Sunday Column: Penn State Offense Plays A Too-Familiar Tune During Final Tuneup for Ducks

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You might have had mixed feelings watching Kaytron Allen run into the end zone on Saturday.

It’s always fun to watch the Fatman in the open field, if you’re a Penn State fan, especially on a well-blocked play, and more fun if that run results in six points. However, you also might have wondered exactly what the hell Allen—and the rest of the offensive starters—were still doing in the game with just under 11 minutes to play in the fourth quarter against an FCS opponent.

The Nittany Lions’ third straight squandered cover win was another head-scratcher. They went right down the field on the game’s opening drive, covering 78 yards in 12 plays with a precision and a confidence that suggested they had purged many of the, uh, inconsistencies that we saw the first two weeks.

And then we saw about three more quarters of those inconsistencies.

As with most things football, it’s hard to point to just one issue. And that is kind of the main issue for Penn State right now, as it stares down a bye and then an Oregon team that is not going to score its first points on the final play of the game when it visits in two weeks. The defense is locked in. Ryan Barker has gotten more non-extra point work than you would hope to see but has been terrific. Devonte Ross has shown some wiggle as a punt returner.

The offense? Not. So. Much.

The Lions have done a bunch of good stuff in both the run and the pass game, but essentially none of it on a consistent basis. A week after it seemed like Drew Allar and Ross were about to take the top off defenses with a long bomb, they misfired on the one downfield strike they tried against the Wildcats. Allar’s touchdown dart through traffic to Trebor Pena was a thing of beauty but also one of the few times he explored and exploited the middle of the field. Nick Singleton had 34 yards on the opening drive and just 50 the rest of the way. Kyron Hudson had two catches on that drive and just one after that. The Lions were 5-of-11 on third down, an improvement from the gag-inducing 3-of-12 the previous week against FIU, but not exactly humming when you consider the opposition. And once again, they settled for field goals on three trips, putting just one first-half touchdown on the board until Allar’s strike to Pena just before halftime.

This was the unit’s last chance at a get-right game before the Ducks fly into town, and it’s hard to feel much better about it after this one than after either of the first two contests. This is not to say that Penn State’s offense can’t or won’t be better, even much better, in two weeks before a fired-up White Out crowd, but you have to really squint to project what they’re going to lean on. Their two senior stud running backs? Singleton is capable of breaking off a big one against any team and Allen continues to find creases you wouldn’t think he could fit his 220-pound frame into, but the chunk plays mostly haven’t been there. The tight ends? Luke Reynolds, who had a team-high 73 yards Saturday, has looked terrific catching and running after the catch, and Andrew Rappleyea and Khalil Dinkins are talented as well, but either Allar or Andy Kotelnicki hasn’t called any of their numbers with much consistency. The new wideouts? Pena has been involved as a runner and has shown good rapport with his QB, but not a ton of separation against defenders who aren’t nearly as talented as those he’ll face in Big Ten play.

Then there’s Allar, who completed his first four passes Saturday and only 12 of his final 25. He seems to be seeing the field well, sliding around the pocket to avoid pressure and getting yards when he needs to with his legs, but hasn’t come close to finding any sort of rhythm. Sometimes his mechanics have broken down, sometimes his ball has simply been too hard to catch. Sometimes Kotelnicki has taken the ball out of his hands altogether on third-and-medium, opting to hand the ball off instead.

The quarterback is a microcosm of the entire offense right now: The tools are there but the results just aren’t. The second you think he (and they) have turned the corner, they stall again, or throw a bonkers interception. And, as well as the defense has played and as many tricks as Jim Knowles has under his cap, the offense is going to have to pull its weight if this team is going to beat, or even stay in the game, with another dynamic Oregon team.

There were two good things about having the starters in the game for as long as they were Saturday: One, the Lions were fortunate to escape without injury, and two, those starters got some fourth-quarter conditioning they probably weren’t expecting. For at least the important games still left on the schedule, they’ll be on the field for the whole game. Will the successful second-half drives and scores erase the gritty taste of another sluggish first half? Whether the answer to that is yes or no, the Lions are going to work like hell during the next two weeks to find the type of offensive mojo they’ll need to keep pace with the Ducks. That they couldn’t find it to this point in the season is more than a little ominous.