Hindsight 2021: PSU Offense vs. Iowa
Enter Understudy, Exit Undefeated Season as Penn State Fans Overload WebMD’s Servers in the Wake of Losing a 23-20 Heartbreaker to the Hawkeyes
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Late in the 4th Quarter, well aware they couldn’t come close to running out the clock, Iowa’s coaches chose to take consecutive knees on 2nd and 3rd down.
I’m gonna type that sentence again for emphasis: Late in the 4th Quarter, well aware they couldn’t come close to running out the clock, Iowa’s coaches chose to take consecutive knees on 2nd and 3rd down.
Pause a second and just let that sink in.
…
…
…
Up a field goal – not 4 points, 5, points, 6 points, or 7 points, or 11 points – and with a makeable 10 yards standing between them and certain victory, Iowa stiff-armed the plausible approach faster than a broke dude shooing away the dessert menu on a crappy first date and instead WILLINGLY surrendered possession back to Penn State with more than 40 SECONDS remaining.
Do you understand how ludicrous that is?!?!?!?!
Like, they didn’t even TRY to get a first down! IOWA! Thick-ankled, swole-shouldered, punch-you-in-the-face, boo-you-on-the-ground Neckroll U freaking deferred when presented a low-risk opportunity to ice the game.
And you know what, considering Penn State’s offense couldn’t quit stepping on rakes once Sean Clifford swapped his pads for a padded wrap, Iowa’s passive plan of action (or non-action) was 100 percent the right decision.
Formations
Gotta hand it to Penn State OC Mike Yurcich…when it comes to fixing the Nittany Lions’ stuck-in-the-mud run game, at least he’s trying. After pushing the accelerator all the way to the floorboard and going nowhere for five weeks with beefed-up, fight-you-in-a-phone-booth, tight end-heavy formations, Yurcich tested a different tactic on Saturday – Wide Splits, Spread the Field, Spurless Cowboy Back in the Backfield, Lighter Boxes.
Didn’t work.
Combined, “the deepest group of running backs in college football” carried the ball 19 times for 46 yards, the longest gallop traveling 18 feet (for our mathematically-challenged readers, that’s 6 yards.)
But, hey, Yurcich tried. E for Effort.
Now that we’re officially halfway through the 2021 regular season, there’s not much we haven’t already seen – from a formation standpoint, that is – from Yurcich’s X’s and O’s-filled cerebrum, but there was one really clever two-play tempo sequence that ate up 30 yards on Penn State’s initial scoring drive worth highlighting.
Shotgun Empty, Quads (4 eligible pass catchers) stuffed toward the boundary with Dotson isolated to the field. Again, Penn State has used this formation in the previous five weeks, but not often. Even though there are five receivers at the start of this play, only two are truly part of the route concept – 21-Noah Cain and 3-Parker Washington.
Understanding that Iowa DC Phil Parker runs a zone-happy system, Yurcich wisely dialed up route concepts that provided Clifford throwing targets at various “levels” – in this example, he’s got Cain running a drag at two yards underneath and Washington running an intermediate dig route at 12-13 yards. The depth of these two routes puts Iowa LB 44-Seth Benson in a precarious, No-Win situation – what football nerds call “Conflict.” Does he drop back and eclipse Washington, leaving Cain wide open underneath? Or, does he do what he did here: creep up on the easy throw to Cain but leave Washington uncovered over the middle? If the quarterback has time and is competent, Benson is screwed no matter what he chooses.
First down. Now, tempo.
Same formation, but since the ball is on the right hash, the “boundary side” now hugs the Iowa bench. That’s why the players are flipped, if you will, from Play 1 to Play 2. Well-designed delayed screen to 86-Brenton Strange, as the sophomore tight end Wreck-It-Ralphs (verb) through Iowa defenders for 15 yards, 7 of which came after initial contact.
Here’s another great example of Yurcich working different levels to attack Iowa’s zone.
A+ protection. Iowa’s socially distanced pass rush affords Clifford the necessary time to sit back and watch this deep-intermediate-underneath 3-pronged levels concept fully develop. Because Iowa CB 33-Riley Moss runs deep with Dotson and because 5-Jestin Jacobs can’t recover the depth he lost after honoring the play fake, Clifford drops in an easy downfield target to 13-KeAndre Lambert-Smith, setting up 1st and Goal. Had Jacobs raced back and taken away that vacancy in the zone, Clifford could have dumped the ball to 24-Keyvone Lee underneath for 10-12 yards.
