Penn State offensive snap counts vs. Pitt: Nelson returns

[mn78psu83]

Penn State offensive snap counts vs. Pitt: Nelson returns

Complete snap counts for Penn State’s offensive players against Pitt as charted from the press box. Brief analyses of each position group also provided. Penalties not included.

QUARTERBACKS

Trace McSorley — 52 of 52

Tommy Stevens — 2 of 52

Analysis: Stevens entered on Penn State's penultimate series and replaced Mike Gesicki, a changeup from the season opener when he essentially took the field as a running back. As I wrote last week, don't expect to see the Lions' two-quarterback package frequently, but when you do it will come in and/or around the high red zone. Just like we saw Saturday.


RUNNING BACKS

Saquon Barkley — 47 of 52

Andre Robinson — 3 of 52

Miles Sanders — 3 of 52

Analysis: Sanders ended his own day prematurely with a third-quarter fumble. Robinson's only snap of the first half was erased by penalty, so he didn't officially see action until Penn State's 10th drive. Given the opponent, this was always going to be the Barkley Show. Playing time figures to be divided quite differently next weekend.


WIDE RECEIVERS

DaeSean Hamilton — 43 of 52

Juwan Johnson — 41 of 52

DeAndre Thompkins — 34 of 52

Saeed Blacknall — 17 of 52

Brandon Polk — 10 of 52

Irvin Charles — 9 of 52

Analysis: Thompkins sat out a few drives that began immediately after he'd fielded and returned a Pitt punt. Blacknall was bitten by some bad luck in that Penn State's rotation allowed him to play only one possession which lasted longer than three plays. Polk made the most of his limited action with a third-quarter grab along the sideline where he stared into the sun and adjusted well to a slightly underthrown ball.


TIGHT ENDS

Mike Gesicki — 43 of 52

Jon Holland — 7 of 52

Tom Pancoast — 1 of 52

Analysis: Holland made his debut on Lions' fourth series, a five-play drive. Gesicki played the entire second half except the final kneeldown, which accounted for Pancoast's lone snap. Gesicki has played better than 78 percent of Penn State's offensive snaps to date, a season after logging 87.4 percent or more than 700 total.


OFFENSIVE LINE

Ryan Bates — 52 of 52

Steven Gonzalez — 52 of 52

Brendan Mahon — 52 of 52

Connor McGovern — 52 of 52

Chasz Wright — 31 of 52

Andrew Nelson — 21 of 52

Analysis: Nelson played two series in each half during a rotation with Wright at right tackle. You can read more about his road back in my post-game notebook.

Author
Andrew Callahan @ACallahan_247

 

[mn78psu83]

Andrew Nelson is healthy. Great to hear.

 

[Obliviax]

Thanks...provokes some thoughts:

• Chaz is susceptible to the speed rush
• What the hell is #26 doing returning KO's?
  • There is an appreciable drop off when he is and is not on the field
  • He's got to either carry or be a decoy
  • He doesn't need to run a 25 yard gasser to start the Offensive series
  • we've got great depth of guys that can carry the ball
• Pancoast was open and McS missed him.
• I wonder if Johnson got hurt because he disappeared.
• #5 would have had a breakout day if McS was what he normally is.

 

[BisbeeMike]

The one thing we're missing right now is Blacknall, to take the top off the defense.

 

[Obliviax]

The one thing we're missing right now is Blacknall, to take the top off the defense.

We tried to go deep twice, once to Pancoast and once to, I believe, Hamilton. Both were badly thrown balls. The other throws were 20 yarders. guys were open though.

I have to wonder, on the hail mary at the end of he half, and I'll check the tape later tonight....McS got flushed and then threw the ball somewhere around the 50. The ball came down around the seven. It was a well executed tip drill but Pitt came down with a meaningless INT. My point is, that ball is only about 43 yards in the air. Hell, I could throw the ball that far at age 21 myself (and I look like an alligator). In the meantime, we had a guy wide open on the left end zone. Oddly, other passes had a lot of zip and steam on them. Could McS's arm be sore? Seems inconsistent.

