The Good, The Bad & The Ugly: Reviewing Penn State football’s 21-17 loss to Michigan
Penn State football was unable to come up big when it mattered most Saturday and dropped its fourth game of the season, with all four losses coming by single digits. This game, a 21-17 defeat at the hands of Michigan, was the third of the four games to be decided by a possession or less.
Games that close create an even smaller margin for error and the Nittany Lions have been unable to come up big in big moments and have generally fallen on the wrong side of the margin for error.
“You talk about the losses by a few points, we have played hard but we haven’t made enough big plays,” Penn State head coach James Franklin said. “You take Jahan Dotson out and we’re not making enough big plays. ... That’s something we’re gonna have to look at hard.”
Those errors reared their head in several facets of the game for Penn State, from play-calling to execution, the team couldn’t seem to get everything right at once.
Even the players on the field can feel that margin shrink, adding to the weight of the moment.
“You can’t make too many mistakes (against good teams), or anything like that,” senior safety Jaquan Brisker said.
Now that the loss is over and the mistakes have already been made, the team will try to move on to recover and get to 8-4 on the season by winning its last two games of the season, at home against Rutgers and on the road against Michigan State.
To do that, the team will have to correct the issues and rectify the wrongs that took place on the Beaver Stadium field Saturday, and in turn it’ll have to keep the positivity up and not let the weight of four losses affect the final two games.
“We try not to get frustrated after games,” sophomore linebacker Curtis Jacobs said. “We look at it on film, because film never lies. We look at it on film every Sunday and we move on to see how we can execute the next week. It’s about preparation, it’s about executing when you’re prepared.”
Good
Keyvone Lee: For seemingly the first time all year Penn State got its run game going, and it was almost entirely because a running back finally established himself as the best on the roster. It’s hard to argue that anyone other than sophomore running back Keyvone Lee deserves the majority of the carries moving forward, given the way he played against a very good defense Saturday afternoon.
Lee struggled early in the season with losing yards while trying to do too much and fumbled too often to earn consistent playing time. However, those haven’t been serious issues since the first month of the season, and the positives far outweigh the negatives at this point. He’s a powerful back who tends to break through arm tackles and fight through extra yards, but that’s not the most important dimension of his game. That would be the patience and vision he put on display Saturday.
The sophomore running back took his time to find the right hole, but also didn’t hesitate once he saw it. He hit the openings with power and intent, driving through defenders and earning extra yards when they tried to bring him down. The offense struggled mightily Saturday, but Lee did not and should be the lead back moving forward.
Arnold Ebiketie: Penn State’s defensive line wasn’t at its best Saturday night for the most part, but that wasn’t the case for its best player. Redshirt senior defensive end Arnold Ebiketie continued to prove his worth in his only year with the Nittany Lions. Ebiketie had two sacks in the game, bringing him to 8.5 sacks on the season. One of the sacks was a strip-sack that gave the Nittany Lions the ball in the red zone. Of course, the offense didn’t capitalize and had to settle for a field goal, but Ebiketie deserves plenty of credit for putting the unit in that excellent position in the first place.
The redshirt senior dominated off the edge, displaying what should make him a high-end prospect in the 2022 NFL Draft. He has excellent bend, getting low while maintaining his speed and balance, making it difficult for offensive linemen to block him when he tries to speed rush. He also has the ability to plow through offensive tackles, pushing them back into their quarterbacks, which is exactly what happened to Michigan quarterback Cade McNamara multiple times. Plenty of positives will get lost in the loss, but Ebiketie deserves all of the shine he can get for how he played.
Penn State defense: Let’s get one thing out of the way. The 47-yard touchdown from McNamara to Erick All was not a blown coverage. Cornerbacks Kalen King and Daequan Hardy collided, freeing All up, but it wasn’t the fault of either corner. Hardy was forced to get deeper than he wanted to because the umpire was in the middle of the play, as he was numerous times Saturday, forcing Hardy into King’s path. If Hardy stayed the course, he runs into the umpire. If he gets shallow, McNamara can still hit All in stride for the big gain.
With that out of the way, the Nittany Lion defense played as well as one could reasonably expect. The run defense was good, considering it was facing an excellent rushing offense that went so big with its personnel on occasion that Penn State couldn’t much, much like Illinois did last month. The pass defense prevented McNamara from getting in a rhythm, and Ebiketie led the charge in getting pressure on him.
Penn State has lost four games this season and not one of them has been the defense’s fault, including Saturday.
Bad
Pass blocking: It’s hard to blame the pass blocking entirely given just how good the Michigan pass rush is, but it doesn’t excuse that the offensive line didn’t get the job done. Neither Caedan Wallace or Rasheed Walker played at a high enough level on the exterior and that’s where Michigan features two of the best pass rushers in the country. Aidan Hutchinson and David Ojabo were nothing short of dominant for the Wolverines, combining for five sacks in the game.
The duo was a problem for Penn State on the outside of the offensive line, but the issues didn’t stop there for Penn State. Starting left guard Eric Wilson was beat far too often by Michigan’s interior pass rushers. On numerous occasions he found himself with his weight too far forward, which made things easier for defenders. They could get their hands on him and pull him further forward before ripping past him to get pressure on redshirt senior starting quarterback Sean Clifford. This matchup was never going to be easy for Penn State, but that doesn’t make it any better given how bad the line blocked.
Pass catchers: All of them, except for senior wide receiver Jahan Dotson and sophomore Parker Washington. Dotson played reasonably well, even if he didn’t break the game open. Penn State is just asking him to do everything, all the time and that’s a nearly impossible task. Washington wasn’t perfect, and didn’t get open enough, but he at least caught a 44-yard pass to bring his total yards to 92. Everyone else, however, struggled.
Let’s start at wide receiver where KeAndre Lambert-Smith had major drop issues in the game and didn’t play late, presumably because he couldn’t haul in open passes. His replacement, redshirt senior Cam Sullivan-Brown, was the target of two key passes late, one of which was a drop on a pass that he probably should have caught on Penn State’s last offensive drive.
Then there were the running backs, who were nothing short of brutal in the passing game. Lee and John Lovett combined for two catches for seven yards, which does not include the numerous drops the two had. And it’s not as if those passes were hard to haul in, they were relatively easy swing passes that could have generated big gains but instead resulted in a lost down. Everyone in the passing game needs to be better for Penn State, but especially the players that are supposed to be hauling in passes.
Ugly
Fourth-down play calls: Penn State had two situations where going for it on fourth down was the right call but the play calls were head scratchers, to say the least. The first was a fourth-and-goal from the two. A touchdown would have made the score 10-0 and given the Nittany Lions a massive edge. Instead of taking the field and spreading out the defense to try and run up the middle, or running a run-pass option that would give Clifford or ramming the ball up the middle with Lee, Penn State put the ball in Jordan Stout’s hands. That’s not a knock on Stout. He showed he could complete a pass earlier on a fake punt that went for 18 yards, but pitching him the ball in the open field even if it’s with the intent of him throwing the ball, is a bad idea. Unsurprisingly he was swarmed by Michigan and stopped.
The second was the team’s final offensive play of the game. Once again in need of two yards, Penn State went for it on fourth down, this time in its own territory. Again the decision to go was an easy one, but the play call left plenty to be desired. Clifford took the snap and immediately turned to his left, throwing the ball down the left sideline to Sullivan-Brown. The pass sailed and the senior receiver never had a chance to catch the pass. Regardless of the throw, relying on a jump ball when you only need two yards is an odd decision. Add in the fact that Sullivan-Brown has seen limited action in his career and it only raises those concerns even further.
