Penn State looks for rebound against Minnesota

Penn State running back Saquon Barkley said he knows his team has moved on from the 49-10 loss to No. 4 Michigan last week.

But that doesn’t mean the Nittany Lions (2-2) don’t want a rebound.

“We do realize we’re in Big Ten play and we have to get a roll going,” Barkley said via teleconference on Wednesday. “We have to start getting some wins in the Big Ten. We go week-by-week and obviously it was a tough loss last week, but we put it in the past.”

Offense

Despite having arguably one of the best running backs in the country in Barkley, Penn State ranks No. 122 out of 128 FBS teams in rushing offense per game with a 101.25-yards average.

Part of this stems from a lack of open holes made by the offensive line, and failure to block into the second level by the linemen to create space. Run-pass option plays have also been tricky for the team to pick up as it has faced tougher defenses in Pitt and Michigan. The “mesh” play in particular has often led to Barkley getting swallowed up behind the line of scrimmage by an opposing defensive line. Rushing the read combined with a lack of protection causes the play to fail.

“That’s something that we kind of strained on (in) practice, being meshed,” said Barkley, of he and quarterback Trace McSorley. “It takes time to develop and you don’t want to be too fast through the mesh because if you are, you can miss some holes.

“You need to be patient to read things out so you can gash them.”

As every team has done against Penn State this season, Minnesota will likely try to fill the box with big bodies. McSorley and an able receiver corps antsy for a big game after being limited by Michigan’s secondary will look to punish on the perimeter.

The only problem?

There’s rain in Saturday’s forecast.

Defense

Minnesota (3-0) has a big, physical offensive line that will certainly attempt to capitalize on Penn State’s inexperience.

The Nittany Lions allow 213.75 yards per game, were gashed for almost 500 combined rushing yards between their first and second games, and allowed Michigan 326 yards on the ground.

To make matters more difficult for Penn State, its linebacker unit is down to a very thin two-deep.

Jason Cabinda and Brandon Bell are both out with injuries. Head coach James Franklin added that there is a “possibility” the team doesn’t have them back until November. Nyeem Wartman-White is out for the season, as is fourth-string middle linebacker Jan Johnson, who came in last week for an ejected Brandon Smith. Smith is a former walk-on fullback who Penn State will have back this week, and the team also plans to rotate sophomores Manny Bowen and Jake Cooper alongside true freshman Cam Brown.

The team also has former walk-on Von Walker listed in the rotation, though Walker has previously spent the majority of his time on special teams. Former running back Johnathan Thomas shifted to linebacker this fall. Finally, Penn State has shifted safety Koa Farmer back to linebacker; but the redshirt sophomore has spent his meager minutes in a hybrid position called the “Buck,” used as a combination safety-linebacker, and has no experience other than on the strong side.

The injury bug that has forced this linebacker recalibration hasn’t let up on Penn State since the second week of the season.

“What we have to do is we have to make sure that we put these (young) guys in position to play well, which means we’re probably going to be a little bit more ‘vanilla’ on defense,” said Franklin on Tuesday. “(We have to) allow those guys to go out and play with confidence, allow them to build some experience and some confidence in how they play and playing well and give us a chance to be successful.”

Franklin said on Tuesday that Cabinda and Bell likely would not be back by Saturday’s game.

Special Teams

Yes, kicker Joey Julius has gone viral on social media again after a massive hit on Michigan returner Jourdan Lewis. Yes, freshman punter Blake Gillikin is ranked among the top in the country at the position. And yes, Tyler Davis has yet to miss a field goal or point-after attempt in his career.

But Penn State is still looking to contain on the return, in hopes of eliminating the “one big play” that seems to cost them in each game thus far.

Last week, it was a 53-yard return on a 61-yard punt that led to a Michigan scoring drive and set the tone of the rout that followed.

“Special teams, we’ve got to carry fundamentals from the practice field to the game,” said Franklin.

“And then we have to eliminate the big plays, the big punt return, the big kick return we’ve had (issues with). We’ve got to stop those.”

This story was originally published September 29, 2016 at 10:11 PM with the headline "Penn State looks for rebound against Minnesota."