This is a little bit of a free-flowing post more than a story, but this was my big takeaway Saturday for Penn State's offense.
Penn State’s afternoon against Pitt was anything but easy Saturday afternoon at Beaver Stadium, the end - at least for the foreseeable future - to the series between the Nittany Lions and Panthers.
Still, backed by a defensive effort that kept the Panthers out of the end zone when it mattered most, an offense that produced just enough to win, and a special teams performance that included field-position-swapping punts and a record 57-yard field goal for Jordan Stout, the Nittany Lions emerged with a 17-10 win.
What might have stood out most following the game, however, was Penn State’s offensive confidence that the explosive passing game simply had a close-but-no-cigar afternoon.
In fact, Franklin pointed out that Penn State finished the game tied with Pitt for explosive plays, the Nittany Lions notching eight, five passes and three runs.
In some ways, though, it was the story of the shots that Penn State missed that best demonstrate the offense’s inability to put points on the board Saturday.
Against a Pittsburgh defense determined to take away the run, Penn State indeed failed to produce much in the way of a consistent running game again on Saturday, even though the Nittany Lions produced 167 yards on the ground. With 85 of those yards coming on Journey Brown’s first-quarter carry, they were left with a 2.6 yards per carry average on their 31 other attempts for the day.
Relying heavily on the passing game to help change that dynamic, something that proved to be instrumental to a second-half bludgeoning of Buffalo a week ago, the Nittany Lions were unable to find that connection this week.
They very much tried, though.
Yes, Clifford connected with Freiermuth for a 16-yard completion on the first series, a 53-yarder to K.J. Hamler later in the frame in which the receiver converted a short pass into a big gainer, a 40-yarder to Ricky Slade in which he slipped up the seam in the second quarter, plus connections of 16 and 18 yards in the third and fourth quarters to Journey Brown and Justin Shorter, respectively.
With med-range passes just slightly off in the first half, either on Clifford misfires or a few drops out of Penn State’s receivers, the Nittany Lion signal-caller started to fire farther downfield.
His first big bomb was directed to Jahan Dotson from midfield toward the end zone, but he just missed. It’d become a theme for the rest of the way. On the next possession, he tried to Shorter into double-coverage and overthrew him anyway. To open the third quarter, from the Lions’ 33-yard line, Clifford went to Dotson again but put the ball inside instead of to his outside shoulder, incomplete. Soon after, he went to the well again and hurled a Hail Mary downfield to Dan Chisena, who nearly came down with the reception in box-out one-on-one coverage.
The next possession, with true freshman Noah Cain at running back, the Nittany Lions dinked and dunked their way down the field for their second and final touchdown of the afternoon, thanks in large part to coverage that had backed off in the face of Penn State’s deep attempts the prior drive. Even then, within the same possession, Clifford took another shot on a ball intended to Hamler in which tight end Pat Freiermuth didn’t run the correct route and allowed his defender into the play.
“That was on me. That was completely on me,” Freiermuth said. “I told KJ after the play I'm sorry because it should have been a touchdown for him. I was supposed to take my post further across the field and had more of an angle to take the safety out of the way, but I saw the middle of the field open so I took the middle of the field. It was selfish of me.”
Penn State’s next possession, again near midfield, Clifford fired deep to Hamler, who had broken free up the field but saw the ball float just out of reach. And finally, on third-and-4 late in the game from his own 45-yard line, Clifford fired downfield one final time on a play Penn State believed could have produced a big play, only to see his ball - either to Hamler or Dotson up the sideline - fall incomplete.
“The third-down call, we weren't successful because one guy ran the wrong play,” Franklin said. “It's hard to be successful when you got one guy that thought it was a different call. We felt we were going to get a big play in that situation and it got stopped.”
For the game, then, seven of Clifford’s 16 incomplete passing attempts were deep shots that went unrealized.
From Clifford to Franklin, Hamler, and others around the team, those near-misses were a frequent talking point as being partly to blame for Penn State’s inability to produce with the pace it wanted Saturday afternoon.
“Yeah, we missed a couple of them that we had. We had guys behind them but just couple we overthrew. A couple of them we left inside, especially the vertical balls. We want to keep those things outside, even if they're short. We want our receivers to leave room on the sideline for the quarterback and be able to adjust to the ball and we didn't do that,” Franklin said. “I think that was probably the biggest factor. But I thought they had a good plan. They're playing press man on the outside, which is what they play, or, they played press bail and tried to take away the shots from you. I have a lot of respect for Coach Narduzzi as a defensive guy. They always play really tough. And then I do think he gets very involved with us and how to attack our defense from a defensive perspective.”
Asked how he can improve between now and Penn State’s next game, a Friday night date at Maryland to open the Big Ten season on Sept. 27, Clifford pointed to those plays as being key to his development.
“I think that third down obviously is one,” Clifford said. “I think that explosive plays down the field, obviously today, I should have played better in that regard. I think that I missed some deep balls that I usually hit and I know I can hit. So those two are definitely big. And I think just in the run game a little bit, maybe making a couple more plays. I think I can do that too.
“But overall, I think that I'm seeing the defenses pretty well. The game is really starting to slow down and I'm starting to see everything.”
