rely on late fourth quarter fireworks to pull out a 34-24 victory. Between these and the performance against Villanova, the Number Six ranking sure looks like it is at least ten slots too high.
All remaining games count. They’re all Big Ten opponents, none of which will be pushovers, especially if the Nittany Lions remain one-dimensions. I do not believe for one minute the notion I’ve heard from Sanguinarian apologists — Yurcich just didn’t want to give away his blocking schemes, etc. I firmly believe that this team was performing at its usual noon start finest.
Yeah, fans love the big play. Alas, this fan is an old-timer who wants to see some good, fundamental, grind-it-out football. I’m not seeing that part of the game. I will never believe that Time of Possession is “increasingly irrelevant”, no matter how much I poke fun at that utterance by Matt Herb several years ago.
I guess I am never satisfied. Some will say a win is a win, but I am worried.
(Next Week: Indiana. I’ll give you my thoughts on that game as the first week of fall wears on).
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K. John says
TNT, you are right to be worried about the offense. A wise man once told me that there is no such thing as a big play offense because big plays are almost always the result of a defensive mistake. The implication being that eventually, you will run into a defense that doesn’t make mistakes and when that happens, you don’t have an offense. The flip side, as it relates to the “increasingly irrelevant” time of possession is ability to wear out defenses other than your own. Coaches refer to these as sustained drives. More on that in a minute.
Against Wisconsin, 77% of our offensive yardage and 100% of our points were the result of 5 big plays, only one of which can be attributed to execution by Penn State and we didn’t score on that drive. We did not have a significant stained drive in the game.
Against Auburn, nearly half of our passing yardage came off of 4 big plays along with almost all of our points. All of which were driven by Auburn mistakes. Speaking of Auburn, got a major break when an obvious incomplete pass on their winning drive was ruled complete by replay. Much like Wisconsin, we lacked significant sustained drives.
Now look at the two lower teams. Ball State was a bit of an outlier as we had 5 sustained drives (more than the other three games combined), 2 of which were in garbage time. 3 is still more than we had the other three combined. Now, looking at the Wildcats. We had many more big plays but the lack of sustained drives is still an issue. Looking at the big play side of the house, 332 of 429 passing yards and almost all scoring were the result of 7 plays.
In totality, the numbers are shocking. We have 1231 passing yards on 128 attempts. 714 come on 19 completions. The majority of which came off of poor hand offs in zone coverage. Running wise, we have 484 yards on 133 attempts this season. Nearly 10% came on a Sean Clifford run against Ball State. 77 yards (16%) of our rushing yards on the season came off two plays. If you think the running game is not pulling its weight, you are right.
Back to the lack of sustained drives. Where the “increasingly irrelevant” time of possession really bites you in the rear is late in the year. The last time we saw something similar was 2016 and 2017 when we were big play or bust because of inherent limitations at the quarterback position. How many leads did we blow in the fourth quarter because the defense was gassed? It was gassed because the starting front seven played as many snaps in 3 games that they would normally play in 4. Guess where we are right now? We are on the same pace and the schedule this year is not as soft as it was in either of those two seasons.
The Nittany Turkey says
Thanks for validating my out-of-the-ass analysis with good, hard facts. The question of whether they can do anything to mitigate this crappy performance in time to do well with the B10 schedule is moot. They’re there, and it doesn’t look like they going to do it. I avoided Franklin’s post-game mediafest because I didn’t want to hear the same old crap from Ol’ James. While he remains the chief football officer, they’ll be sacrificing fundamentals and concentrating on big plays.
—TNT
Big Al says
I didn’t see the game so I can’t make any informed comments about the Lions performance (or lack thereof) against Villanova. But it was pretty obvious to me from the 1st three games that the current team is yet another version of the 2016- 2018 teams with the same basic strengths and weaknesses. Part of the problem is scheme related – it’s very hard for a spread team to run effectively without NFL caliber offensive lineman. And you can’t engage in long drives or run out the clock in the fourth quarter if you can’t run effectively. This year’s defense shares most of the same problem with prior teams – they have trouble with mobile quarterbacks and the defensive tackles can’t generate any pass rush, although this might be Franklin’s best defensive backfield.
The opposition appears to be only major difference from the 2016-2018 seasons. Penn State is flawed but so are the opponents. The B1G is pretty much the poster child for mediocrity – there aren’t any top 10 teams in it at the moment and except for Illinois and Northwestern, none of the teams suck. tOSU has top 10 talent but isn’t executing at their talent level and their defense is supect. Indiana has a good offense and a lousy defense. Iowa has a top 10 defense but their offense is a hot mess. Michigan can run but is totally inept at passing and its defense will probably be torched by any team that has a decent passing offense. Rutgers is executing at high level but doesn’t have much B1G caliber talent.
