Here’s 5 things to watch in Saturday’s Penn State vs. Rutgers college football game
The Penn State Nittany Lions (1-5) are looking to build off the momentum of their first win of the season last week against Michigan when they take on the Rutgers Scarlet Knights (2-4) at noon Saturday (FS1) in Piscataway, New Jersey.
Here are five things to keep an eye on:
PSU QB SEAN CLIFFORD
Penn State redshirt junior quarterback Sean Clifford was supposed to take a step forward this year. But until last week’s win over Michigan, Clifford had played poorly.
Heading into the contest with the Wolverines, the 6-foot-2, 217-pound Ohio native had completed just 87 of his 152 pass attempts (57.2 completion percentage) for 1,070 yards and 11 touchdowns to go with eight interceptions and two fumbles returned for touchdowns. He had been benched for redshirt sophomore quarterback Will Levis in the second quarter against Nebraska in Week 4 and for nearly three entire quarters against Iowa in Week 5.
Clifford appeared to turn a corner in the Nittany Lions’ win against Michigan, though. He didn’t do anything overly spectacular in the contest, but he didn’t make the same mistakes that had been hindering him and his team all season. The redshirt junior made smart decisions with the football and managed the game effectively — en route to finishing 17-28 passing for 163 yards, while adding 73 yards and a touchdown on the ground. It marked Clifford’s first game this season without a turnover.
After starting 12 games in 2019 and leading Penn State to an 11-2 campaign, Clifford handled being benched well, according to his teammates and head coach James Franklin.
“When this all got started, I thought he handled it really well — not only with Will, but with the team,” Franklin said Wednesday.
Rutgers ranks No. 93 in the country in opponent passing yards allowed, giving up 260.2 per contest. So, this could be just the opponent Clifford needs to face to build on his success from last week.
How Clifford performs against the Scarlet Knights on Saturday will go a long way in determining if the Nittany Lions can pick up win No. 2 of the season.
PENN STATE’S RB ROTATION
Before last Saturday’s game against Michigan, Penn State hadn’t had much success running the ball with its running backs.
Even in the absence of sophomore running back Devyn Ford — who missed the contest against the Wolverines because of a death in his family and left Week 5’s game versus Iowa early with an injury — the Nittany Lions’ ground game excelled. That’s thanks to freshman running back Keyvone Lee.
Lee ran for a career-high 134 yards and a touchdown on 22 carries. The 6-foot, 230-pound Florida native’s 134 rushing yards are the most by a Penn State freshman since Saquon Barkley ran for 194 yards against Ohio State in 2015. Lee’s breakout performance earned him Big Ten Freshman of the Week honors.
Through six games, Lee is now second on the team in rushing yards — behind Clifford — with 227 yards on 41 carries (5.5 yards per rush). Ford has 209 yards on 56 carries (3.7 yards per rush) through the five games he’s played in. And freshman Caziah Holmes — the third member of the Nittany Lions’ running back rotation — has 137 yards on 34 carries (4.0 yards per rush).
Before Ford’s exit from the Iowa game, Franklin said the 5-foot-11, 198-pound Virginia native would be the Nittany Lions’ feature back. But could the sudden emergence of Lee shake things up?
“We’re going to need both of them,” Franklin said of Lee and Ford. “... There’s some schemes that probably fit Devyn a little bit better, and there’s some schemes that probably fit Keyvone a little bit better. So, we’re gonna need both of them.”
Keep an eye on who starts at running back for Penn State against Rutgers on Saturday and what the rotation looks like throughout the contest.
PSU WR PARKER WASHINGTON
Receiver Parker Washington is another freshman who had a stellar outing for Penn State last week against Michigan.
Washington led the Nittany Lions’ receiving corps with nine catches for 93 yards. The 5-foot-10, 205-pound Sugar Land, Texas, native’s nine catches are the most by a true freshman in a game in program history.
Even though standout junior receiver Jahan Dotson had one of his most quiet outings of the season — finishing with three catches for 30 yards — Washington proved he’s capable of carrying the receiving load for Penn State. Last Saturday’s contest versus the Wolverines marked the fourth time this season that Washington had a game with at least 70 receiving yards.
