Published Dec 2, 2021
Breaking down Penn State's top plays versus Michigan State last weekend
Anthony Siciliano  •  Happy Valley Insider
Film Analysis

This week on Nittany Nation, film analyst Anthony Siciliano breaks down two of the top plays from the Penn State offense this past weekend versus Michigan State.

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TRIPS LEFT SET (11 PERSONNEL)

Penn State’s offense comes out in a 11 personnel grouping (1 running back, 1 tight end, and 3 wide receivers) versus Michigan State’s 4-2-5 defense (4 defensive lineman, 2 linebackers, and 5 defensive backs) with a cover 2 man look in the secondary and the middle of field open. Penn State has a trips left set to the field and to the boundary there is a single receiver lined up inside the numbers. The Nittany Lions offense dials up a RPO sprint out passing concept to the field in which the outside receiver runs a go route, the slot receiver runs a corner route and the Y from the trips set cracks down to block the last man on the line of scrimmage. Michigan State’s defense showed man coverage but in post snap they went to a Cover 2 zone coverage. The slot receiver Parker Washington does a nice job of finding the soft spot of the defensive coverage for quarterback Sean Clifford to deliver an accurate throw. Washington made an incredible one-handed catch to move the chains for the Penn State offense

TRIPS LEFT SET (11 PERSONNEL)

Penn State’s offense comes out in a 11 personnel grouping (1 running back, 1 tight end, and 3 wide receivers) versus Michigan State’s 4-2-5 defense (4 defensive lineman, 2 linebackers, and 5 defensive backs) with a cover 2 man look in the secondary and the middle of field open. Penn State has a trips left set to the field with a single receiver stacked on top of the numbers to the boundary. Michigan State’s defense is showing man in their pre-snap coverage but in post snap they go to a Cover 2 zone coverage inside the red zone since the field spacing is getting tight making it harder for the Penn State receivers to work with for their given routes in the passing concept. Penn State dials up a vertical passing concept to attack this zone coverage to soften any areas of the Spartans zone defense. Slot receiver Parker Washington found a soft spot right in the endzone and in between both the linebacker and strong safety for quarterback Sean Clifford to deliver a strike for the touchdown. Washington did a nice job with his route in slow playing it to shield the strong safety but allow Clifford the necessary spacing to make the throw.