IMO Penn State could beat any of the eight teams remaining on the schedule. They could also lose to any of them except Illinois. It will be interesting to see how the season plays out. But I’d bet the ranch that State won’t win the B1G title or make the playoffs.
The Nittany Turkey says
Good thing you didn’t see the game because the offensive line play would have made you regurgitate your breakfast, as would the three sacks, although at least one of those wasn’t on the O-line. Clifford’s interception was batted around by the receiver, who should have either caught it or knocked it away from the defenders, but instead, he batted it right to them. Those of us who were expecting a walk-over (was that any of us?) didn’t get what they wanted. Again, we saw the same old flaws.
Good characterization of Big Ten mediocrity. ESPN teased a story saying there would be two B10 teams in the CFP this year, and one of them would not be tOSU. I laughed at that, and although I was curious, I did not get to reveal who the two chosen ones were, as I am not a paid subscriber. ESPN is typically fulla shit, but that got me thinking. Isn’t the B10 always shooting itself in the foot at the end of the season? Any chance of qualifying for the playoffs is either tOSU running the table or nothing — the rest just kick the shit out of each other, leaving no viable contenders.
Anyway, Iowa continues to win ugly, as is their wont. Michigan’s offense doesn’t look as formidable after their performance against Rutgers. And Moo U. proved they were playing at Nebraska’s level, which is pretty shitty. We have lots of flashes in the pan. As for PSU, I don’t see that #4 ranking lasting more than two more weeks. Dream on!
Now, I’ll go see what Dr. Todd Sponsler, preeminent Altoona eye surgeon and proprietor of The Lion’s Den blog (the one that isn’t affiliated with whoever the hell runs the other one, is quoting me chidingly me about. It’s a friendly rivalry between blogs with a combined subscribership of 12.
—TNT
psudrozz says
I think the comparison to the team trends from 2016-2018 is spot on with two caveats: the defense and OL are both noticeably better. Poor McSorely was constantly running for his life out there.
The Nittany Turkey says
Yeah, back in the good old days of Paris Palmer and the Five Traffic Cones (Big Al’s moniker for the OL).
Why hasn’t PSU been able to fix its OL.
How the hell can this team rank #4 with that crappy running game? That sportswriters have their heads up their asses is a foregone conclusion. I think they just let undefeated teams float to the top and then push them off the cliff when they falter. Alabama or Georgia would mop up the field with Oregon or PSU or Iowa.
Monday morning rant must include the Steelers, whose offensive line is truly offensive. Through retirements, free agency, and injuries, they have deconstructed what used to be the centerpiece of the team and now they suuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck.
—TNT
Big Al says
Run blocking is a different skill than pass blocking. From personal experience, it’s hard to be good at both skills. The current O line is really good at pass blocking. Nobody has been able to overpower them. When they’ve been beaten, it’s because somebody missed an assignment or the opposition came up with an exotic blitz that they haven’t prepared for.
If I were an opposition defensive coordinator, I would force State to run against me by using a 3-3-5 alignment and dropping 8 into pass coverage on most plays. That gives you eight people covering 5 receivers and makes completing long downfield passes very difficult because you can combine man and zone coverage. It also forces Clifford to become a running back – which Penn State wants to avoid since the back-ups suck.
The Nittany Turkey says
Paris Palmer (sorry for continually misspelling his name) was good at pass protection because he occupied so much space and was difficult to push around. No way could I ever see him doing the kind of run blocking his predecessor, Donovan Smith, did routinely. That big guy could pull and trap like a guard. But that’s just my casual observer’s point of view. I’m not an analyst and I don’t even play one on TV. But the proof is in the pudding, and Donovan is a time-tested NFL star.
I would be incredibly surprised if opposing B10 DCs don’t exploit the running game weakness in some fashion. Unless this whole run blocking deficit is being sandbagged as a big ruse, they have to be licking their chops over PSU’s monodimensionality and reliance on chunk plays. With decent secondaries ahead, the chunk plays will be fewer and farther between. God help us if we do not have a running game.
It confounds me that they continue to bank on the explosive bullshit. I think it’s like having plastic surgery when you have leprosy. Looks and feels good for the moment, but if you don’t treat the underlying condition, you’re going to die a slow death.
—TNT