ADVERTISEMENT

In all seriousness, WTF has happened to this offense

Pennstate4life

Well-Known Member
Oct 1, 2018
69
128
1
They looked completely lost most of the Trace was bad, Sanders was the bright spot. But seriously WTF has happened to what I and many others thought was a high powered offense
 
They looked completely lost most of the Trace was bad, Sanders was the bright spot. But seriously WTF has happened to what I and many others thought was a high powered offense

For a new poster, most of your posts are troll worthy.
 
Ricky Rahne

Rahne has been fine until tonight. He was bad tonight. But It’s the QB. He’s been less than good and it’s hard to put the game in his hands when he struggled like he did tonight.

And yet he still did put it in traces hands on the last play and he made the ultimate bonehead play
 
They looked completely lost most of the Trace was bad, Sanders was the bright spot. But seriously WTF has happened to what I and many others thought was a high powered offense
All of the last 5 losses with blown 4th quarter leads are fixed if there would be a solid short yardage run game. Need to be able to get under center and get 3 yards. Just a fact.
 
They looked completely lost most of the Trace was bad, Sanders was the bright spot. But seriously WTF has happened to what I and many others thought was a high powered offense

We’ve lost some big time players and leadership from last year, but wide receiver play has taken a real “ dump”, post Gattis. —Would not be shocked if WR coach is “ re - evaluated” after the season. — Many, many poor routes with little separation......and blocking appears to be marginal compared to last year as well.
 
We’ve lost some big time players and leadership from last year, but wide receiver play has taken a real “ dump”, post Gattis. —Would not be shocked if WR coach is “ re - evaluated” after the season. — Many, many poor routes with little separation......and blocking appears to be marginal compared to last year as well.

We were up against one of the worst secondaries in the Big Ten and couldn't separate ourselves from air. Our receivers have dropped more balls than any post JoePa team I can remember. No Robinson, Godwin, Hamilton, or big time TE for Trace to rely on in the clutch to make a big time play when you really need it.

It's one thing not to be able to get separation against Ohio State. What happened yesterday against a Swiss cheese pass defense was scary.
 
We were up against one of the worst secondaries in the Big Ten and couldn't separate ourselves from air. Our receivers have dropped more balls than any post JoePa team I can remember. No Robinson, Godwin, Hamilton, or big time TE for Trace to rely on in the clutch to make a big time play when you really need it.

It's one thing not to be able to get separation against Ohio State. What happened yesterday against a Swiss cheese pass defense was scary.

It's surprising with 8 starters returning but we don't have anybody to replace Gesicki or Hamilton. The WRs are terrible except for Hamler and he's not a big target. It's not just the dropped balls. They aren't physical. JJ gets checked at the LOS by much smaller defenders.

I think one of the answers might be at TE. I think we have to pick one and give him more reps. Freirmuth makes a great catch, then drops one, then gets replaced by Holland or Bowers. None of them get enough reps to build momentum.
 
Maybe end the experiment with Menet at center and move McGovern back there and play Wright at guard? Menet seems to really struggle. The oline should be much better than they are playing. They still don't have a true left tackle. Bates is a guard playing tackle.
 
I think it's primarily the players but the staff isn't helping. When something isn't working I think you've got to mix it up a bit. PSU didn't run screens, reverses, wildcat snaps, or anything to get MSU off balance.
It’s not primarily the players when the DLine is collapsing the center and you have a spy on McSorley and you keep running designed QB draws and runs. It’s not the players when you evaporate screens, swings and bubbles from our offense that would pull the DB’s back from deeper coverage or just just use the mid zone with a drag or deeper slant.

Just because it’s an elite D line doesn’t mean avoid using plays to get the spread wider.....

He seemed to take the criticism of the 4th and 5 for not letting the ball be in Trace’s hands and apply it to every play vs MSU. In the 2nd Q he ran a designed QB run on 3rd and 3 and we predictably got stuffed for no gain. But let’s just try that play another 7 times instead of a screen.

We have awesome talent that can overwhelm. When the talent gap isn’t as big, Rahne is cannot react. Can not adjust.

If your D is gassing, the best help you can give is convert 3rd downs and score. If you can’t score, convert a few 3rd downs.
 
It’s not primarily the players when the DLine is collapsing the center and you have a spy on McSorley and you keep running designed QB draws and runs. It’s not the players when you evaporate screens, swings and bubbles from our offense that would pull the DB’s back from deeper coverage or just just use the mid zone with a drag or deeper slant.

