Here are the 3 questions that will decide Penn State football’s matchup against the Indiana Hoosiers
Penn State football will take on the Indiana Hoosiers Saturday night at Beaver Stadium in a rematch of last year’s season-opening loss for the Nittany Lions. The two programs have started off in very different directions, with Indiana going 2-2 in its first two games and Penn State starting the season undefeated at 4-0.
The Hoosiers will need to stay on track after earning a victory over Western Kentucky last week if they want to stay on course to earn a bowl bid this season. A win over Penn State would bolster those chances and meaningfully raise the ceiling for the team.
Penn State earning a victory would be crucial for its College Football Playoff hopes, with a looming road matchup with another top 10 team in the Iowa Hawkeyes next week.
Let’s take a look at the three questions that will decide the outcome of this week’s game between the Nittany Lions and the Hoosiers.
Which Michael Penix Jr. will show up?
Indiana has used one quarterback as its starter this season but the multiple versions of that quarterback have decided whether or not they can win each week’s game. Michael Penix Jr. has been off and on in the team’s first three games, with his two worst performances coming in the Hoosiers’ losses to Cincinnati and Iowa and his best two coming against Idaho and Western Kentucky — both wins.
The iteration that showed up in Indiana’s two losses looked hesitant. He didn’t make quick decisions against the Hawkeyes or Bearcats and put his team in poor positions offensively by hanging onto the ball for too long and making inaccurate throws.
That can’t be the case if Indiana wants to defeat Penn State this weekend. Penix needs to look like the quarterback that threw with confidence against Western Kentucky last week. He drove his throws and wasn’t afraid to push off his right leg — the leg in which he tore his ACL last season — while looking confident and composed as a passer against the Hilltoppers. That version of Penix is much closer to the one that helped Indiana knock off the Nittany Lions last season and it will have to be the version that shows up Saturday if the Hoosiers want any chance to pull off the upset.
Will Indiana have an answer for Penn State’s wide receivers?
Penn State’s wide receivers — unsurprisingly — dominated last week against Villanova in what was a continuation of a the group’s sustained development at the beginning of the season. Specifically, the top three wideouts have taken flight through the team’s first three games and have established themselves as one of the top groups in the Big Ten.
Jahan Dotson leads the pack, but Parker Washington and KeAndre Lambert-Smith are continuing to prove how good they can be in offensive coordinator Mike Yurcich’s offense.
The trio accounts for 61 of the team’s 91 receptions, 862 of its 1,231 receiving yards and seven of its nine receiving touchdowns. The three receivers all have the ability to create separation as route runners and to make defenders miss in the open field. Their interchangeability makes it increasingly difficult to match up with any of them and even more difficult to cover all of them on a given plays.
Indiana will have to try to prevent Dotson, Lambert-Smith and Washington from breaking the game open if it wants to pull off the upset. That’s a tall task and one it’s safe to assume the Hoosiers will come up short on. Instead, they should look to slow down Dotson and Washington — or Dotson and Lambert-Smith — and force a third receiver to carry the load for the receivers in the game.
Can the offensive line get some push in the trenches?
Penn State head coach James Franklin mentioned the need for the offensive line to play with an edge moving forward, and this will be the group’s first chance to prove it can do it.
The line has struggled to frequently get a push up front to allow the Nittany Lion running backs to hit the hole and break off big runs. That may not need to change given the team’s proficiency as a passing offense and with its screen game, but it would be a welcome addition if it had any success on the ground the week before a matchup with Iowa, one of the most physical teams in the country.
That starts with moving the Hoosiers off the ball in running situations and showing the physicality and strength it will take to succeed against a team like the Hawkeyes next week.
Not being able to get that push won’t doom the Nittany Lions, but it will make things more difficult for the passing game as the season moves forward. The offensive line doing what it has been unable to do would go a long way in securing a victory against the Hoosiers this week and setting the tone moving forward.
