Penn State offensive coordinator Mike Yurcich continues to show he’s a softy for these century-old classic concepts
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If you had third-string Penn State running back Trey Potts throwing a balloon ball touchdown on your Saturday bingo card this week, well, A) You drew the worst bingo card in the history of bingo and B) You’re one lucky SOB.
In all seriousness, there are few things more satisfying than a perfectly executed gadget play. The fact that Penn State offensive coordinator Mike Yurcich only dialed up 4 variations of them last season (throwback screen, flea flicker, end around, double pass) made this unexpected rabbit-out-of-the-hat even sweeter.
While it’s completely reasonable for fans to assume Yurcich’s thought process when deciding whether or not to dial up a halfback option (RB has the option to run or pass) late in the 3rd Quarter of a nine-point game was, “You know what? Screw it,” this was actually a calculated and set-up play choice.
Let’s dissect the most fun PSU TD of the young season, shall we?
There are a couple of ways to view Penn State’s 30-13 defeat of Illinois:
The truth, as always, lies somewhere in the middle. On the one hand, the contrast between this game and the last time the two teams met, that nine-overtime clusterbleep of a game in 2021, was stark. The talent gap between these teams, quite narrow two years ago, has widened considerably even when you consider the best player on the field was Illini defensive tackle Jer’Zhan Newton. The Nittany Lions totaled 383 yards of offense, which was 153 more than they mustered against this opponent two years ago. They were turnover-free for the third straight week while Illinois, was, um, slightly less protective of the football.
And yet, there were still moments where you wondered exactly how far Penn State has come: The offense’s first three drives, two of which began in plus territory thanks to the ballhawking defense, netted only six points. There was a 2nd and 2 in the third quarter that became a punt. The wunderkind, Drew Allar, who had been borderline surgical through the first two weeks, did not look like the moment was too big for him but neither was he anywhere close to sharp, throwing behind or just out of the reach of several receivers, who didn’t help by dropping some imperfect but wholly catchable balls. His offensive line, which had been competent if not dominant in two games at home, struggled to get much push for its running backs and committed a few costly penalties, casting a longer and darker shadow over the idea that this would be the year the big fellas finally put it all together.
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• Taking a cue from our spirit animal, Thumper The Rabbit: The Nittany Lions offense excelled in putting together an expansive library full of teachable/correctable film today. Is that nice enough? Good job, good effort.
• Penn State Twitter/X needs to chill out. Far be it from us to stand on a digital soapbox and tell you how to live your life, but…IDK, perhaps consider taking a breath and letting the game age more than 8 real-time minutes before your twitchy fingers extrapolate Chicken Little absolute truths from a half-dozen plays? On the opening drive, Penn State’s defense surrendered 46 yards, 3 first downs, and 0 points. That’s it. That’s all. And yet, in response to that decent initial effort, the online venom flowed like Niagara. 5 turnovers, 3 sacks, and 7 TFL later, well, those 12:19 EST tweets/X’s aged worse than a two-term U.S. president.
On the road with trends, streaks, records, and unsettled scores in a game that’s become overrated for being “underrated.”
Sponsor: For The Blogy’s 2023 football coverage is sponsored by FANATICS. Gear up for the Sept. 23 Penn State White Out vs. Iowa with t-shirts, shorts, ball caps, and player jerseys from FTB’s Fanatics store right HERE.
“Penn State better not sleep on Illinois.”
Trust me; they won’t.
Over the course of the offseason, what began as the go-to highbrow talking point on the Nittany Lions’ 2023 slate slowly morphed into the laziest take of the litter: this Week 3 road trip’s status as a classic “trap game.” Setting aside the flaws inherent to the argument at its outset – Illinois saw terrific defensive backs selected in the first three rounds of April’s NFL draft along with offensive lynchpin RB Chase Brown; this is not a program that simply reloads – and the team’s less than intimidating 1-1 start to the season, the sheer volume of “trap game” takes alone was enough to ensure Illinois isn’t sneaking up on anybody. At some point, this game became overrated for being “underrated.”
So let’s dispense with all that clap trap (game). If this team even approaches what we and most pundits believe them to be, they won’t lose to the Illini. But since this column is all about setting the weekly narrative, here are three other storylines I’m tracking as the Nittany Lions prepare to don their (as the kids say) icy road whites for the first time in 2023…
Let It Flow, Let Yourself Go, Slow and Low, That Is The TemPro
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WARNING: The following image depicts graphic grass-stained content and scenes of excess mass, a bunch of Eastern European last names on the back of jerseys, plodding gains, 18 program-required knee braces, and foretells a never-ending cycle of overtime ineptitude that some might find disturbing.
Viewer (reader?) discretion is advised.
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It’s hideous! Oh, the humanity! Avert your gaze, children! (shudders)
41 plays of suffocating dominance sans one 66-yard hiccup for six that we’ll dissect like it’s the freakin’ Zapruder Film.
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OK, open up your laptop and go to peacocktv.com.
No, you don’t have to type out ‘www.’ I mean, you can if you want…you just don’t have to. This isn’t 1999. Know what, it’s not a big deal. Just get to the Peacock homepage. OK, good.
All right, up in the upper right there, click on your account profile. Yeah, the upper right. Right ther…no….yeah, right there. Click the blue bird. You’re the blue bird. See it’s got your name right underneath.
Sponsor: For The Blogy’s 2023 football coverage is brought to you by Happy Valley United – the NIL collective representing every Penn State student-athlete. CLICK HERE to join the team and pledge your support.
Spoiler Alert for those of you stuck at a wedding (or worse) this past Saturday who have yet to watch the replay of the Penn State-Delaware “contest”: The fighting Blue Hens were predictably overmatched EVERYWHERE. Line of Scrimmage. Perimeter. All points in between.
But for the sake of this blog post, let’s focus our attention upfront, where the big eaters roam.
Traditionally, the simplest way to take full advantage of a talent/size discrepancy along the line of scrimmage is through gap-scheme runs. While Mike Yurcich has primarily leaned upon a zone-based run scheme throughout his tenure as an offensive coordinator, starting last year he mixed in more gap-scheme plays so that he’d be able to counter different defensive fronts.