 

[BisbeeMike]

We tried to go deep twice, once to Pancoast and once to, I believe, Hamilton. Both were badly thrown balls. The other throws were 20 yarders. guys were open though.

I have to wonder, on the hail mary at the end of he half, and I'll check the tape later tonight....McS got flushed and then threw the ball somewhere around the 50. The ball came down around the seven. It was a well executed tip drill but Pitt came down with a meaningless INT. My point is, that ball is only about 43 yards in the air. Hell, I could throw the ball that far at age 21 myself (and I look like an alligator). In the meantime, we had a guy wide open on the left end zone. Oddly, other passes had a lot of zip and steam on them. Could McS's arm be sore? Seems inconsistent.

Obliviax, his footwork yesterday was poor. He was often in between steps when he released the football. Now, on the hail mary, I dont know, I think Trace just put it up and was hoping for a play there, but overall and particularly in the first half, many of the throws were made without his legs under him. I think his mechanics were off yesterday. I also think that he didn't actually see the open man on a number of occasions and much of THAT was Pitt rushing in certain lanes and then peeling back and jumping, rather than a bull rush. I'll tell ya, Trace was off yesterday but Narduzzi had a damn good game plan and his team played with more passion than we did. Back to work on the practice field and get the mechanics right and frankly, Juwon Johnson is not ready yet, we need Blacknall back on the field. Yes, I went there.

 

[GregInPitt]

Obliviax, his footwork yesterday was poor. He was often in between steps when he released the football. Now, on the hail mary, I dont know, I think Trace just put it up and was hoping for a play there, but overall and particularly in the first half, many of the throws were made without his legs under him. I think his mechanics were off yesterday. I also think that he didn't actually see the open man on a number of occasions and much of THAT was Pitt rushing in certain lanes and then peeling back and jumping, rather than a bull rush. I'll tell ya, Trace was off yesterday but Narduzzi had a damn good game plan and his team played with more passion than we did. Back to work on the practice field and get the mechanics right and frankly, Juwon Johnson is not ready yet, we need Blacknall back on the field. Yes, I went there.

We watched the team walk in from the buses and they seemed very focused. I was also somewhat disappointed in the performance of the team overall yesterday.

1. Yes, Trace was very below average yesterday. If he had just thrown catchable balls to the 3-5 wide open receivers that he totally missed in the first half, PSU would have had at least 2 more TD's in the first half.
2. In my opinion, Pry had a terrible day. How many times can a team execute the same play, the shovel pass, and get 5-9 yards before our defensive coaches make the adjustments necessary to stop it? We never did stop it, pitt must have run it 10 times, so the we'll have to see if every team we play runs it for positive yardage all season.....
3. Team just could not settle into a rhythm. On offense, the poor passes seemed to take the wind out of the offense's sales. On Defense, pitt had too many long drives, and the time of possession speaks volumes about our defensive coaches poor adjustments to what pitt was doing...
4. The final score was OK, but I hope the team makes significant progress in practice the next two weeks before they to go Iowa.
5. Overall I thought Duzzy outcoached CJF. But I was OK with CJF dissing pitt in the post game. Duzzy had it coming. And it should be worse next year.

 

[psu2016]

Obliviax, his footwork yesterday was poor. He was often in between steps when he released the football. Now, on the hail mary, I dont know, I think Trace just put it up and was hoping for a play there, but overall and particularly in the first half, many of the throws were made without his legs under him. I think his mechanics were off yesterday. I also think that he didn't actually see the open man on a number of occasions and much of THAT was Pitt rushing in certain lanes and then peeling back and jumping, rather than a bull rush. I'll tell ya, Trace was off yesterday but Narduzzi had a damn good game plan and his team played with more passion than we did. Back to work on the practice field and get the mechanics right and frankly, Juwon Johnson is not ready yet, we need Blacknall back on the field. Yes, I went there.

