In a combined dominating effort, PSU outpaces Maryland run game

Maryland's running back was supposed to be the story. He was fresh off 510 yards in his previous two games, after all, including a near 300-yard outburst against Ohio State a week ago. But when the final whistle blew on a 38-3 romp in favor of Penn State Saturday, it was the Nittany Lions' rushing attack that was making headlines.

The final stat sheet read 310 total yards on the ground for PSU, 128 of which came from junior Miles Sanders. Five others carried the ball, and together they combined for 7 yards per carry. The Terrapins' star back, meanwhile, averaged just 2 yards an attempt.

"We knew that we were going to come in and rotate a lot," Sanders said. "That's what I wanted and that's what everybody else wanted. I feel like us rotating like that and getting different looks in the backfield probably [worked] pretty good, but it started with the O-line. The offensive line played really good today."

Not only did the offensive line limit Maryland's defense to just one sack, it helped lead PSU's backfield to a rushing total unlike Beaver Stadium has seen the past couple seasons. Not since a 41-14 win over Iowa in 2016 have the Nittany Lions eclipsed 300 yards at home. Only once this year (387 at Illinois) have they had more.

It was a combined effort, as Sanders lamented in his postgame interview. He led the charge with 14 carries, while freshman Ricky Slade toted the football 11 times for 64 yards and two touchdowns. Starting QB Trace McSorley, meanwhile, matched Slade with an identical output before a curtain call as the senior walked off the PSU grass for the final time.

Additionally, backup junior QB Tommy Stevens ran for 35 yards on three carries, and redshirt freshman RB Journey brown added 17 on 3 touches. Even fifth-year senior Johnathan Thomas got in on the action late with a carry in the fourth quarter of his final collegiate game.

Each made their mark, but it was the offensive line that had the most praise heaped upon it afterward, especially considering that it was short one of its starters to open the game.

Michal Menet, a redshirt sophomore, had started each of the season's first 11 games at center. During the week at practice, however, it became clear that he'd be unable to go against Maryland due to injury, so PSU was forced to reshuffle its lineup. Connor McGovern, who had been the starting a center a year ago before switching to right guard this season, slid back one spot to his left so he could snap the ball. That created an opening for redshirt freshman Michael Miranda to step in for his first career start at RG.

Despite the shakeup – and with starting RT Ryan Bates missing a handful of plays after limping off early in the game before returning – Penn State churned out one of its most productive ground attacks in years.

"We were able to rush for a bunch of yards and were able to protect without having our normal five in there," head coach James Franklin said. "What we try to do is create flexibility inside with our offensive linemen, where our guards can play center and centers can play guard and our tackles have some swing-ablility there as well. So it was great that Connor was able to slide over to center. He did that early in his career and and then getting Miranda in there, he played at a pretty high level from what I saw."

As the game's leading rusher, Sanders likewise attributed the success to the big guys in front of him.

"It starts with them up front, being physical and playing with confidence," he said. "I tell them all the time that confidence is the most important thing playing this game. When you are confident, you can feel like you can do anything you can. When you have confidence out there and play physical, you just dominate, and that's what they did. We absolutely dominated today [amassing] 300 yards rushing as a total."

And therein laid the storyline of this one: Penn State's offensive line outmanned the opponents across from them. Similarly, PSU's defensive line did, too.

Maryland redshirt freshman Anthony McFarland Jr. entered the game as one of the hottest backs in the Big Ten. He finished, however, third on his own team with 12 total yards on six carries.

The key, as Franklin explained, was how the defense adjusted its game plan for the Maryland offense. Coordinated by interim head coach Matt Canada, who ran Pitt's offense in 2016, the Terrapins' rushing attack wasn't all that unfamiliar to PSU. In that early loss two seasons ago, Pitt outsmarted PSU's defense with misdirection, fly sweeps and other types of disguised running plays. It was a scheme that had been affording McFarland a chance to pile on the yards recently. Against the Lions, however, they were ready.

All week, defensive coordinator Brent Pry stressed assignment football and "compartmentalized," in Franklin's words, the game plan by position. The defensive ends and perimeter defenders worried about the outside runs, for instance. That allowed the tackles and linebackers to stay in the box, focus on the inside zone and not be sucked into the trap game. Holding eight Maryland rushers to a total of 74 yards – its second-lowest total of the season – the approach worked to near perfection.

"We had a plan and it was really simple," said defensive captain and senior safety Nick Scott. "Basically we came into that game and said our perimeter guys would worry about the jet and our interior guys worry about the zone. Don't get caught up with the eyes of the motion and things like that. We played extremely disciplined today. We did just that. Linebackers who were in the core stayed in the core and stuffed the run; perimeter guys stayed on the perimeter and made those tackles."

Then in the end, the story centered on Penn State's rushing attack instead of the other way around.