Finally, Yurcich recycled that Right Tackle Flexed Wide/Left Tackle Left Eligible exotic formation that burned Auburn three weeks ago. No luck running it vs. Iowa, though, as the Hawkeyes were more than ready for the trickery. Look at 44-Benson pointing right at 84-Theo Johnson before the snap.
Substitutions
Not sure if you heard, but the starting quarterback got hurt.
Clifford’s unplanned second-quarter departure marked the third instance in as many seasons that he’s missed at least a half of action – 2019 and 2021 because of injury, 2020 because of 2020.
10-John Lovett fair caught the kickoff following Iowa’s first FG and never returned. James Franklin indicated post-game that the Baylor transfer suffered an injury somewhere during the course of Saturday’s game, but we can’t pinpoint where, exactly. With Lovett out, 28-Devyn Ford saw some 1st quarter snaps and even carried the ball for a single yard, which sadly is noteworthy when (like we stated above) you only rush for 46 as a unit.
After receiving 5 targets apiece in Weeks 4 and 5, 13-KeAndre Lambert-Smith out-targeted 3-Parker Washington for the first time this season, 6-3. Senior WR 6-Cam Sullivan-Brown played the most snaps of any game in his injured-riddled career on Saturday. According to PFF, freshman WR 19-Jaden Dottin lined up for a snap that I must have missed.
Only shuffling along the offensive line occurred mid-way through the 2nd Quarter, on 2-Ta’Quan Roberson’s first drive of a long afternoon, when 72-Bryce Effner replaced Harvard transfer 68-Eric Wilson at Left Guard.
Run/Pass Blocking
Even though I’m morbidly obese and my BMI fits the job description, I never played offensive line at any level of competitive football so I won’t pretend to know every nuance and technical detail of playing right tackle. But I’ve wasted enough sunny days watching O-Line Coaching Clinics on YouTube to say with a decent level of certainty that spinning 360 degrees while pass protecting isn’t ideal.
Sadly, this wasn’t the only instance where 79-Caedan Wallace wound up on his backside – see the 12-yard pass to Washington earlier. Honestly, watching the clip again, it’s a minor miracle Clifford didn’t roll or break his planted left ankle as Wallace awkwardly tumbled backward. It’s also a minor miracle that all the king’s horses and all the king’s men weren’t summoned to the scene.
To be fair, Wallace graded out as Penn State’s best pass protector (somehow) on Saturday according to the fine folks at PFF. For the most part, both Nittany Lions’ quarterbacks had adequate time in the pocket even when Iowa went off script and started bringing five and six pass rushers more regularly.
| PSU Pass Pro 2021 | Clean Pocket | Disturbed Pocket | % Clean Pocket |
| Wisconsin | 28 | 12 | 70% |
| Ball State | 27 | 10 | 73% |
| Auburn | 30 | 6 | 83.3% |
| Villanova | 30 | 8 | 78.9% |
| Indiana | 41 | 12 | 77.4% |
| Iowa | 46 | 12 | 79.3% |
Despite posting putrid rushing numbers – 3.2 yards per carry – the offensive line managed to open holes the Lions’ RBs simply could not find. Additionally, after struggling in short-yardage situations seemingly all season, Penn State’s big eaters rectified that problem by flexing their collective muscle in both goal-to-go scenarios vs. Iowa.
Fix your eyeballs on 53-Rasheed Walker:
The zip-line cam replay shows that the underperforming preseason All-American candidate stays Velcro’d on Iowa’s top DL 97-Zach VanValkenburg and nudges him back into gap-filling LB/DB Hybrid 4-Dane Belton. If you slow down the footage, Walker actually blocks both defenders at once for a few frames as Cain fights across the white stripe for 6.
More top-notch goal-to-go run blocking:
68-Wilson turns and seals Iowa DT 85-Logan Lee, walling off the left side of this straight-ahead QB draw. 70-Scruggs emasculates the other Hawkeyes DT, burying him in the plastic grass below and allowing Clifford to cross the LOS untouched. At the second level, 73-Mike Miranda and 24-Lee bother the Iowa linebackers juuuust enough for Clifford – easily (and sadly) the most elusive runner on the roster — to slither across the goalline.
