Key points regarding the defense.
17. That being said, opposing offenses continue to target the Nittany Lions' linebacker room and the middle of the field. Out of starting quarterback Daniel Robertson's attempts, the Chippewas targeted the middle of the field within 10-yard 15 times, completing 11 of those attempts. He was also 3-for-4 on passing attempts between 10-20 yards. When Penn State goes up against more athletic wide receiver rooms in Ohio State, Michigan, and Maryland just to name a few - it could end up being long days for Penn State in that regard.
27. Manny Diaz's aggressiveness continues to cause chaos for Penn State as evident by the seven turnovers (not counting Central Michigan's muffed punt) the last two weeks. However, we also saw how it could hurt Penn State. On Central Michigan's first touchdown, Diaz brought the house on 4th and goal, allowing wide receiver Finn Hogan to get open with no one around him. He had to make a nice catch on a rushed throw from Richardson but in that situation, blitzing nearly everybody made little sense. (See play below)
It will be intriguing to see if he's willing to make such a play call against some of the better offenses Penn State will face.
Above is directly from the article, and to this, I say, "get used to it." and yes he will do it to a better offense and we will lose a game or two because of it. Diaz is an open book and everyone knows it. He brings pressure. The less pressure the line can apply, the more he brings linebackers. When that fails, and at some point it will, he will start bring safeties and corners. The tradeoff tends to work in his favor against less teams and then it doesn't. Diaz was an immediate upgrade from Pry so we are better.
Key points regarding the offense.
10. The offensive line had trouble opening up running lanes but was good in their pass protection. Sean Clifford wasn't sacked at all in the game while Central Michigan totaled just three quarterback hurries in the game.
13. - Overall, I thought the offense on Saturday was solid but overall left a lot to be desired. Central Michigan's consistent usage of cover zero was a problem for the Nittany Lions who have enough playmakers that they should've had better success.
I thought they were pretty bad against the run and not great against the pass. Clifford bailed on quite a few collapsing pockets making the "hurried" metric a lot more rosy than it actually was. CMU didn't use nearly as much cover 0 as you think. They showed it a lot more than they used it. A lot of the problems we saw last year are still there. And no, we actually don't have the playmakers to have better success against 0 and 1 approaches. Tinsley and Lambert-Smith are possession receivers. Someone has to play the X so it is Tinsley. We saw this last year with Dotson who is an elite player in the Slot, very good at the Z but mediocre at the all important X.
Big take away, the warning bells that weren't heard after the Villanova game last year are being ignored once again. We were exposed in multiple areas by a MAC team.