Sunday Column: Dotson’s Dominance to be Admired, But Where Is The Next Star?

There are players who make plays, and then there are playmakers, the rare and oh-so-sought-after cats who have that instinctive ability to be in the right spot at the right time and the brains and balls to take advantage of it.

True playmakers can take a team from good to great (see Barkley, Saquon) or make a mediocre defense look formidable (see Parsons, Micah). They can breed confidence in their teammates and attract the attention of future playmakers. They’re the reason college coaches spend so much time and effort on recruiting and the reason the NFL keeps piling up the cash despite one public relations nightmare after another.

One of those playmakers won a game Penn State had little business winning on Saturday in sleepy College Park, Maryland.

Jahan Dotson was the best player on the field, which he’s been before, and on this day looked like he wouldn’t be an afterthought if the discussion were about the best player in the Big Ten. He shined so brightly that any of his teammates were going to seem dull by comparison and yet, that light also revealed why the Nittany Lions are pretty much an afterthought in early November after such a promising start.

Penn State’s offense, yet again, struggled to make big plays involving someone other than No. 5. More importantly, it also struggled to make the little plays that, when added up, help lessen the need for the big plays (well, at least until the end of the game — more on that in a bit). Sean Clifford was turnover-free, and made some excellent third-down deliveries. The running game showed signs of a pulse, if not a steady heartbeat. But, besides Dotson, no Nittany Lion had more than 67 yards from scrimmage. He out-gained his teammates 242-216. No one else (on offense) crossed the goal line.

The Nittany Lions’ defense once again proved masterful at bending without breaking, allowing Taulia Tagovailoa to pile up some big numbers for the second straight year but holding the Terrapins to a mere pair of scores and icing the game with an impressive pick-six from Ji’Ayir Brown.

Big Maryland tight end Chigoziem Okonkwo had a solid game, but Tagovailoa was the only real playmaker for the Terps, and he didn’t make enough of them in Penn State territory. This game was closer than it should have been until the final possession, and the reasons why are the same reasons the Nittany Lions entered this game on a three-game losing streak.

Penn State’s defense has been superb, not only given the offense’s inconsistencies but given the way its defensive line — a bit of a question mark even BEFORE Adisa Isaac was lost for the year — has been stripped down to spare parts. On Saturday, Derrick Tangelo exited with an early injury, and Jesse Luketa was in uniform but never on the field. Still, the defense kept coming, and the linemen on the lower levels of the depth chart and coaches John Scott and Brent Pry must be credited for keeping the machine running.

The way the defense has played despite its depleted depth has made the offense’s struggles that much more maddening. The running backs have been banged up but all of them have played enough to have made an impact, and a team with one of the nation’s more impressive recent pedigrees at the position is still waiting for that impact nine games into the season. Penn State’s offensive line hasn’t been ravaged by injuries, even if it often looks like it has. Much has been made of the team’s inability to develop a game-ready No. 2 quarterback, and rightly so, but its inability to develop backup linemen capable of unseating the starters has arguably been more detrimental to this season and raises big questions about next year, even if there is a stud freshman taking the snaps.

On both sides of the ball, there have simply not been enough playmakers. That’s why Dotson’s marvelous play has seemed such a stark contrast to the malaise around him on offense, a series of refreshing gulps of cool water between long stretches of dry desert. That’s why Brown’s game-sealing pick was so huge for a defense that is probably getting sick and tired of bending.

We can talk about offensive strategy and individual toughness and motivation and whether or not a coach truly is in it for the long haul and smoothie bars until the bars close down, but what has kept this Penn State team from developing into the best version of itself has been a lack of playmakers — guys who can go get you five yards — or 50 — when you need five, or get you a sack when it’s 3rd-and-now-or-never. Dotson did about all a single player can do on Saturday, and it still might not have been enough had Brown not made his big play. The surefire All-Big Ten receiver hasn’t gotten enough of that kind of help to this point – that “complementary football” we all yearn for — and he’ll need some more if Penn State is going to finish this lost season on a high note.

So with a handful of games left – two with us huddled on the cold Beaver Stadium bleachers, one in forever overcast East Lansing (seriously, has it ever been nice there?), and another someplace sunnier – take the time to truly appreciate Dotson the Playmaker…because who knows when we’ll see another like him.