Rutgers Film Study: Blame it on the rain

Penn State built on its win at Michigan with another at Rutgers Saturday afternoon.

Owning a 17-0 advantage at the half, the NIttany Lions simply chose to play ground and pound football against the hapless Scarlet Knights throughout the second half. While it might not have been especially pretty, it was effective to earn the program its second win in as many weeks after an 0-5 start to the year.

We're back with BWI analyst Thomas Frank Carr, who breaks it down here as part of his weekly film study series.

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The Penn State football team got a win on a windy day in Pisca---

Wait.

Everyone stop what you’re doing. Before we go any further, look at this photo.

In the spirit of Christmas; do you see what I see?

Lined up four yards in the backfield, behind the tackle. That is a…

FULLBACK!

Rejoice all ye football fans who dream of neck rolls and oversized football pads! After seven long years and four offensive coordinators, James Franklin has finally lined up a football player at the fullback position.

They even ran behind him as well!

This was really the harbinger of what the day was to be like for Penn State. Through sheer volume, they bludgeoned Rutgers to the tune of 57 rushing attempts on a windy day in New Jersey.

Today, we’ll look at how Penn State was able to get explosive runs, their improvements on defense and how to take a long view of the offense.

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Musical accompaniment

It’s important to mention the weather for this game because according to Franklin, it dedicated the terms of the game, possibly more than the Rutgers defense. In fact, it was the first thing he mentioned after the game.

“The weather conditions were significant in the game (and) went into a lot of the decision making, not only during the game but in pregame.”

That really clears up a lot of the questions about decision-making, including when and how to punt, fourth down calls and long field goals. Even later in the game when the sun had come out, the wind was still a factor.

Aside from the weather, the first thing that we have to understand about Rutgers is that, while they are a tough, improved team under the new direction of Greg Schiano, they do not have the athletes to threaten Penn State. Angles are easier to take, blocks are easier to shed and generally, offense and defense are easier when done properly against a team like the Knights. Schiano may eventually turn them into a threat in the Big Ten East Division, but no mass-emigration back to New Jersey through the transfer portal will fix a team in one off-season.

Penn State played generally well on offense, but most of the early scoring was due to mistakes made by the Rutgers front seven, specifically at linebacker. If you’ve followed this column so far this season, you’ll recognize some of their problems from earlier looks at the Penn State linebackers.

The Rutgers linebackers had terrible gap integrity early on in the game against Penn State. The Nittany Lions did a reasonably good job of creating holes on Saturday, and at times blew defenders off the ball, but Rutgers did a great job of making it easier for the Penn State runners to find big gaps.

That’s not to say that Penn State didn’t do anything well. The Penn State offensive line was able to not only hold their blocks at times, but also get to the second level and get their hands on linebackers. It’s been awhile since we’ve seen running plays come to life on the field the way they’re drawn up on a white board.

The Penn State offensive line was also active getting in front on screens Saturday. While they weren’t all perfect, the interior of the offensive line was able to make plays in space and set up blocking, even when the ball wasn’t cleanly caught or delivered.

Overall, it was a good day for the Penn State offensive line, who played a solid game. The unit carried the team on a day in which Rutgers' defense knew exactly what was coming for the entire second half, yet they were still able to open enough holes to score six points.

It was ugly, but this is way that Penn State has chosen to play the last two games, and each finished with wins as opposed to the losses of the previous five outings.

For the second straight week, Penn State has completely lacked a downfield passing attack.

Of the 22 dropbacks that Sean Clifford attempted, only one pass traveled beyond 20 yards. While this play should have drawn a flag, this is a dangerous and off-target throw. No go route should be thrown this far inside.

Overall, Clifford played a solid game, much like he did in the Nittany Lions’ win over Michigan. But, his play is very much limited to the short and intermediate part of the field. It’s also unfair to say that this is all on the quarterback. Penn State’s problems in the downfield passing game are systemic in nature and are a complicated set of problems.

“We took the one shot down the sideline to Jahan [Dotson], we’ve got to do more of that. We’ve got to build the confidence in practice and in games. We’ve got to find creative ways to do it. But at the end of the day, we’ve got to be able to push the ball down the field,” Franklin said after the game.

To the point of a lack of creativity, Clifford has thrown 23 passes over 20 yards this season according to PFF. Of those throws, 14 have been simple go-routes, two of which have been completed. Part of this is on the shot selection by the quarterback, but this also speaks to a lack of creative diversity in the passing game. If your go-to deep route is being completed at a 14.2% clip, you need to devise a new plan.

It’s really a chicken-or-the-egg situation though.

If your quarterback refuses to throw the ball deep over the middle of the field, what else are you supposed to call? But if you only call predictable, low-percentage deep passes, how is he supposed to develop confidence in any deep passes?

The good news for Penn State is this is something that is never far from Franklin’s mind, as he predicted this would be an issue earlier in the week,

“We have to be more explosive. Running the ball is great and being consistent and efficient is really important but now we have to be more explosive down the field. We have to become more explosive.”

But right now, Clifford is not attempting those deep passes, so how do you go about manufacturing them if your quarterback is not efficient in this area?

“To create explosive plays you’re doing that through scheme, broken tackles, making people miss, 50-50 catches, big time throws, (or) calling the right play at the right time when you get an indication based on safety rotation and linebacker skew. Equipping your players with the ability to do that. We need to do more of those things offensively going forward," said Franklin.

In other words, every part of your offense has to be operating at an extremely high level if you want to compensate for a quarterback that isn’t playing well.

