Hindsight 2021: PSU Offense vs. Wisconsin

 Don’t Worry, Mike Yurcich, the Sweet Smell of Victory Masks All

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FTB CHARTING – BOX SCORE

 Going on out a limb here, but if Penn State’s second-half offensive production sextuples (giggity) its first-half offensive production every single week from now until the end of the season…well…hmm…actually, they’ll still probably lose to Ohio State by two touchdowns.

But, hey, 11-1! Not bad, huh?

After making a rather off-putting 43-yard first impression in front of the Penn State faithful, new OC Mike Yurcich went in at halftime, figuratively picked parsley out of his front teeth, popped a couple quarters in the ‘Cologne At A Touch’ vending machine, sat back down and charmed us for the next 30 minutes with a smattering of successful deep shots coupled with a 34-yard outside zone bash that instantly made us forget about our ex, Kirk Ciarrocca.

Yeah, it’s early, but things are already getting pretty serious. Can’t help it. Those 254 second-half yards of offense vs. Wisconsin, enough to eek out a 16-10 heart-pounder on the road, has us feeling some type of way. Maybe he’s THE one. Maybe he’s not. Regardless, we’re moving fast…which is kind of what he’s known for.

And guess what? This weekend, we’re introducing Mike to 107,000 of our friends!

Hopefully, they like him.

Formations 

First game, so lots to unpack.

From the moment Penn State hit SEND on that benign January tweet announcing a change on the football staff (remember how weird that was?), much of our spoken-word/written-word Mike Yurcich content touched upon his fondness for two-back sets. At Oklahoma State, Yurcich often inserted what he dubbed ‘Cowboy Backs’ to clobber linebackers and open/widen holes for the tailback. At Texas, Yurcich utilized Tom Herman’s existing tight ends in similar fashion.

So sure as sugar, what did we witness on Penn State’s first play from scrimmage? Why there’s Tight End 86-Brenton Strange saddled up at Cowboy Back!

Time for some Smashmouth Spread baby! Let’s ride!

Or not.

Penn State lined up in this same 3-Wide Shotgun Cowboy look once more in the 4^th Quarter – a throwaway off play-action that you don’t need to see.

On six snaps, Penn State lined up under center in a single-back ACE set. The most exotic of those under-center formations was this unbalanced three-TE goal-to-go package we’re gonna call ‘TRIDENT’ because, you know, three tight ends. Plus, Trident sounds tough.

 Before the snap, 44-Tyler Warren shifts weakside. Strange and 84-Theo Johnson overwhelm, collapse, and wall-off Wisconsin on the edge, leaving 21-Noah Cain 1-on-1 with a 3-star safety. Advantage Cain.

Finally, Penn State featured pre-snap motion on nearly 50 percent of its offensive plays. As we discussed in the preseason, Yurcich’s use of pre-snap movement aids the quarterback by disclosing whether the defense is playing man or zone pass coverage and also eliminates a lot of in-play decision-making on RPOs.

On Saturday, though, Yurcich’s early-game eye candy also baited and hooked Wisconsin’s over-aggressive defenders on a pivotal 4^th-quarter play.

Twice, Clifford fired quick strikes to 3-Parker Washington running orbit motion – passes that gained 8 and 9 yards, respectively.

When Yurcich ordered up this same pre-snap motion in the 4^th quarter, four Wisconsin defenders gravitated toward Washington and the Orbit like ants on a Pixy Stix. Clifford pump fakes at Washington, luring eyes behind the line of scrimmage, before throwing to the unattended 5-Jahan Dotson downfield.

Substitutions

Starting LG 55-Anthony Whigan was benched following Penn State’s third series in favor of Harvard transfer 68-Eric Wilson. Whigan never returned. The other four starting offensive linemen played the entire game – 54 snaps total.

Our preseason 6-Cam Sullivan-Brown hype train derailed seconds after leaving the station, considering the senior receiver only played on four downs and was never targeted. Starters 3-Washington, 5-Dotson and 13-KeAndre Lambert-Smith hogged the majority of snaps.

Same goes for 21-Noah Cain (44 of 54 snaps at RB) although his sub-par pass protection does create a bit of a conundrum for Yurcich. In limited action, 24-Keyvone Lee was atrocious as a runner (doing waaaay too much) but stellar as a pass blocker, seen here:

Run/Pass Blocking

They say a picture is a worth a thousand words.

Assuming that’s true, we’d wager 786 of the 1,000 words conjured up from the screenshot below – and the performance of Penn State’s offensive line, in general – would be bleeped on television.

What a sh*tshow. If this is what eight months of face-to-face, hands-on tutelage with o-line coach Phil Trautwein produces then Penn State’s big eaters need to re-install Zoom on their laptops. immediately. According to PFF, Penn State’s 41.8 Pass Blocking score vs. Wisconsin was the 8^th worst of the James Franklin Era.

If we’re to go full Thumper The Rabbit and say something nice about the Nittany Lions pass protection, they technically did keep Sean Clifford’s white jersey cleaner in the second half (5 allowed pressures on 24 dropbacks) than the first half (7 allowed pressures on 16 dropbacks), although typing that out makes us feel like we’re congratulating a fat kid for ordering a Diet Coke in a Double Quarter-Pounder combo.

Yes, Wisconsin defensive coordinator Jim Leonhard drew up some Beautiful Mind blitz packages, a well-camouflaged array of 4-man (yep, 4…that’s it) twists and stunts that stress-tested the early-season cohesion of a unit featuring 3 players – Mike Miranda, Juice Scruggs, and Anthony Whigan – starting for the first time at their current positions.

