5 things to watch in the Penn State-Rutgers football game
The No. 14 Penn State Nittany Lions (7-3, 4-3 Big Ten) will take on the Rutgers Scarlet Knights (1-9, 0-7) in Piscataway, N.J., at noon Saturday. Here are the five things you should keep an eye on.
Trace McSorley on verge of another important record
With one more win Saturday, Penn State’s three-year starter will move into sole possession of first place on the school’s career wins list for starting quarterbacks. McSorley currently is in a three-way tie with Todd Blackledge (1980-1982) and Tony Sacca (1988-1991), all of whom have 29 victories.
Seeing as the Nittany Lions are 28-point favorites against Rutgers, that record is likely to fall Saturday — further cementing McSorley’s legacy as one of PSU’s all-time greats. But that’s not the only record in his sights.
He already holds all the major career records (passing yards, TDs, total offense, etc.). And he needs 184 yards to set the record for most single-season rushing yards by a QB and 118 yards to set the career rushing yards record by a QB. He also requires just 19 more completions to set that career mark.
Is Penn State’s third-down offense in the middle of turnaround?
Between Games 5-9, Penn State’s third-down offense was especially miserable. It converted just 23.9 percent of its attempts — and, in the losses, just 19 percent.
A big reason for that was because it was constantly faced with third-and-long situations. And the reason for that was the lack of yards on first and second downs. The fix? Establishing the run.
“I think that was the biggest difference,” James Franklin said about last week’s improvement. “We had more manageable situations.”
Against Wisconsin last week, Penn State finished a respectable 6-of-15 (40 percent) on its third downs. And it appears as if that momentum should continue against Rutgers. The Scarlet Knights are ranked No. 121 nationally in third-down defense and No. 119 nationally in rush defense.
Miles Sanders could be in for a big game, and the third-down offense could be in for its best performance of the conference season.
LB Micah Parsons and the freshmen
Koa Farmer continues to start over Parsons — but maybe not for much longer. As the season has progressed, Parsons has seen more and more snaps and has clearly outplayed the veteran. In fact, although Farmer started last week, Parsons out-snapped him and led the team in tackles.
So does that mean that Parsons could be in line for his first career start Saturday? Well, maybe. When asked what else Parsons needs to do to earn the starting nod, Franklin simply deflected the question.
“This week is a new week,” he said. “And we’ll make the decisions after Thursday’s practice and Friday morning and what’s going to be the best situation for us to be successful on Saturday.”
With this game not expected to be a close one, a number of other freshmen could see the field. Franklin mentioned wanting to test out wideout Justin Shorter this week, and Jahan Dotson is expected to start again if Juwan Johnson remains out.
On defense, DE Jayson Oweh still has two games left to play while still maintaining his redshirt, and CB Trent Gordon — who’s played in just one game — earned some praise from Franklin on Wednesday night. OL Rasheed Walker is also in line to finally see some time. Those are the new faces worth keeping an eye on.
On a side note about one redshirt freshman: Wideout K.J. Hamler said he practiced at other spots at receiver — and he’s hoping that translates into more touches this weekend. “Hopefully this week is the week,” he said, “so we’ll just have to see.”
Rutgers RB Raheem Blackshear
Can you guess Rutgers’ leading rusher? OK, well that’s not too hard. It’s Blackshear with 478 yards and a 4.3 yard-per-carry average. But what about receiving? Well, that’d be Blackshear again with 40 catches for 332 yards. He has four total TDs on the season.
Blackshear has 810 total yards from scrimmage, which is at least twice as many as all but one other Rutgers teammate. (RB Isaih Pacheco is second with 467 total yards.) About one in three completions are heading Blackshear’s way, and he’s accounting for about 36 percent of the running offense.
In other words, Rutgers’ offense goes through Blackshear. He’ll be heavily involved Saturday, so he’s a name Penn State fans should be familiar with. Franklin sure was.
“He’s explosive. He’s quick. Plays with a lot of confidence,” Franklin said. “Obviously being a PA guy and playing Penn State is going to be motivation there. But there’s no doubt for us, going into it, you know their running back position, in general, has been very productive for them. So that’s going to be our biggest challenge in the game is their running backs and obviously the O-line and the running game.”
Sack party?
Penn State’s defensive line made a statement last week against a Wisconsin offensive line that featured three preseason All-Americans. It generated five sacks — and that type of performance could prove problematic for Rutgers, even if that’s one area where the Scarlet Knights aren’t terrible.
The Nittany Lions boast a Big Ten-leading 34 sacks this season — five more than Michigan (29) — while Rutgers has a top-20 offensive line when it comes to both sacks allowed and tackles for loss allowed.
Defensive end Yetur Gross-Matos has been on a tear lately, racking up 28 tackles and six sacks over the last four games. And DE Shareef Miller would like to show NFL scouts why he’s worth drafting, if he decides to leave early. He has six sacks on the season.
The Nittany Lions have a lot of speed here and, even if the OL isn’t a weakness for Rutgers, it could still get pounded Saturday. This is a matchup worth watching.
This story was originally published November 16, 2018 at 12:52 PM.