Penn State practice highlights: Iowa

It’s time for Penn State practice highlights! The Penn State Nittany Lions are 3-0 entering a Big Ten Showdown with cross-conference foe Iowa in the 2023 White Out. Penn State enters the game as the favorite, but the Hawkeyes present a significant challenge to the Nittany Lions almost every time the two teams play.

Once again, Drew Allar is very important to Penn State’s chances of winning. Iowa presents likely his hardest test yet. The traditional Hawkeyes approach suffocates the run and plays disciplined and smart zone coverage behind that. Allar has shown through three games that he won’t give the ball to the other team, with no turnovers and only one near interception on 88 passing attempts so far this season.

But can he squeeze the ball into tight windows and over linebackers to get the big plays Penn State needs? Allar discussed that this week.

Penn State faces a different test with Iowa’s defense

Explosive plays are something we always talk about. First off, we always talk about protecting the ball. And we’ve done a good job with that so far this year. We’ve got to keep building on that. And then the second thing we always talk about is the explosive play battle. And obviously, it can be very frustrating when we’re not getting those explosive plays that we want. But again, just like I said, In the beginning, we were very close a lot of times,” Allar said this week.

The loss of wide receiver Trey Wallace before last week’s game was a blow to the passing attack, meaning that Malik McClain had to step into a bigger role. If Wallace is back and the Penn State passing attack is at full strength, Allar will have a great chance to dissect the Iowa defense with smart decision-making.

The men up front

In front of him, the Penn State offensive line and running game came under scrutiny this week for not getting enough yardage against Illinois. But what goes on between the tackles is hard for most to understand. Center Hunter Nourzad was the offensive MVP for last week’s game thanks to his impressive work at sealing off Illinois’ nose tackle and getting to the second level.

However, Iowa is the first 4-3 defense that Penn State has seen this year. While the challenge of blocking strong, technically sound defensive tackles is the same, we could see a different emphasis in the run game this week based on the defense they face.

“I think they’re just disciplined, they line up, and they’re gonna execute their game plan. They’re gonna be in the spots they need to be in. They’re just very disciplined and they play very tough. Similar to our defense, they got guys running to the ball,” Allar said.

Stats don’t tell the whole story for Penn State defensive ends

The Penn State defensive end got after last week but hasn’t turned up the sacks that the preseason fanfare had promised. Still, Adisa Isaac and Chop Robinson delivered ten combined pressures last week, which led to four interceptions.

“Do we want a perfect game where we have it all at the end? Yes. But I think our coaches and our defense do a good job of talking about and explaining, and respecting what it takes to win. The stats are usually used to reinforce what it takes to win or areas that we need to improve; it’s not about the stats as an end all, be all,” Franklin said.

To balance the sack conversation, here are some other team-wide stats where Penn State is strong. Penn State’s defense is in the top ten in total pressures, pass rush win percentage, and pressure rate through three games.

But the run defense is once again the focus of the upcoming game. Everyone knows Iowa is going to try and run the football. Penn State’s defense has improved each week at eliminating mistakes and controlling the line of scrimmage. If they can do it again this week, the defensive ends and secondary, which showed what they can do last week, will be at it again.