Penn State’s afternoon against Pitt was anything but easy Saturday afternoon at Beaver Stadium, the end - at least for the foreseeable future - to the series between the Nittany Lions and Panthers.
Still, backed by a defensive effort that kept the Panthers out of the end zone when it mattered most, an offense that produced just enough to win, and a special teams performance that included field-position-swapping punts and a record 57-yard field goal for Jordan Stout, the Nittany Lions emerged with a 17-10 win.
What might have stood out most following the game, however, was Penn State’s offensive confidence that the explosive passing game simply had a close-but-no-cigar afternoon.
In fact, Franklin pointed out that Penn State finished the game tied with Pitt for explosive plays, the Nittany Lions notching eight, five passes and three runs.
In some ways, though, it was the story of the shots that Penn State missed that best demonstrate the offense’s inability to put points on the board Saturday.
Against a Pittsburgh defense determined to take away the run, Penn State indeed failed to produce much in the way of a consistent running game again on Saturday, even though the Nittany Lions produced 167 yards on the ground. With 85 of those yards coming on Journey Brown’s first-quarter carry, they were left with a 2.6 yards per carry average on their 31 other attempts for the day.
Relying heavily on the passing game to help change that dynamic, something that proved to be instrumental to a second-half bludgeoning of Buffalo a week ago, the Nittany Lions were unable to find that connection this week.
They very much tried, though.
Yes, Clifford connected with Freiermuth for a 16-yard completion on the first series, a 53-yarder to K.J. Hamler later in the frame in which the receiver converted a short pass into a big gainer, a 40-yarder to Ricky Slade in which he slipped up the seam in the second quarter, plus connections of 16 and 18 yards in the third and fourth quarters to Journey Brown and Justin Shorter, respectively.
With med-range passes just slightly off in the first half, either on Clifford misfires or a few drops out of Penn State’s receivers, the Nittany Lion signal-caller started to fire farther downfield.
His first big bomb was directed to Jahan Dotson from midfield toward the end zone, but he just missed. It’d become a theme for the rest of the way. On the next possession, he tried to Shorter into double-coverage and overthrew him anyway. To open the third quarter, from the Lions’ 33-yard line, Clifford went to Dotson again but put the ball inside instead of to his outside shoulder, incomplete. Soon after, he went to the well again and hurled a Hail Mary downfield to Dan Chisena, who nearly came down with the reception in box-out one-on-one coverage.
The next possession, with true freshman Noah Cain at running back, the Nittany Lions dinked and dunked their way down the field for their second and final touchdown of the afternoon, thanks in large part to coverage that had backed off in the face of Penn State’s deep attempts the prior drive. Even then, within the same possession, Clifford took another shot on a ball intended to Hamler in which tight end Pat Freiermuth didn’t run the correct route and allowed his defender into the play.
“That was on me. That was completely on me,” Freiermuth said. “I told KJ after the play I'm sorry because it should have been a touchdown for him. I was supposed to take my post further across the field and had more of an angle to take the safety out of the way, but I saw the middle of the field open so I took the middle of the field. It was selfish of me.”
Penn State’s next possession, again near midfield, Clifford fired deep to Hamler, who had broken free up the field but saw the ball float just out of reach. And finally, on third-and-4 late in the game from his own 45-yard line, Clifford fired downfield one final time on a play Penn State believed could have produced a big play, only to see his ball - either to Hamler or Dotson up the sideline - fall incomplete.
“The third-down call, we weren't successful because one guy ran the wrong play,” Franklin said. “It's hard to be successful when you got one guy that thought it was a different call. We felt we were going to get a big play in that situation and it got stopped.”
For the game, then, seven of Clifford’s 16 incomplete passing attempts were deep shots that went unrealized.
From Clifford to Franklin, Hamler, and others around the team, those near-misses were a frequent talking point as being partly to blame for Penn State’s inability to produce with the pace it wanted Saturday afternoon.
“Yeah, we missed a couple of them that we had. We had guys behind them but just couple we overthrew. A couple of them we left inside, especially the vertical balls. We want to keep those things outside, even if they're short. We want our receivers to leave room on the sideline for the quarterback and be able to adjust to the ball and we didn't do that,” Franklin said. “I think that was probably the biggest factor. But I thought they had a good plan. They're playing press man on the outside, which is what they play, or, they played press bail and tried to take away the shots from you. I have a lot of respect for Coach Narduzzi as a defensive guy. They always play really tough. And then I do think he gets very involved with us and how to attack our defense from a defensive perspective.”
Asked how he can improve between now and Penn State’s next game, a Friday night date at Maryland to open the Big Ten season on Sept. 27, Clifford pointed to those plays as being key to his development.
“I think that third down obviously is one,” Clifford said. “I think that explosive plays down the field, obviously today, I should have played better in that regard. I think that I missed some deep balls that I usually hit and I know I can hit. So those two are definitely big. And I think just in the run game a little bit, maybe making a couple more plays. I think I can do that too.
“But overall, I think that I'm seeing the defenses pretty well. The game is really starting to slow down and I'm starting to see everything.”
