Sunday Column: Three Yards and a Cloud of Disgust
Somewhere, Joe Paterno and Bo Schembechler were watching and smiling (somewhere in the more earthly realm, Jim Harbaugh was watching, too, but probably not smiling). The BIG NOON matchup between Penn State and fellow top 10 team Michigan was a classic throwback. Your run game vs. my defense. My run game vs. your defense. Pass? Are you nuts? This isn’t a basketball game.
For three quarters and change, James Franklin had decided to take the ball out of his sophomore quarterback’s hands (his feet were another story) and try to beat the Wolverines in the old-school way. And for three quarters and change, his defense and his run game were at least giving the Nittany Lions a chance to do that, and in the process steal that desperately sought win over one of the league’s two bullies.
There were two problems with this plan, though, and both of them proved fatal in the guts of the game. The first was that Michigan is, well, built for this, both in terms of physical construction and philosophy. Penn State is built for … well, we’re still not sure, and that’s a problem that transcended this game. The second was that Michigan held the lead, held the high ground, and that enabled the Wolverines, even with one of the nation’s most efficient quarterbacks at their disposal, to call 33(!!) consecutive run plays on offense and, on defense, force Penn State to try this wild and crazy strategy of throwing the football and catching it.
And, in disturbingly predictable fashion, the Nittany Lions’ passing game could not answer the call, at least not until Blake Corum had delivered the back-breaking blow on a 30-yard touchdown run, and even after Penn State scored again, a failed 2-point conversion try that was questionable all on its own kept it a two-score game with 1:59 left, which might as well have been 40 points given how the rest of the afternoon had gone.
Once again, the defense balled out … until it finally broke. Once again, the offense came up small, and looked at times not only out of its league but as though it had only recently picked up the sport at all.
Penn State did not lose this game because Michigan’s players were fired up about Harbaugh’s suspension. It lost this game because it was out-executed by a superior team, and because it still lacks an offense that knows what it wants to do when put in an important spot. Yes, the Lions found some room for Kaytron Allen. Yes, Drew Allar made some plays with his feet and even picked up a first down as a receiver. But to win at this level of play, the level at which the defense and special teams once again proved they belonged, you have to be able to score points. And in eight quarters against Ohio State and Michigan, the Penn State offense scored a total of 27 points, 12 of which were against essentially prevent defenses that were protecting multi-score leads.
Franklin talks a lot about staying “on schedule,” which means that getting yards on first and second down makes life easier, or livable at all, on third down, especially against strong defenses. And the Nittany Lions did that more times than they didn’t on Saturday against a Michigan defense that had stymied each of its nine previous opponents this season.
But at some point, though, you have to be able to make a play, whether that’s on 1st and 10, 2nd and 8, or 3rd and 2. Credit Franklin and Mike Yurcich for having the guts to try some new things and their fourth-down aggression, but they wouldn’t need the gadgets or even the fourth-down tries if this offense could complete basic throws and catches on the first three downs. And it just can’t, at least not when it matters. Allar is as talented a quarterback as this team has ever had, and yet he continues to throw the ball to large empty patches of turf. His receivers have less of an idea of when the ball will arrive than the guys covering them do.
Whether it’s a matter of Allar’s confidence or his competence at the moment, it’s on Yurcich. Whether it’s a matter of receiving talent or execution, it’s on Marques Hagans and Yurcich. Whether it’s the scheme or the rhythm of the play-calling, it’s on Yurcich. And by extension, it’s all on Franklin.
It was clear that Penn State was trying to do the best it could with what it had to work with on Saturday against a great defense. But failing to give the offense, and the team, the full component of weapons (a competent passing game as well as a solid run game and a rugged defense), is continuing to waste the work that the program is putting in at every other juncture. This was supposed to be the quarterback who could unlock the missing component, and instead, whether he’s the main culprit or not, Allar is part of a component that’s gumming up the gears.
This season is likely to wind up 11-2 or 10-3, including what could well be another New Year’s Six bowl game. By most metrics and for most teams, that’s a wonderful year. But no matter what happens the rest of the way, it’s going to be a season remembered more for what could have been, and maybe should have been, than what was. What it could have been, had the offensive coordinator with a track record of explosive offenses been able to coax any sort of explosive plays out of the blue-chip quarterback with the explosive arm, is a team whose offense would have been worthy of its defense, who could have made these battles with Michigan and Ohio State truly memorable contests, win or lose. What it was, instead, was three months of disappointment played out over two predictably pathetic 60-minute spotlights.
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