The freshman is now second on the team in receptions, receiving yards and touchdowns — behind Dotson in each category. He’s totaled 30 catches for 349 yards and three touchdowns through the Nittany Lions’ six games.
“He’s somebody who I have a lot of trust in now,” Clifford said of Washington after last Saturday’s win over Michigan. “He’s working really hard and hasn’t wavered through adversity. So, I have a lot of respect for Parker. And I’m excited to keep grinding with him, keep stacking these wins.”
Rutgers’ secondary has been porous all season (the Scarlet Knights rank No. 93 in the nation in opponent passing yards allowed), so Washington could be due for another big game. But that also means that it’s likely that Dotson bounces back from his uncharacteristic outing against the Wolverines.
It’ll be interesting to see if Washington can follow up his career performance with another monster game, even if Dotson returns to form.
PENN STATE’S RED ZONE OFFENSE
It doesn’t matter how strong of a performance Penn State’s playmakers have on Saturday if the Nittany Lions fail to capitalize on their opportunities to score.
Penn State is 125th out of 127 FBS teams with a red zone conversion percentage of just 64 percent. The Nittany Lions showed a bit of improvement in this area against Michigan last week, scoring on four of their five trips to the red zone. But they only scored two touchdowns on those five attempts inside the 20-yard line.
There have been head-scratching plays called in the red zone all season — like the mostly unsuccessful fade routes near the goal line or when Clifford spiked the ball on 1st-and-goal from the Wolverines’ 5-yard line with 36 seconds left in the first half and a timeout remaining last week.
But no matter if the blame falls on play-calling or execution, the result is the same: points left on the board for the Nittany Lions.
“You’ve just gotta look at your players’ strengths and how you’re expecting the defense to play you down there,” offensive coordinator Kirk Ciarrocca said Thursday. “... You don’t have as much space to work with anymore — the defense has less area to defend. So, it’s always tight down there. And it’s always gonna be contested down there in the low red. But we’ve just gotta continue to do a better job of looking at what our players do best.”
Rutgers ranks No. 110 in the country in red zone defense — the Scarlet Knights have allowed opponents to score on 89.66 percent of their trips to the red zone. So, this should be a matchup that Penn State can take advantage of.
PSU DEFENSE’S SUSCEPTIBILITY TO BIG PLAYS
Giving up big plays has killed Penn State’s defense all season long.
Even in their win against Michigan last week, the Nittany Lions managed to get gashed at least a couple times. On the Wolverines second drive of the game, running back Hassan Haskins broke free for a 59-yard run that set up a Michigan touchdown three plays later. Several Penn State players once again badly missed tackles as Haskins juked a few Nittany Lions en route to the Penn State 9-yard line.
Too many times this season, big plays have drastically swung momentum in the direction of the Nittany Lions’ opponents — it’s been a theme of this 2020 campaign.
Against Nebraska in Week 4, the Cornhuskers scored their second touchdown of the game on a 45-yard jet sweep by receiver Zavier Betts. The week before that, in the contest against Maryland, the Terrapins scored three of their four offensive touchdowns on plays of 34 yards or more — including a 62-yard catch-and-run by receiver Rakim Jarrett. In Week 2, Ohio State opened the game against Penn State with a 62-yard jet sweep by receiver Garrett Wilson on the first play of the contest before quarterback Justin Fields connected with receiver Chris Olave for a 49-yard touchdown in the third quarter.
Though the Nittany Lions’ game against the Wolverines last week was far from perfect, they didn’t allow as many back-breaking plays as they did in previous weeks.
“We were just more focused and diligent on the little things, the details,” redshirt sophomore defensive end Jayson Oweh said Wednesday. “And just trying to clean up the little things that were hindering us from winning the past five weeks.”
If Penn State doesn’t allow Rutgers to create big plays offensively, the Nittany Lions may be able to put the Scarlet Knights away fairly easily.
This story was originally published December 3, 2020 at 5:05 PM.
