How Paul Chryst beat the Gophers defense

[tboyer]

Four things Penn State didn't even try to do.

1) End around after a fake to the tailback up the middle. Gophers bite hard on fakes.
2) Running back screen on third down (Gophers blitz 95% of the time on 3rd down).
3) Throw deep sideline to a tall outside receiver after moving said outside receiver around the formation until he was covered by linebackers.
4) Wheel route.

Anyway, it was a great season, better than almost anybody thought possible. A lot of really good football. If Penn State could somehow acquire an offensive coordinator/offensive identity in the offseason, they could be even better.

 

[Lion8286]

How did Chryst beat the Illinois (6-6) defense?

 

[DandyDonII]

Our offense moved the ball pretty well against Minny, First pick shorter was open, second pick Hammler got raped.....That being said, Rahne did had typical brain farts in second half....

 

[mn78psu83]

How did Chryst beat the Illinois (6-6) defense?

By calling an ill-advised pass that was intercepted and gave Illinois a short field that helped them get in to position for the winning field goal?

 

[Rip_E_2_Joe_PA]

Regardless of our coordinator, we will see more of your 1. 2. 3. and 4. next year.

 

[mn78psu83]

Our offense moved the ball pretty well against Minny, First pick shorter was open, second pick Hammler got raped.....That being said, Rahne did had typical brain farts in second half....

PSU did the move the ball quite well. Too bad they had 3 red zone drives that resulted in 3 points. It's hard to only score 26 points when you have 568 yards of total offense, but ... Oh well, one of those days.

 

[HazletonLion]

Our tall outside receiver dropped 2 critical passes, just catch the damn ball.

 

[PSUQBKeeper]

did Wisconsin do that play where a WR picks off a couple defenders and allows a running back to be wide open? because that worked great for Ohio State today against Don Brown.

I wonder if that ever gets called as a penalty? Like maybe if you're in the redzone of a tight game or something

 

[bvillebaron]

did Wisconsin do that play where a WR picks off a couple defenders and allows a running back to be wide open? because that worked great for Ohio State today against Don Brown.

I wonder if that ever gets called as a penalty? Like maybe if you're in the redzone of a tight game or something

Yeah that’s why OSU scores 8 TDS in Ann Arbor.

 

[Connorpozlee]

Our screens do not work at all, for whatever reason. I don’t want to see that called by this team.

 

[diontechristmas]

Our offense moved the ball pretty well against Minny, First pick shorter was open, second pick Hammler got raped.....That being said, Rahne did had typical brain farts in second half....

Ya, the offense had over 500 yards. Too many turnovers and missed opportunities did us in at end, but that loss was more on the D than the O.

 

[donboy6499]

The gophers played 3 B10 teams who finished with winning records. Lost to 2.

The gophers played, I believe, 4 FBS teams who finished with winning records. Beat PSU and Georgia Southern by 3.

They’re an average team. That game was more about Penn State than it was anything Minnesota did or didn’t do.

 

[PSUQBKeeper]

Yeah that’s why OSU scores 8 TDS in Ann Arbor.

not my point...I'm still just ticked about that penalty in the Minnesota game when that usually isn't called

 

[zubrus1]

They had better players and the coaches didn’t screw it up. That’s how they did it.

 

[donboy6499]

not my point...I'm still just ticked about that penalty in the Minnesota game when that usually isn't called

No doubt. It’s such a crap call. Really kind of decided the game at the end.

 

[tboyer]

LOL. As you suggest, Ohio State does a lot of it and no, it's not called. But to be fair, certain rules have to be followed for picking. It's not easy to do it and not draw the flag. I do think the tOSU receivers do a good job of selling their own routes and not making it look like they're trying to block. They make contact low and don't raise their hands. There are rule book rules and also informal rules that have to be followed to not draw the officials' attention. Both sets of rules should be taught by position coaches.

did Wisconsin do that play where a WR picks off a couple defenders and allows a running back to be wide open? because that worked great for Ohio State today against Don Brown.

I wonder if that ever gets called as a penalty? Like maybe if you're in the redzone of a tight game or something

 

[Ranger Dan]

Four things Penn State didn't even try to do.

1) End around after a fake to the tailback up the middle. Gophers bite hard on fakes.
2) Running back screen on third down (Gophers blitz 95% of the time on 3rd down).
3) Throw deep sideline to a tall outside receiver after moving said outside receiver around the formation until he was covered by linebackers.
4) Wheel route.

Anyway, it was a great season, better than almost anybody thought possible. A lot of really good football. If Penn State could somehow acquire an offensive coordinator/offensive identity in the offseason, they could be even better.

The thing about sports (and any competition) is that you can try to attack an opponents weakness, maximize your strengths, or some of both. Just because a team has certain tendencies, it doesn’t automatically mean that you are set up to take advantage of them.