The reality is that this problem likely will not be solved this year. The explosive, high-flying Penn State offense that wants to attack downfield has been replaced by a ball-control attack that takes the quarterback out of the equation as much as possible. The Nittany Lions got an out this week with the wind and weather, but going forward, they will need to find a way to manufacture explosive plays.

There are five minutes left in an absolutely brutal game. You’ve clawed, scrapped and fought back from early mistakes to at least make it a two-score deficit. The obvious problem is that time is running out and you face 4th and 6 with the ball just outside of the red zone.

You can feel the comeback on the line and with the game in the balance, this is the play you choose.

That’s really what you need to know about the Rutgers offense in 2020.

When it really matters, they don’t trust their quarterback to deliver the ball, nor their offensive line to block. Between the two offenses on Saturday, we the viewing audience were treated to 43 quarterback runs, rendering this game nearly unwatchable.

Rutgers did its part to be incredibly inefficient and almost comically inept on offense.

Rutgers jokes do get tiresome, I'll acknowledge.

But while Schiano gives them a backbone and hope for the first time since he left, they are still the Rutgers of the last five years right now. It’s really hard to win a game when your best play for the entire afternoon was “Roll left, Jet 47, Divine Intervention”

By the way, this is the only appropriate reaction to that play.

Despite the fact that we’re grading on the Rutgers curve this week, Penn State still performed well defensively. In fact, this group took a step forward in one key area that has sunk it time and time again this season; playing gap sound.

The chaotic design you see above are the post-snap movements of the key players on this play. Rutgers is running a read-option play to the left with a pulling guard. The interesting thing about this play design, and plenty of the Penn State running game as well, is that the blocking is not set up for the running back. Based on where the guard pulls, this play is designed with the quarterback as the primary runner in mind.

Quarterback Noah Verdal is reading Ellis Brooks on this play. If he is in man coverage, or attacks the lead blocker and overpursues to the outside, Verdal will keep the ball and run behind the offensive lineman’s pull block. If Brooks gets caught inside, he will give the ball to running back Kay’Ron Adams, who has a lead blocker heading into the flat.

Unlike previous games, Penn State’s linebackers played within the framework of the defense and everyone shifted to the correct gap. Jesse Luketa replaced Brooks, Brooks slow-played the read and forced the give on the handoff. After that, he attacked the block and allowed Jaquan Brisker to come downhill from his safety spot to clean up the play in the flat.

Rutgers’ offense is full of deception and eye-candy that is designed to trick linebackers into pulling themselves out of position. This has been the kryptonite for those young Penn State linebackers this season. Yet, it seems that they grew up a little bit this week and played with patience. The result?

Rutgers ran 32 times for 82 yards and scored seven points.

You can really see the difference on this view of the double reverse. The second level defenders for the Nittany Lions read and react instead of reacting and then reading.

Brisker has been one of the bright spots in the Penn State secondary for the past two seasons. The junior college transfer from Lackawanna College got off to a slow start, but has since been a steady force in a tumultuous secondary that struggles for consistency.

He’s the sort of player that makes plays at every level of the field as well. It’s hard to break up a pass on the sideline when you’re the deep safety in Cover 1. Yet, Brisker reads the quarterback and has the speed to close on the receiver and make a clean hit to jar the football loose.

It’s not just that he’s physically talented. CB Joey Porter Jr. said after the game that this is what happens when you buy into the defense.

“The play call put us in position, but that’s just him being the ball fanatic and going after the ball.”

He’s right, and making plays on the ball is something that the Penn State secondary has sorely needed in the past. He has the size, ball skills and tenacity in the run game to be a second-day draft pick in the NFL Draft this spring.

I wouldn’t call it a rhythm, but Penn State has found a winning formula in the second half of the season. If the defense can continue to play sound football up front, they have the talent to finish the season strong against some weaker offenses.

Their own offense will have to find a way to evolve now that they’ve hit the reset button on the passing game. Aside from an early touchdown strike to Parker Washington and some out of structure plays in the first half, Sean Clifford was a spectator this past weekend.

The reason Franklin is pushing as much as he is on this topic is because he knows that the current way of winning is unsustainable. If the Nittany Lions have aspirations of getting back to .500 on the season, which is a realistic possibility, they will have to find a way to hot-wire their passing game and get it going.

Brenton Strange has been fantastic through two games as the starter at tight end. The former wide receiver is explosive and can make things happen as a receiver, but he’s been equally as impressive as a blocker.

It appears that he sustained an elbow injury on this next play and it hampered his blocking for the rest of the game. Hopefully it’s not a long-lasting injury because he’s been a lot of fun to watch.

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I’m genuinely not trying to be mean or make jokes about Rutgers, but good Lord this is not a lot of resistance here.

You can only take so much from this game.

Speaking of Antonio Shelton, this was a great job by him. Rutgers was trying to run a tight end behind the line of scrimmage and leak him out into the right flat. Johnny Langan rolls that way but has no one to throw to and Brandon Smith has nothing else to look at and give him pause in his pursuit.

The reason? Shelton blew up the entire play by getting into the backfield.

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Another week, another example of how insanely fast Jayson Oweh is.

He’s been a bit of a disappointment this season from a pass-rushing standpoint. If I had to guess, based on the shoulder harness, he’s not 100 percent.

Regardless, he hasn’t shown the dominant ability to use power, length and speed to dominate tackles at any point outside of the first game. He likely won’t stay in college because of plays like the one above, but he could use another year of seasoning. If he learns to use all of his considerable gifts, he might be a top-10 pick.

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