Penn State defeated FIU this Saturday by a final score of 34-0. A shutout, a decisive win in the second of three not-particularly-challenging non-conference games.
And yet, this felt challenging.
Take away the final 4 minutes of game play, and the Lions were sporting just a 20-0 lead. Two late touchdowns made the final score look respectable, even if the Lions failed to cover the point spread for the second straight game.
Let’s start with the good – the defense.
A week after allowing just 11 points,
8 of which came in the final 30 seconds of the game, the D posted a shutout in decisive fashion. The defensive line got push, and the depth showed out, particularly defensive end Chaz Coleman. The linebackers were quick to trigger, most notably transfer Amare Campbell. The secondary wasn’t overly tested, but came up with some key pass breakups along the way.
The special teams were largely solid as well, with Gabe Nwosu booming a 72-yard punt, and Ryan Barker connecting on two field goals to help extend the Lions’ lead. Yet, Nwosu also put two kickoffs out of bounds, giving away free yardage, and Barker had a 53-yard field goal blocked at the end of the first half, his second such long-distance blocked attempt.
The offense is where the majority of the concern lies, and for the second week in a row.
Last week, in a 46-11 win over Nevada, the offensive line was seemingly missing on routine blocks, which stymied the run game. Against the Wolf Pack, both Kaytron Allen and Nicholas Singleton each had 8 carries, with Kaytron going for 43 yards and Singleton gaining just 19 yards. Luckily the passing offense seemed to be the focus of that game, and the Lions were able to comfortably separate from Nevada, boasting a 27-3 halftime lead.
This week, the run game seemed to be more of the focus, and the offensive line still struggled. On the day, Allen had 16 carries for 144 yards, with Singleton adding 13 carries for 76 yards. That stat line looks better, until you realize that 67 of Kaytron’s yards came on one play, a long touchdown run late in the fourth quarter with the Lions holding just a 20-0 lead. Minus that play, and Kaytron had 15 carries for just 77 yards.
Big plays are part of the game, they have to be counted. But the lack of productivity against what should have been an easy opponent for two weeks in a row is concerning.
Add in that unlike the first week, the passing game wasn’t doing many favors. Whereas against Nevada, Drew Allar was able to regularly move the ball through the air with passes to Kyron Hudson and Trebor Peña, this week the passing game struggled. Allar connected on just 19 of his 33 pass attempts, with multiple poor throws, especially on what should be routine gimme passes.
With the run game being bottled up and the passing game missing, the offense stalled out more often than not.
Penn State had 12 drives in the game. The last two were 1-play rushing touchdowns in the final 3:30 of the game. Of the previous 10, three were turnovers on downs and three were punts. Two drives ended in field goals, both of which entered the FIU red zone but stalled out. Only one time in three red zone trips did the Lions manage to score a touchdown, which is a similar theme to the previous week, where three of seven red zone trips ended in field goals instead of touchdowns.
Am I being hyper critical? Yes. The team is 2-0, scoring 40 PPG and allowing just 5.5 PPG.
But this team has incredibly lofty hopes this year, and the first two weeks have not exactly given the warm and fuzzies, particularly from the offense. There’s still one more cupcake to work out the last of the kinks, then a bye week to rest up before the “real” season begins with Oregon coming to town.
Here’s hoping that these concerns are lessened between now and then.