Quarterback Play
For those reading this piece at your cubicle, do yourself a favor: click off now and pull up the remainder of this blog at home. Why? Because we don’t want you to get canned. Uptight, no fun, pearl-clutching, adult hallway monitor HR specialists would deem the second QB chart below NSFW. So don’t risk it.
| Clifford vs. Iowa | Accurate | Inaccurate | Wild/Off-Target |
| Easy Throw | 7 | 0 | 1 |
| Moderate Throw | 6 | 3 | 2 |
| Difficult Throw | 0 | 2 | 1 |
*Does not include 4 Throwaways/Batted Balls, but does include throws negated by penalty.
| Roberson vs. Iowa | Accurate | Inaccurate | Wild/Off-Target |
| Easy Throw | 5 | 4 | 1 |
| Moderate Throw | 1 | 4 | 2 |
| Difficult Throw | 0 | 0 | 1 |
* Does not include 3 Throwaways/Batted Balls.
Statistics won’t back up our argument, but THIS – not the Auburn game – was Clifford’s best showing of the season. Against the Tigers, Clifford took what was given. On Saturday, Clifford took what he wanted. Penn State’s NIL darling was in complete control of Yurcich’s aggressive throw-first, attack-the-soft-spots scheme and was trending toward pinning 40 points upon a supposed elite defense before…well, you know.
Our criticism of Clifford’s performance vs. Iowa is incredibly brief, so let’s knock it out quick so we can litter this post with a bunch of plus-plays and join the throng of believers on Penn State Twitter ready to canonize the Cincinnati Kid.
A couple weeks ago in our post-game Hindsight breakdown vs. Villanova, we questioned some of Clifford’s reads/decisions on RPO concepts…and on Saturday, we did it again – specifically on this Orbit Motion RPO brimming with gobs of chunk-play potential.
Yurcich used this exact same RPO concept a lot last year at Texas. Loyal readers might recall that we allotted 6-7 paragraphs in our preseason scout on Yurcich’s 2020 Texas Offense to this precise play. For those of you who think reading one 2,000+ word article is enough for one day and don’t want to click the link, here’s the gist: if the WILL (44-Benson, in this case) cheats out of the box to get a head start chasing the receiver running Orbit, hand the ball off. But if he stays put – which he does here – flip the ball to Dotson, by far your best playmaker.
Pause the clip with 10:42 on the game clock…
…look how much space Dotson has to work with. Assuming, 6-CSB blocks 33-Riley Moss, the next closest Iowa defender is 18 yards away from Dotson. Instead, Clifford sends Ford into an outnumbered box – 7 defenders vs. 6 blockers. Wrong choice.
Oh, and I guess this decision wasn’t great, either.
Woof.
After that first-play brainfart, however, Clifford more than met the moment. Prior to the presumed hit that sidelined him for the remainder of the contest, Clifford was 5 for 5 converting 3rd downs, which included this pair of challenging chain movers.
3-Washington motions into a Trips Bunch look up top. Clifford buys an extra second in the pocket, just long enough for Washington to find a window between defenders. 79-Wallace – PFF’s highest-graded pass protector, remember – once again winds up on his ass as Iowa DE 13-Joe Evans wraps his arm around Clifford’s waist mid-throw. Doesn’t matter. Clifford delivers a dart to Washington inches beyond the line to gain. First down.
Clifford spits on his first read — the decently covered stick routes over the middle – and progresses to finding Cain way out in the flat…like WAY way out in the flat. This 30-yard rope – from the far hash to beyond the outside numbers — is delivered with such velocity that the Iowa DB can’t close the gap between Cain and the line to gain. Had a weaker-arm QB thrown this ball, it’s probably 4th and short.
Finally, like he’s displayed all season, Clifford flashed poise inside the pocket and Zen-like demeanor when that safe space crumbled into ruin.
Dang, he was good Saturday.
Ta’Quan Roberson…ehhh, not so much.
