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Dissecting the Penn State offensive breakdown against Ohio State

Headshot 5x7 reduced qualityby:Thomas Frank Carr•10/25/23•

ThomasFrankCarr

Penn State Football On3
The Penn State offense failed to mount a challenge to the Ohio State defense, managing only two drives into Ohio State territory. Those drives netted six points during the first three and a half quarters. (Photots; Adam Cairns/Columbus Dispatch and Joseph Maiorana-USA TODAY)

The Penn State offense went to Columbus and came back without an identity. Or at least, they lost it while they were there. Today, on the BWI Live Show, we discuss the team’s six-point performance on the road and how the team can move forward after the loss. 

Check out the show either on the Blue White Illustrated YouTube Channel or here at Blue White Illustrated. If you haven’t yet, subscribe to the site and get practice updates from industry insiders Nate Bauer and Sean Fitz each week. 

James Franklin describes Penn State offensive identity

Franklin spoke to the media on Tuesday and discussed his team’s offensive identity. He described it as an efficient and smart offense. 

“I thought our identity was staying on schedule converting on third downs and then either converting on third downs or going for it on fourth down situations. I feel like that had been our identity for the season,” he said 

A crucial part of that identity for Penn State was being excellent in short-yardage situations. Franklin said after the game and on Tuesday that the staff recognized Ohio State’s short-yardage defense as a problem and seemingly avoided using its heavy personnel because of it. 

“We have a lot of respect for their short-yardage defense and how they were defending it, but we did not do that. We did not either convert on third downs like we had been doing or put us in a situation where we were in fourth and short to go for it,” he said. 

We’ll discuss how the team’s lack of rushing success led to more pressure on the shoulders of Penn State quarterback Drew Allar, who had the worst game of his young career on Saturday. We’ll break down his performance and how Ohio State took away his favorite concept early in the game. The offensive line struggled in key spots against the Buckeyes too. We’ll discuss Hunter Nourzad’s struggles on Saturday and how the team tried to attack the Ohio State defense with specific runs that didn’t work on key downs. 

Third down issues

Of course, no discussion of Penn State’s loss would be complete without a dissection of third down. We’ll dive into the troubles that Franklin described during his press conference. 

“So, yeah, I think to me I guess what I’m saying is our lack of success on third down really kind of changed the game. We just didn’t have enough opportunities. We couldn’t get into a flow. Didn’t get enough touches for people. When you have the lack of success that we had on third down, it’s hard to get anything going.”

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