With one non-conference game to go, the Penn State offense is left ironing out some kinks.
Not that the offense has looked bad, by any means. The team is averaging 36 points per game and over 450 yards per game. The passing game in particular has looked sharp, with Rocco Becht completing 75.6% of his passes for 7 TDs and 0 INTs so far. Add in a couple dropped passes, particularly against Temple, and those numbers would be higher still.
The running game is where most of the ironing out needs to happen.
And note – the ground game has been fine. Carson Hansen and James Peoples have gotten the Lion’s share of the carries so far, with 30 going to Carson and 15 going to James. Hansen has averaged 4.4 yards per carry, while Peoples is at 4.9 YPC.
Phrased another way – if the Lions only ran the ball, they would pick up a first down every 3 plays. There’s very little wrong with that.
Of course, the flip side is that neither of the top two RBs has a rushing TD yet on the season, and the longest run by either one was 13 yards.
Personally, I think we’ve all been spoiled by 4 years of Nicholas Singleton and Kaytron Allen (bah gawd could you imagine the two of them in this offense?), where either one could break a tackle and rip off a 20+ yard gain at any time.
This may be the new normal for Penn State, at least this year, and we all may need to just adjust our expectations a bit. I do think there are some things for both of the top two running backs to work on, as it seems like the offensive line is doing its job. A missed tackle here, reading a gap better there, and those YPCs, TDs, and explosive plays will all start to tick upward.
So, look for the run game to be a point of emphasis against Buffalo. The Bulls look like they may be the weakest of the three non-conference games, and I think Taylor Mouser and Matt Campbell are going to try to use this game as one last tune-up before Wisconsin comes to town.
Here’s hoping we’re talking about the running game finally looking good this time next week.
