9/6/2022 football Edit

Penn State vs Ohio: What to know about the Bobcats

Dylan Callaghan-Croley • Happy Valley Insider

Editor

The Penn State Nittany Lions will look to move to 2-0 this upcoming Saturday when they take on the MAC's Ohio Bobcats in their home opener. Ohio enters this week at 1-0 after defeating FAU 41-38 on Saturday afternoon. The Bobcats on Saturday will look to pull off their biggest upset since 2012 when they knocked off the Nittany Lions in Bill O'Brien's first game as Penn State's head coach.

That being said, this is no longer the Frank Solich program that many came to know from 2005 to 2020. Now under head coach Tim Albin, the Bobcats are looking to rebound from a 3-9 season in their first season under Albin. It was the program's first losing season since 2008. Picking up a victory against FAU was a great start for the Bobcats but will be facing a much more difficult task this Saturday.

Here's what you need to know about Ohio's offense, defense, and special teams.

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Offense:

In their week one matchup against FAU, Ohio did a great job of maintaining a balanced offense with 34 passing attempts to 39 rushing attempts. When the Bobcats had success in 2021, it was often with a balanced offense. However, as a 24-point underdogs, maintaining a balanced offense on Saturday will be tough.

That being said, their strength is most certainly through the air, redshirt junior Kurtis Rourke started his season off hot, completing 27-of-34 passing attempts for 345-yards and four touchdowns. His performance against FAU built upon quite a few positives that came away from his 2021 season, his first as the Bobcats' starting quarterback. Last season, he showed quality accuracy completing 65.5% of his passes for 1,801 yards and 11 touchdowns. He was turnover-prone, throwing seven interceptions in his 10 games. Penn State's secondary will be the most difficult test Rouke has faced as his time as the Bobcats' starting quarterback.

In terms of Rouke's weapons on the offense, he did a great job spreading the ball around in the Bobcats' season opener and getting everyone involved. Five different Bobcats recorded four receptions or more but the obvious No.1 wide receiver is James Bostic. The 6-foot-3 receiver caught up six passes for 136 yards and one touchdown in week one. Slot wide receiver Tyler Walton is another big play threat to know, he recorded six receptions of his own for 64-yards.

On paper, the Bobcats' rushing attack with running back redshirt freshman Sieh Bangura is good but the Nittany Lions' front seven should be up to the challenge. Bangura against FAU had a quality day, carrying the ball 23 times for 114 yards, he also had a lone reception for five yards. The 6-foot-0, 200-pound running back shows good speed and agility making him tough to bring down at times, he'll be a solid challenge for Penn State's front seven who struggled at times tackling against Purdue.

Finally, while the Bobcats' offensive line paved the way for Bangura to rush for 114 yards, they did show quite a bit of issue in their pass protection. FAU's defense on Saturday was able to total four sacks as well as part of seven total tackles for loss. The Nittany Lions defensive line struggled against Purdue on Thursday but the Bobcats should provide a much better matchup for the Nittany Lions.

Defense:

Defensively, the Bobcats definitely have holes that Penn State's offense should be able to take advantage of quite a bit. The Bobcats' secondary is certainly on the weaker side, allowing 364 yards and four touchdowns to FAU. Sean Clifford and Penn State's wide receiver room should be able to have quite a bit of success against the Bobcats' secondary.

While they allowed FAU to have a great amount of success through the air, the Owls were unable to run the ball on Ohio. FAU averaged just 3.4 yards per carry, totaling 100 yards on 29 attempts. For a team that allowed nearly 200 yards per game on the ground in 2021, it was a vast improvement but they'll be pushed to their limits this weekend against Penn State's talented running back groom. One would expect Penn State to have better success than FAU considering they'll have a considerable size advantage in the trenches.

Names to know on the Bobcats' defense include redshirt junior safety Ben Johnson who totaled 15 tackles including half a tackle for a loss against FAU as well as redshirt senior defensvie end Jack McCrory who had seven tackles including one sack. Pen State's offensive line should be able to keep the Bobcats' presence in the backfield to a minimum. Ohio's front seven failed to create consistent havoc in FAU's backfield in week one with just two sacks and four tackles for a loss.

Special Teams:

Special teams-wise, Ohio should be solid on Saturday. Kicker Nathanial Vakos is one of the better kickers in the country and he started the season off by going 5-for-5 in extra points and 2-for-2 in field goal attempts. Punter Jonah Wieland averaged 44.8 yards over his four punts against FAU as well. Ohio won't make much noise in returning punts or kicks but likely won't hurt themselves either on Saturday afternoon