Penn State has completed the first half of the regular season and finds itself sitting in a great spot on its quest to compete in this year expanded College Football Playoff. The Nittany Lions sit at no. 3 in the major polls during their bye week as they prepare for a road game at Wisconsin and a home game against Ohio State in the next couple of weeks.
With Penn State sitting on a bye week, we decided to get together as a staff and share some of our options on the Nittany Lions before the second half gets started. We started off with quick midseason assessments of Penn State and continued with a look at our biggest surprises from the first half of the year. But what needs to improve in the second half of the season for the Nittany Lions?
Kevin: The one thing I am still waiting to see is more consistency out of the wide receivers. Tight end Tyler Warren is good enough to carry the load in every game remaining, but if Penn State is going to give a team like Ohio State or, potentially, Oregon in the Big Ten championship, a series challenge, then the wide receivers have to continue to pick up the slack.
We have seen multiple wide receivers come up with big plays throughout the first half of the season, but this offense will truly be unlocked when there are multiple receivers making big plays on a regular basis.
Shayne: Consistency on defense. They have had dominant weeks for sure, but the USC and Bowling Green games stick out as times where they easily could have lost due to the defense.
Charlie: I have to go with two things that are equally important for Penn State to improve: run defense and slow starts.
For a team that finished as the No. 1 run defense in the country, this season has been a big disappointment. The Nittany Lions currently rank No. 14 in rushing yards given up per game. It isn’t a terrible ranking, but its a far cry from last year’s top unit, especially considering its a defense that just gave up 189 yards on the ground to USC. One key to improve PSU’s run defense is for the front seven, especially the linebackers to tackle better. That starts with starting linebacker Tony Rojas who Pro Football Focus gives a 32% miss tackle percentage to on run plays. Rojas simply tackling better could go a long way in turning 10 yard runs into more manageable 4-5 yard gains.
The slow starts did not concern me much through the first few games, but against UCLA and USC it is now too much of a thing. I think one solution is definitely to limit the penalties during the first few drives and perhaps call a few big pass plays to loosen up the defense. Easy throws to explosive players like screens to Nick Singleton or Omari Evans could also generate faster starts for the offense.
Brad: Defense has been a concern throughout the campaign. Despite things looking solid on paper, it always felt like something was different in comparison to past versions of this unit. While that might be unfair because of how dominant the defense was under Manny Diaz, what occurred against USC was eye-opening as this once stout run defense was completely gashed. There are also concerns when it comes to defending the middle of the field in passing situations and the lack of pass rush. All of that has to get figured out as best as possible following the bye week.