 

[djr4rebs]

Four things Penn State didn't even try to do.

1) End around after a fake to the tailback up the middle. Gophers bite hard on fakes.
2) Running back screen on third down (Gophers blitz 95% of the time on 3rd down).
3) Throw deep sideline to a tall outside receiver after moving said outside receiver around the formation until he was covered by linebackers.
4) Wheel route.

Anyway, it was a great season, better than almost anybody thought possible. A lot of really good football. If Penn State could somehow acquire an offensive coordinator/offensive identity in the offseason, they could be even better.

1. A staple of the Wisky offense. We run something similar, but telegraph it way too much (how many of Hamlers down field route begin with motion?).

2. We are terrible at screens for some reason. Something about how we line up has a lot of tells.

3. Outside of Pat, we don't have a tall WR to catch those passes.

4. It graduated with Barkley and Sanders. We got a sweet angle route we ran vs them but they said our WR committed OPI.

 

[bdgan]

Our screens do not work at all, for whatever reason. I don’t want to see that called by this team.

I don't recall many standard screens to the RBs. We run a lot of bubble screens but they haven't been effective (including 2 today). I think they're poorly disguised and teh WRs haven't blocked well enough.

 

[wrm125]

not my point...I'm still just ticked about that penalty in the Minnesota game when that usually isn't called

If that isn’t called, this board is rife with optimistic PSU to CFP talk today. So close...

 

[bdgan]

3. Outside of Pat, we don't have a tall WR to catch those passes.

Bowers is another big target but we didn't sue him very often.

Shorter's departure is a real head scratcher. He dropped a number of passes this year but he has 3 years of eligibility remaining. The staff might have got on his case but I doubt they would have given up on such a highly rated kid with 3 years of eligibility remaining. Something tells me that he got into trouble, was messing up academically, or he just shot off his mouth. We'll probably never know.

Chisena is 6'3", George is 6"2", and Carr is 6'2". We never saw Carr. Chisena dropped a couple of passes. I wonder if we gave up on him too early. George might be our best hope going forward.

 

[rigi11]

Four things Penn State didn't even try to do.

1) End around after a fake to the tailback up the middle. Gophers bite hard on fakes.
2) Running back screen on third down (Gophers blitz 95% of the time on 3rd down).
3) Throw deep sideline to a tall outside receiver after moving said outside receiver around the formation until he was covered by linebackers.
4) Wheel route.

Anyway, it was a great season, better than almost anybody thought possible. A lot of really good football. If Penn State could somehow acquire an offensive coordinator/offensive identity in the offseason, they could be even better.

Isn't Franklin undefeated vs chryst?

 

[djr4rebs]

Bowers is another big target but we didn't sue him very often.

Shorter's departure is a real head scratcher. He dropped a number of passes this year but he has 3 years of eligibility remaining. The staff might have got on his case but I doubt they would have given up on such a highly rated kid with 3 years of eligibility remaining. Something tells me that he got into trouble, was messing up academically, or he just shot off his mouth. We'll probably never know.

Chisena is 6'3", George is 6"2", and Carr is 6'2". We never saw Carr. Chisena dropped a couple of passes. I wonder if we gave up on him too early. George might be our best hope going forward.

We did seem to target Bowers quite a bit more through the tough stretch of games. Still, our offense would just sputter out with series' of plays where we either ran up the middle twice and dropped a pass on third down or just came out and threw 3 straight times incomplete.

The height of our other WRs seems to be a non factor. Dotson has been reliable and it seems he's forgotten until he makes a big play. Chisena probably did the best of getting open and high pointing the ball, but he just seemed out of practice with making tough catches.

Carr was strictly a depth move based on having a scholarship. No other explanation.

 

[bdgan]

We did seem to target Bowers quite a bit more through the tough stretch of games. Still, our offense would just sputter out with series' of plays where we either ran up the middle twice and dropped a pass on third down or just came out and threw 3 straight times incomplete.

The height of our other WRs seems to be a non factor. Dotson has been reliable and it seems he's forgotten until he makes a big play. Chisena probably did the best of getting open and high pointing the ball, but he just seemed out of practice with making tough catches.

Carr was strictly a depth move based on having a scholarship. No other explanation.

Too bad Campbell changed his mind and went to WVa.

 

[ralphster]

End around? Running back screen? Slant? Running outside the tackles?

You know our offense is not allowed to run those! It was part of the sanctions. Expires in 2120.

 

[paws1957]

PSU did the move the ball quite well. Too bad they had 3 red zone drives that resulted in 3 points. It's hard to only score 26 points when you have 568 yards of total offense, but ... Oh well, one of those days.

Yep, just couldn’t seem to find that end zone but as bad as they played they still had a chance to win at the end ...