This week, a few Penn State pundits spouted that Roberson was placed in an “impossible situation” when he took over for Clifford midway through the 2nd Quarter. To me, that’s a tad hyperbolic. Tough? Sure. On the road, hostile environment, overachieving defenders coached by a top-shelf coordinator…yeah, that’s tough. But it’s not impossible. Not when you’re up 17-10. Now, had Penn State been down 5 touchdowns when Yurcich slapped Roberson on the rump and said, “Good Luck, kid,” before he trotted on the field, then yeah that’s an impossible situation. The depressing thing is I’m not even sure Roberson needed to generate more points than the 3 he posted in order to escape with a win. Felt like a few first downs would have went a long way considering Iowa’s final two scoring drives began at midfield and in Penn State territory, respectively.
Really, the only sequence Roberson appeared comfortable and in-rhythm occurred during a six-play up-tempo stretch – Penn State’s longest chain of Meep-Meep pace this season – in the 3rd Quarter that included this off-target, climb-the-ladder 12-yard hitch to 6-CSB, Roberson’s deepest completion this game.
Roberson struggled with accuracy (obviously) but also had trouble making correct reads and possessing the patience to let play concepts fully materialize.
For instance:
4th and 3. Ball in Iowa territory. Penn State’s last best shot to salvage what felt certain 2 hours earlier – victory.
Let’s thoroughly dissect this play.
OK, first thing to know: the 24-Keyvone Lee portion of this route concept is a diabolical, ingenious Man Coverage Beater (especially vs. a blitz) assuming your slot receiver – in this case, 3-Parker Washington — can slyly cheat without drawing a flag for OPI. Therefore, if Iowa shows Man Coverage, the quarterback’s first read is the swing pass to Lee out of the backfield. 100 percent. No-Brainer. Pre-Snap Read.
While pretending to run a route, Washington would ‘pick’ Iowa LB 31-Jack Campbell – the man assigned to cover Lee. Iowa CB 8-Matt Hankins wouldn’t be on your television screen because he’d be busy chasing 5-Jahan Dotson deep downfield. Lee catches the ball, turns up, and outruns 31-Campbell for an easy first down. That’s the play design. Even factoring in Roberson’s terrible throw and Lee’s remarkable catch, there’s still a decent shot Penn State moves the chains here…if this was run against Man Coverage
Here’s the problem, though…Iowa’s not in Man Coverage.
And here’s the bigger problem…Roberson should know they’re NOT in Man Coverage before the ball reaches his hands.
Watch Washington pre-snap. He’s in motion. Now, look at Iowa’s defenders. See anyone following Washington across the formation? No, right? That lack of movement from the Iowa defense tells us on the couch – and Roberson on the field – that the Hawkeyes are playing Zone Coverage. Really, as best as I can tell, the only purpose of Washington flipping sides of the field before the snap is to reveal the opponents’ coverage…because other than purposely getting in the way, he’s not really part of the route concept.
Versus Zone, Roberson’s eyes should have darted to the mesh concept developing in the middle of the field. Unfortunately, they didn’t. Thanks to Iowa’s 6-man pressure/2-high safeties, Roberson has his pick of WIDE OPEN receivers running mesh…
…if he saw them.
Pass Catchers
Drops Drops Drops Drops Drops Drops Drops Drops Drops Drops Drops Drops Drops Drops Drops Drops, EVERYBODY!
| Week 6: Iowa | Routine | Tough/Contested | Incredible |
| 5-Dotson | 7/7 | 1/2 | 1/2 |
| 3-Washington | 2/2 | 1/1 | |
| 13-KLS | 4/4 | 1/2 | 0/1 |
| 86-Strange | ½ | 0/1 | 0/2 |
| 84-Johnson | 0/1 | ||
| 21-Cain | 1/1 | ||
| 6-CSB | 1/1 | 1/2 | |
| 24-Lee | 1/1 | ||
| 28-Ford | 1/1 |
*Does not include 15 uncatchable passes, but does include catches erased by penalty
Not excusing Roberson’s lackluster performance, but his receivers could have helped him out a little and boosted his confidence by hauling in some fairly catchable passes. Furthermore, I wasn’t a huge fan of Dotson’s lack of “want” on the deep ball interception we showed 2,000 words ago. But it’s hard to stay mad for long at a guy who can pogo stick like this:
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