Welcome to the new and improved Midweek Musings! Now with 100% more midweek, but unfortunately 83% fewer musings. It’s a give and a take, I’m just one man, I can only do so much!
Coming off Penn State’s resounding 46-11 win over Nevada, there were a lot of things to be happy and/or excited about: the improvement in the wide receivers, the stifling defense, Penn State no longer needing to keep a punter on the roster.
There were a few areas of concern, however, and I’d like to touch on one of them that
surprised me perhaps more than anything, and that is the lack of production in the run game.
On the day, Penn State registered 36 carries for 135 yards, and 4 touchdowns. Not a bad day overall, until you look at how the starting running backs did on designed run plays.
Kaytron Allen had 8 carries for just 43 yards, 5.4 yards per carry and 1 touchdown.
Nicholas Singleton had 8 carries for 19 yards, just 2.4 yards per carry and 2 touchdowns.
Granted, the team didn’t need them to go win the day. And granted, this was a game to build a lead and then let the backups get some work in. And also granted, it was the first game of the season and there’s rust to be knocked off.
But man. Having the starting RBs go for a combined 62 yards on 16 carries is rough.
It all starts up front with the offensive line, and I must say I was left underwhelmed by their play. Nevada seemed to be stacking the box to stop the run, putting the pressure on Drew Allar to beat them – and beat them he did. But against an opponent like Nevada, given the talent disparity, you’d expect that the offensive line could exert its will.
The same goes for the passing game to some degree, where Nevada was playing super high in an effort to prevent the deep ball – and Penn State happily took the under routes. It worked, but you’d again like to see Penn State simply out-athlete a team like Nevada a bit more.
In any case, this isn’t a klaxon blaring or anything like that. The offensive line – almost identical to last year’s playoff line that made Oregon (34 rushes for 297 yards), SMU (41 rushes for 216 yards), and Notre Dame (42 rushes for 204 yards) all look silly – is going to work on things and improve. Phil Trautwein is going to make sure of it. Just an observation on something that surprisingly left some things to be desired.
On to FIU!