 

[LionDeNittany]

Ya, the offense had over 500 yards. Too many turnovers and missed opportunities did us in at end, but that loss was more on the D than the O.

Yep. We started in a hole we should have never been in. Made their QB look like a superstar with plenty of time to pass.

LdN

 

[lein]

PSU did the move the ball quite well. Too bad they had 3 red zone drives that resulted in 3 points. It's hard to only score 26 points when you have 568 yards of total offense, but ... Oh well, one of those days.

Didn't try the corner fade to the shortest receiver enough

 

[danvillenit]

End around? Running back screen? Slant? Running outside the tackles?

You know our offense is not allowed to run those! It was part of the sanctions. Expires in 2120.

Ran an end around yesterday and others. Ran at least five slants in the first half vs Indiana because I posted about it. We have run outside the tackles. Did you make your bitch list without watching the games

 

[tboyer]

1) coaching
2) coaching
3) player development
4) coaching

This is not rocket science. Pee-wee football teams run screens. Why PSU couldn't learn how to run screens this year is something I find kind of interesting.

I also find it interesting that they have at least two running backs with 4.3-4.4 speed who can catch passes, and they didn't attempt a wheel route. I don't get it -- a wheel route is such an easy read -- you can see if your running back is covered by a linebacker or DE really early. It's actually a fairly low risk, low-difficulty, bread-and-butter play that teams use regularly if they have a fast running back with good hands -- and PSU has at least two and maybe three, maybe four.

There's just no good reason why these things can't be done. And is the wheel route worth doing? Well it did win the B1G championship for them and broke open the Michigan game in 2017. And it doesn't require Barkley to run it, not at all.

I'm not talking about play calling. Calling plays is by nature kind of a crapshoot so you can waste time debating specific play calls.

What I'm talking about is the overall coordination and training of the offense. Which is the primary job of an offensive coordinator. If this team isn't learning how to run screens, whose job is it to teach it?

1. A staple of the Wisky offense. We run something similar, but telegraph it way too much (how many of Hamlers down field route begin with motion?).

2. We are terrible at screens for some reason. Something about how we line up has a lot of tells.

3. Outside of Pat, we don't have a tall WR to catch those passes.

4. It graduated with Barkley and Sanders. We got a sweet angle route we ran vs them but they said our WR committed OPI.

 

[BBrown]

Four things Penn State didn't even try to do.

1) End around after a fake to the tailback up the middle. Gophers bite hard on fakes.
2) Running back screen on third down (Gophers blitz 95% of the time on 3rd down).
3) Throw deep sideline to a tall outside receiver after moving said outside receiver around the formation until he was covered by linebackers.
4) Wheel route.

Anyway, it was a great season, better than almost anybody thought possible. A lot of really good football. If Penn State could somehow acquire an offensive coordinator/offensive identity in the offseason, they could be even better.

I would be even happier if the defense could keep at least 1 3rd and 7+ a game be completed for a first. We sucked big time this year in getting teams off the field.

 

[Wesauking Lion]

1) coaching
2) coaching
3) player development
4) coaching

This is not rocket science. Pee-wee football teams run screens. Why PSU couldn't learn how to run screens this year is something I find kind of interesting.

I also find it interesting that they have at least two running backs with 4.3-4.4 speed who can catch passes, and they didn't attempt a wheel route. I don't get it -- a wheel route is such an easy read -- you can see if your running back is covered by a linebacker or DE really early. It's actually a fairly low risk, low-difficulty, bread-and-butter play that teams use regularly if they have a fast running back with good hands -- and PSU has at least two and maybe three, maybe four.

There's just no good reason why these things can't be done. And is the wheel route worth doing? Well it did win the B1G championship for them and broke open the Michigan game in 2017. And it doesn't require Barkley to run it, not at all.

I'm not talking about play calling. Calling plays is by nature kind of a crapshoot so you can waste time debating specific play calls.

What I'm talking about is the overall coordination and training of the offense. Which is the primary job of an offensive coordinator. If this team isn't learning how to run screens, whose job is it to teach it?

I couldnt agree more... this comes down to coaching... DanvilleNit, 8286, and AWS, who call me an idiot because I said a lot of our weakness is basic coaching....


I said... the Ranhe, Pry, Limegrover and Smith... need to go... The Big Game performance speaks for itself. OSU has the best DE in the country... maybe we should double team him.. nope... he gets lots of sacks... and the collect ass scratching starts. Average QB from OSU, MSU, Pitt, Minny... light your defense up in the air.. . You have basic defensive problems. Blitzing doesnt work when you start from Lock Haven using the the CATA Bus. Zero qb pressure and most of these Ucle Rico's drill us for 300 in the air. When receivers are wide open in our secondary... its not a busted coverage for 4 qtrs.

