The Good, The Bad & The Ugly: Reviewing Penn State football’s 41-13 win over Northwestern
Sometimes you can just tell when an offensive line is going to have a bad day. Saturday afternoon, it was apparent early that Northwestern was in for a rough go of it. Snap after snap, the Wildcats didn’t stand a chance. Sure, on occasion the Penn State defensive line couldn’t create pressure and Ben Bryant had time to survey his options before taking off for a run or finally making a play in the passing game.
But, more often than not, he was flinging the ball into the stands or ducking for cover as multiple Nittany Lions converged on him. Sometimes it was caused by added blitzers, but there were plenty of occasions where the four-man defensive line did the work on their own and blew up the Northwestern front.
The team’s trio of dominant edge rushers — Chop Robinson, Adisa Isaac and Dani Dennis-Sutton — got after Northwestern’s quarterback from the outside, combining for two sacks and a quarterback hit, along with numerous other times they forced him to chuck the ball away.
Those three are expected to make the difference, but Saturday the interior rush was able to do some added damage. Defensive tackle Zane Durant brought the heat up the middle and earned a sack, a quarterback hit and three tackles for loss for his trouble.
“I’ve been a big fan of Zane’s really since he arrived on campus,” coach James Franklin said. “He’s approached it the right way. It’s not easy to play D-tackle as a true freshman; he was able to do that. I thought he had a chance to take a significant step this year, and I think he’s doing that. He’s a smart guy, he’s a consistent guy, he’s a disciplined guy.”
The sophomore defensive tackle continuing his improvement could end up paying massive dividends for the Nittany Lions in the long run. Dennis-Sutton said that type of pressure can be a difference-maker for a team when it’s chasing quarterbacks.
“It helps a lot,” Dennis-Sutton said. “Because the quarterback can’t step up. So when he can’t step up, he has nowhere to go. So that gives us time on the outside rush to get home to the quarterback.”
Good
Pass rush: What more can you say at this point? There’s a reason I led with this group. Dennis-Sutton, Isaac and Robinson are almost impossible for an offensive line to deal with, and they’re only getting better. The team combined for six sacks and 12 tackles for loss, and a lot of that was those three making sure Northwestern’s quarterback was in a bad spot every single play. He was throwing the ball away, he was running out of the pocket and occasionally going down, just accepting the reality that the pass rush was winning reps.
I don’t want this to get lost in the shuffle of what was an uneven team performance — this might just be the best pass rush in the country right now.
Halftime adjustments: Before we inevitably get into the downside of this performance, there were still positives to take out of this offense. That starts with the changes that wide receiver KeAndre Lambert-Smith said the team made when it went into the halftime locker room. There were more deep shots taken, creating space for the running backs to work underneath and allowing them to break more chunk plays off.
That has been a theme with this team — it tends to get better as the game goes on and once the scoreboard flips from the second quarter to the third. Maybe that’s the symptom of an offense run by a young quarterback, or maybe it’s a sign that changes need to be made sooner.
RB Trey Potts: Running back Kaytron Allen didn’t play a snap after the second quarter, leaving Penn State with Nick Singleton and Trey Potts as their primary options. Unsurprisingly, the Nittany Lions leaned more on Singleton, essentially giving him 80% of the workload rather than his usual half. But in limited snaps and carries, it was Potts who impressed. The former Minnesota Golden Gopher had his biggest role of the season Saturday and was able to turn it into a rushing touchdown, a receiving touchdown and some quality touches. He broke off two chunk runs because he was decisive — making a decision and getting downhill before the defense could react.
That’s not to say he’s a better back than Singleton or Allen, but I think there could be a role for him in this offense when the Nittany Lions need a change of pace moving forward.
Starting wide receivers: There will be consternation about the receiver room, but I don’t know how much of it will be warranted. Lambert-Smith and Dante Cephas consistently got open against Northwestern’s defense and that’s an enormous part of playing the position. Now, so is catching the ball — and Cephas had a drop in the end zone, but that also wasn’t the easiest throw to haul in. It’s not much of a surprise at this point that Lambert-Smith is playing at a high level, but Cephas’ continued rise could be crucial for a team that so clearly misses Harrison Wallace III on the outside. Wallace III hasn’t played significant snaps since Penn State’s second game and has been listed as questionable ever since.
The Nittany Lions will need someone to continue ascending until he’s at full strength. And, right now, Cephas is doing everything he can to fill that need and increase his own role when the receiver room gets back to full strength.
Bad
Unnecessary penalties: This won’t be an extensive section, but Penn State has to stop committing dumb penalties. Several players have been guilty of unsportsmanlike conduct or other easily preventable plays, and this week was Cam Miller’s turn to make that mistake. He nearly intercepted a pass and had the ball bounce to him near the Northwestern sideline. Then he decided to toss the ball to someone that way and it immediately drew the flag. Is tossing the ball that big of a deal? Probably not. Is it going to draw a penalty every time, making it a dumb decision? Absolutely.
Point blank, this team needs to be more disciplined in those situations.
Explosive plays: Franklin keeps mentioning the desire to be more explosive on offense and, right now, it’s just not happening. The Nittany Lions aren’t scheming up big plays in the passing game all that frequently, and they aren’t getting the type of game-breaking runs they’re accustomed to from Singleton and Allen. Some of that goes hand in hand, with fewer deep shots leading to less room to run. But some of it goes to those players not playing at the same level they did last year.
I don’t believe that will be the case for the entire season, but it’s alarming to see a running game that was so good at breaking off the big one struggle in the way that it is right now.
Ugly
First half offense: I don’t even know that I can pinpoint specifically what’s going on here. For some reason Penn State isn’t adjusting until halftime, and it’s resulting in some slow starts on offense that will come back to bite the team when it plays Ohio State and Michigan. It could be as simple as what I said above — a lack of deep shots is allowing teams to play closer to the line of scrimmage — or it could be much more than that. This offense does not look like ones that offensive coordinator Mike Yurcich ran before he arrived in Happy Valley. He has blended his style with what Penn State wants to do under Franklin, leading to its current state.
Part of me believes that if Yurcich reverts to more of the passing concepts and willingness to air the ball out that he used to rely on, then the unit as a whole will improve. But that’s difficult to say without knowing the full process behind the shift away from a pass-heavy attack.
This story was originally published October 1, 2023 at 9:00 AM.
