Sunday Column: Explosives Remain Elusive For Penn State Offense. Will The Big Plays Ever Come?

As Penn State piled up points and yards against outmatched opposition during a 4-0 start, pundits and grumpy fans who needed to pick nits pointed to the lack of explosive plays from the offense, which didn’t get the Nittany Lions in much trouble against the soft early part of the schedule but did not seem to bode well for the tougher sledding ahead. At the time, especially given those insane victory margins, they seemed just that: nits to pick.

The Lions’ slow-start win at Northwestern, however, revealed the dirty little secret they’d done a pretty good job of keeping through the first month of the season:

This team is going to struggle to generate explosive offensive plays because it doesn’t have explosive playmakers.

KeAndre Lambert-Smith, who has been far and away Penn State’s most productive and reliable wide receiver, has improved his route-running, displayed steady hands, and has developed a good rapport with his young quarterback. But a game breaker he is not, at least not on the level of the Penn State wideouts who have come before him in recent years nor the kind the Lions’ defense will face when they visit Columbus in a few weeks. (A fresh example: The end-around from the Wildcats’ 15-yard line in the second quarter. Even with so-so blocking, K.J. Hamler scores on that play. Jahan Dotson probably picks up at least 10 yards. Lambert-Smith got 2 yards, though he did pick up a first down.)

Tre Wallace and Malick Meiga have been banged up, leaving the group that couldn’t definitively fill the No. 3 receiver spot this preseason having to occupy the No. 3 AND No. 2 spots. Dante Cephas isn’t on the same page as Drew Allar, or maybe anyone on the offense. Liam Clifford and Kaden Saunders pop up here and there but neither has shown much consistency or playmaking from the slot (and are not the guys you’re expecting 25-yard gains from, either). Omari Evans has one catch for.4 yards in four games.

The Lions, as a savvy columnist urged them to, have utilized their tight ends to the tune of 27 catches and five of the team’s 12 receiving touchdowns, and they’re gradually using the running backs more as receivers as well, but the preseason concerns that this group was one or maybe even several wideouts away from being a great offense seem pretty prescient right now.

Allar, who had another road game to forget (18-of-33, 189 yards) is both contributing to and suffering from the receivers’ struggles. They’re not getting much separation, which means he’s had to be not just accurate but precise, and they haven’t always been where he’s expected them to be, which has made some of his bad or possibly even perfect throws look much worse than they actually were. At the same time, he is still learning how to calibrate the .50 caliber attached to his right shoulder—when to throw with touch, when to rifle it in—and has been too high or too hot for several targets. The shot pass to Cephas midway through the fourth quarter was a perfect example: Cephas had a step, Allar threw it a yard too far, and the receiver dropped it anyway.

The Nittany Lions have mitigated the wet powder in the passing game with large doses of the run, but there, too, the big plays have been few and too far between. Part of that can be attributed to the shrinking depth along the offensive line (JB Nelson, who replaced an injured Landon Tengwall, left Saturday’s game early with an injury of his own, though Franklin said he was fine after the game) and the fact that the Nittany Lions’ leader in carries coming into the game, Kaytron Allen, is more of a get-you-5-yards-when-you’ve-blocked-for-3 kinda guy than a take it to the house kinda guy. And the house guy, Nick Singleton, has, like Allen, been flummoxed by stacked fronts from defenses who can take those risks because they’re not getting beaten over the top by the passing attack. The run game has been mostly fine but is not strong enough at present to consistently pick up all the slack if the passing game isn’t in order.

Again, though, here is where the Nittany Lions deserve some credit. The defense has provided them with sparkling game scripts and short fields. Alex Felkins has been money on field goals. Mike Yurcich has pressed just enough of the right buttons to keep the chains (mostly) moving and to get his team in the end zone. The fourth-down sneaks (the Lion Lunges? Nittany Nudges?) are helping, too. At the end of the day, whether the offense is passing the eye test or not, whether it’s doing it with big plays or grind-it-out drives, the numbers on the scoreboard continue to tilt heavily in Penn State’s favor, albeit against unspectacular opponents.

There is reason to believe, as Allar gains more seasoning and more experience with these receivers, as Yurcich continues to search for the right look at the right spot against the right coverage, that more big plays will come. It is more likely, though, that the Lions will have to manufacture those plays, rather than throwing a simple 8-yard hitch that a receiver turns into a 50-yard touchdown. For now, they are continuing to find a way.

That way just isn’t, and probably won’t be, as dynamic as they might like, or maybe even need one of these days.