The play calling is so predictable... and baffling... the offense has no identity other that... we won the big play... well... good teams shut the big play down. Big play is not a scheme or offense. PSU has more talent than most of the teams we play... so we win...It is certainly not because of coaching, strategy or scheme

I know we win games... so everything is great... We could be a lot better with the talent we recruit.. If we could only schedule South Williamsport every week and pad the stats..... Against the best teams.. we are not that good.

We have elite talent and keystone cop coaches. Paying them more is not going to lead to better coaching.

 

[Lion8286]

I couldnt agree more... this comes down to coaching... DanvilleNit, 8286, and AWS, who call me an idiot because I said a lot of our weakness is basic coaching.

Wrong. We call you an idiot because you are an idiot.

 

[jbenedict]

No doubt. It’s such a crap call. Really kind of decided the game at the end.

Wasn't that O'Neils group?

 

[Wesauking Lion]

Wrong. We call you an idiot because you are an idiot.

1) coaching
2) coaching
3) player development
4) coaching

Tboyer is not an idiot.... We have elite talent and elite recruiting. Coaching... Average

 

[Indian rocks rich]

Four things Penn State didn't even try to do.

1) End around after a fake to the tailback up the middle. Gophers bite hard on fakes.
2) Running back screen on third down (Gophers blitz 95% of the time on 3rd down).
3) Throw deep sideline to a tall outside receiver after moving said outside receiver around the formation until he was covered by linebackers.
4) Wheel route.

Anyway, it was a great season, better than almost anybody thought possible. A lot of really good football. If Penn State could somehow acquire an offensive coordinator/offensive identity in the offseason, they could be even better.

How did Paul do against Illinois?

 

[djr4rebs]

What I'm talking about is the overall coordination and training of the offense. Which is the primary job of an offensive coordinator. If this team isn't learning how to run screens, whose job is it to teach it?

Here is the interesting thing. If you are Franklin, what do you do?

1) the roster should be as talented next season, from a guru rankings perspective, as it's been since Franklin got here.
2) the schedule sets up favorably with this year's road gauntlet flipping to home. Trip to Michigan, who very well could be rebuilding the offense, and VaTech, which is early, but they will be very sophomore heavy.
3) should return the entire offense basically (Gonzo gone; Hamler might declare). Defense will lose a few players, but with the depth we created this year we actually could improve here.

Do you mess with this coming off a 11-2 or 10-3 season?

It's tough. I'm not inclined to say that anybody needs fired, but with the talent we have, one has to wonder if we could make the jump with different coordinator's and or position coaches.

Our biggest weakness's, in no particular order:

A. Tackling
B. Pass blocking
C. Pass coverage
D. Strength

Can we improve these in the off season with the current staff? Moorhead got us to double digit wins and Rahne has maintained it, but could some tweaking get us to the 0- or 1-loss club?

Defensively, I think our safety's tackle better than our LBs. Is that because of Banks? If so, I'd like to see him coach our LBs. Additionally, we just aren't very strong in coverage. Is that a scheme or just poor coverage coaching? Last play I remember strongly is Johnson dropping back and picking off Maryland.

 

[bvillebaron]

not my point...I'm still just ticked about that penalty in the Minnesota game when that usually isn't called

Well so am I. But what does that have to do with OSU/Michigan. The Minnesota game shouldn’t have come to a call at the end of the game.

 

[bvillebaron]

Here is the interesting thing. If you are Franklin, what do you do?

1) the roster should be as talented next season, from a guru rankings perspective, as it's been since Franklin got here.
2) the schedule sets up favorably with this year's road gauntlet flipping to home. Trip to Michigan, who very well could be rebuilding the offense, and VaTech, which is early, but they will be very sophomore heavy.
3) should return the entire offense basically (Gonzo gone; Hamler might declare). Defense will lose a few players, but with the depth we created this year we actually could improve here.

Do you mess with this coming off a 11-2 or 10-3 season?

It's tough. I'm not inclined to say that anybody needs fired, but with the talent we have, one has to wonder if we could make the jump with different coordinator's and or position coaches.

Our biggest weakness's, in no particular order:

A. Tackling
B. Pass blocking
C. Pass coverage
D. Strength

Can we improve these in the off season with the current staff? Moorhead got us to double digit wins and Rahne has maintained it, but could some tweaking get us to the 0- or 1-loss club?

Defensively, I think our safety's tackle better than our LBs. Is that because of Banks? If so, I'd like to see him coach our LBs. Additionally, we just aren't very strong in coverage. Is that a scheme or just poor coverage coaching? Last play I remember strongly is Johnson dropping back and picking off Maryland.

Well I’m sure Franklin is waiting for insight from this board so have at boys.

 

[interrobang]

Penn State mauled the Gopher defense, just made some stupid mistakes. Wisky didn't make those mistakes.