Wisconsin OLB 19-Nick Herbig – the lone Top 150 prep prospect on the Badgers D – crosses 53-Rasheed Walker’s face while All-Big Ten ILB 57-Jack Sanborn loops outside. Because Herbig forces Walker to turn his head, Penn State’s best bookend reacts late to the outside rush – which is his responsibility. It almost looks like 55-Whigan tries to cover for Walker on the edge, even though he’s supposed to be blocking Herbig. 21-Cain gets Frogger’d as Sanborn and Herbig rendezvous atop Clifford.

Next drive, same issue. Wisconsin gets home sending 4.

 The aptly-named, COVID-negative ILB 58-Mike Maskalunas – Saturday’s understudy for COVID-positive starter Leo Chenal – hides out of sight behind 317-pound human eclipse/Wisconsin NT 95-Keeanu Benton, enabling the blitzer to slip in Penn State’s backfield untouched as 70-Scruggs just stands there like a Madden 22 glitch.

Wait, it gets worse. Again, Wisconsin rushes 4.

4^th and 4. Weakside OLB 41-Noah Burks fakes the rush then bails into coverage. On the other side, Herbig and Sanborn rerun the exact stunt — inside pick/outside loop — that baffled Walker and Whigan 6 minutes earlier. 79-Caedan Wallace passes Herbig to inside help that isn’t there. 70-Scruggs blatantly holds 99-Isaiah Mullens but doesn’t draw a flag. For some reason, 73-Miranda jogs 4 yards past the line of scrimmage, as if he thought this was supposed to be a screen or something.

The route concept resembles the ‘shielded slants’ Maryland ran successfully vs. Penn State last season. Burks eliminates the first read and the pressure up the middle doesn’t afford Clifford a chance to scan the other side of the field and spot PSAC legend 89-Winston Eubanks running wide open.

Even more disheartening was the fact that Wisconsin didn’t always need cute or crafty or complicated pressure schemes to beat Penn State’s much-hyped tackles, Walker and Wallace.

Here’s Walker losing 1-on-1 vs. Herbig:

Not to be outdone, here’s Wallace getting his hands knocked down and surrendering the edge vs. Herbig:

Because we’re in a good mood and not total jerks, we’ll point out that Wallace pulled off the best block of the afternoon when he bullied 41-Burks off the edge on Noah Cain’s 34-yard run on outside zone bash. Superb downfield pickup by 13-KeAndre Lambert-Smith here, too.

Man, let’s keep these good vibes flowing, shall we? Hang tight. Give us a minute to find more clips of white hats moving those other white hats off the ball in the run game…

…(searching)…

…(searching)…

…damn, that’s all we got?!?!?

Once again, according to the Doogie Howsers at PFF, Penn State’s run blocking vs. Wisconsin ranked 4^th worst of any game in the Franklin Era, which boggles the mind when you think back on the human turnstiles Franklin inherited after Bill O’Brien’s two-year pitstop in Happy Valley.

Quarterback Play

Much like the ridiculously tacky, ruby-studded ‘Clifford The Big Red Dog’ pendent attached to the chain around his neck, Sean Clifford’s Week 1 performance was inexplicably dazzling, dizzying and hard to look at, all at once.

*Chart does not include 3 Throwaways/Batted Balls but does include throws negated by penalty

And while this mostly-miss, seldom-hit outing won’t change the local narrative or national perception of Penn State’s inconsistent third-year starting QB, Clifford’s 18 of 33, 247-yard performance on the road stands as Exhibit A that the Mike Yurcich Effect is real.

Chaotic isn’t a strong enough word to properly describe what Clifford endured in the pocket for the initial 30 minutes of action. Was he inaccurate? Sure. Did he escape disaster on a few interceptionable passes? Uh huh. Mechanically, did it appear on some throws that Clifford was impersonating one of those giant, inflatable, Used Car Lot noodle guys? Well, yeah…but don’t’ forget he also had a tsunami of red jerseys rushing right at him, too.

Like you, we also cussed at the TV right after Clifford overshot 5-Dotson on this deep ball (clipped below). Upon further review, we’re idiots. Hard to be accurate when Wisconsin DE 99-Isaiah Mullens blows right past 70-Scruggs and is basically biting Clifford’s kneecaps Dan Campbell style as the ball leaves the QB’s hand.

And yet, through it all, Clifford kept his composure.

No, seriously.

Yeah, we were shocked, too.

2019 and 2020 Sean Clifford doesn’t take advantage of this busted Cover 2 because he wouldn’t have seen it unfold. As we highlighted in several of our Clifford Film Studies, dropping his eyes and glaring at the pass rush has been an intrinsic bad habit that neither Ricky Rahne or Kick Ciarrocca fixed in Clifford, but Mike Yurcich has…at least so far he has. In the face of oncoming pressure, Clifford hung tough, zeroed in on Dotson, avoided the rush, and threw a dot.

Same thing here. Despite 53-Walker holding on for dear life on the edge, Clifford doesn’t bail and waits for 13-Lambert-Smith to wiggle free downfield.

According to our charting, Clifford tucked the ball and scrambled out of pressure twice vs. Wisconsin. That’s progress.

Pass Catchers

Wish we had a fresh clip or two left to show for this section, but our catalog dwindles quickly when a team holds the ball for less than 18 minutes. Sorry. Hate to disappoint.

Anyway, here’s the receiver chart:

*Does not include 10 uncatchable passes

 Actually, wait! Found something! Before you go…we do have this sweet Parker Washington slant-corner route where he spin-cycles Wisconsin DB 6-Dean Engram.