I don't know whether Johnson is not ready, but it does seem odd to me that blacknall is not seeing more time. When healthy, he has been a very good reciever for us

 

[PSU20]

I don't know whether Johnson is not ready, but it does seem odd to me that blacknall is not seeing more time. When healthy, he has been a very good reciever for us

+100! Very strange, the situation with SB. Thought he was one of our best WR's last year towards the end of the season. He's big, fast, and is physical with great hands.

We need him in this offense

 

[BisbeeMike]

Blacknalls' job is to take the top off of defenses, and make big catches on both deep and intermediate patterns, and he has done that for his entire career here. He is experienced and is a reliable go-to target for this offense, and that is what this offense needs now, more than anything. We need Saeed Blacknall back on the field and making plays. It doesn't take more than 2 or 3 of the plays he can make, to totally take a defense out of what they want to do: It's not necessary that he drops 7 dimes for 100 yards, that's not his job. It's time to let him out of the doghouse and get him back on the field of play.

 

[PSU20]

Blacknalls' job is to take the top off of defenses, and make big catches on both deep and intermediate patterns, and he has done that for his entire career here. He is experienced and is a reliable go-to target for this offense, and that is what this offense needs now, more than anything. We need Saeed Blacknall back on the field and making plays. It doesn't take more than 2 or 3 of the plays he can make, to totally take a defense out of what they want to do: It's not necessary that he drops 7 dimes for 100 yards, that's not his job. It's time to let him out of the doghouse and get him back on the field of play.

Good point, but has he had one ball thrown his way these 2 games? Don't believe he has.

 

[mn78psu83]

bump

 

[dbsteel]

+100! Very strange, the situation with SB. Thought he was one of our best WR's last year towards the end of the season. He's big, fast, and is physical with great hands.

We need him in this offense

I think he just plain hasn't gotten totally out of the doghouse.

 

[SUPERTODD]

Rewatch the game and focus on Blacknall's blocking. Then compare it to the effort Thompkins and Polk routinely give. I think you will find your answer to why Blacknall isn't more a part of our offense.

 

[Ceasar]

We tried to go deep twice, once to Pancoast and once to, I believe, Hamilton. Both were badly thrown balls. The other throws were 20 yarders. guys were open though.

I have to wonder, on the hail mary at the end of he half, and I'll check the tape later tonight....McS got flushed and then threw the ball somewhere around the 50. The ball came down around the seven. It was a well executed tip drill but Pitt came down with a meaningless INT. My point is, that ball is only about 43 yards in the air. Hell, I could throw the ball that far at age 21 myself (and I look like an alligator). In the meantime, we had a guy wide open on the left end zone. Oddly, other passes had a lot of zip and steam on them. Could McS's arm be sore? Seems inconsistent.

Obli, if you check the hail mary again I think you will see the LOS was around the 40 as opposed to midfield. I remember that because I recall thinking that we failed to get the ball to midfield and therefore probably could not get a ball into the end zone. Not saying it was a great throw but I would guess trace Threw it from around the 40-45.
Also, I think we are overstating how bad of a game McSorley played. He was 15-28, that's 55%. Had he completed one more he would have hit 58% and that is right around where he always is. Don't get me wrong, I agree he did not play as well as he normally does. But IMO he was certainly not awful and if that is as bad he gets we will be fine.

 

[KnightSlayer]

We tried to go deep twice, once to Pancoast and once to, I believe, Hamilton. Both were badly thrown balls. The other throws were 20 yarders. guys were open though.

I have to wonder, on the hail mary at the end of he half, and I'll check the tape later tonight....McS got flushed and then threw the ball somewhere around the 50. The ball came down around the seven. It was a well executed tip drill but Pitt came down with a meaningless INT. My point is, that ball is only about 43 yards in the air. Hell, I could throw the ball that far at age 21 myself (and I look like an alligator). In the meantime, we had a guy wide open on the left end zone. Oddly, other passes had a lot of zip and steam on them. Could McS's arm be sore? Seems inconsistent.

If you watch the replay, you'll see that Trace scrambles to the right towards the line of scrimmage and then moved parallel along the line of scrimmage and threw to ball under pressure. He wasn't able to step into the throw.