Just because it’s an elite D line doesn’t mean avoid using plays to get the spread wider.....

He seemed to take the criticism of the 4th and 5 for not letting the ball be in Trace’s hands and apply it to every play vs MSU. In the 2nd Q he ran a designed QB run on 3rd and 3 and we predictably got stuffed for no gain. But let’s just try that play another 7 times instead of a screen.

We have awesome talent that can overwhelm. When the talent gap isn’t as big, Rahne is cannot react. Can not adjust.

If your D is gassing, the best help you can give is convert 3rd downs and score. If you can’t score, convert a few 3rd downs.
Exactly. The MSU defense counteracted Trace by putting a spy on him, which made him pretty much ineffective in the run game including running out of the pocket. Did the coaches not see this or just not have an answer for it?
 
Exactly. The MSU defense counteracted Trace by putting a spy on him, which made him pretty much ineffective in the run game including running out of the pocket. Did the coaches not see this or just not have an answer for it?
Hard for the coaches not to see it when it was openly talked about all week.
 
It’s not primarily the players when the DLine is collapsing the center and you have a spy on McSorley and you keep running designed QB draws and runs. It’s not the players when you evaporate screens, swings and bubbles from our offense that would pull the DB’s back from deeper coverage or just just use the mid zone with a drag or deeper slant.

Just because it’s an elite D line doesn’t mean avoid using plays to get the spread wider.....

He seemed to take the criticism of the 4th and 5 for not letting the ball be in Trace’s hands and apply it to every play vs MSU. In the 2nd Q he ran a designed QB run on 3rd and 3 and we predictably got stuffed for no gain. But let’s just try that play another 7 times instead of a screen.

We have awesome talent that can overwhelm. When the talent gap isn’t as big, Rahne is cannot react. Can not adjust.

If your D is gassing, the best help you can give is convert 3rd downs and score. If you can’t score, convert a few 3rd downs.
It does seem that the 4th and 5 criticisms may have invoked an overreaction...
 
I think it's primarily the players but the staff isn't helping. When something isn't working I think you've got to mix it up a bit. PSU didn't run screens, reverses, wildcat snaps, or anything to get MSU off balance.
I'd call that loss a total team effort.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Roswell-Blue
They had one bad game after a heart breaking loss to osu so what would you expect?
 
I think our best WR's in general are red shirting, what irritates me is playing these guys against Kent, Illinois, and Pitt.
 
Can we blame Delaney? He stuck us with the turd schedule! Bye week be damned. ;)
 
Rahne is essentially playing with Moorhead's book. The book has been on the shelf for all to see now, without any enhancements. This is the largest factor.

The second factor appears to be that Rahne is just making a call from that book and hoping it works without really taking what the defense gives. It may be that, since defenses already have the book, he doesn't have many good choices. But really, anyone can see that his choices on some of the critical downs have been low percentage, so it almost seems like he is in a guessing game with the defense. The head-scratcher is that we are at home with a 5th year starting quarterback and he isn't free to audible, or am I missing something? Perhaps the "audible" is the booth relaying a sign to the sideline with a relay to the QB.

The third factor is the way we block at the offensive line. It doesn't seem capable of picking up stunts and handling the blitz. Along these lines, Menet and McGovern tend to struggle. When they get pushed back or beat with defensive ends playing contain, the play is blown up. The RPO does not lead to aggressive blocking with big linemen. Our linemen engage and try to clear rather than drive forward, hence the short yardage, ball control problems. Their size is neutralized by design.

Fourth factor is the inconsistency of our receivers, and their inability to make plays at the same level as their predecessors. We have receivers at the extremes, but no one in that Chris Godwin type of size range.

The fifth factor is Trace's size. Sorry about this one, but it is what it is. He's not going to do well inside of a collapsing pocket with average receivers trying to catch throws a little off target. Moorhead's offense doesn't get him outside the pocket where he needs to be. In fact, it doesn't look like the offense gets a running back outside for an outlet, swing or screen. The entire defensive front can simply collapse onto the pocket. We rely on the back for blocking as a result of deficiencies in our blocking with linemen. I will grant that Trace's size also enables some sneaky quickness, but if spied by equal quickness close to the line, he can be neutralized. OSU spies were too deep and Trace was able to get into the open field. MSU got it right.

The sixth factor, in this game for whatever reason, were the referines. If I had to guess a few of them within this crew want to set up a big game between OSU and Michigan. This is their dream game.

This offense looks really good when it plays against teams who cannot run with some of our skill players. But without leaping receivers making big league plays, it is rather pedestrian, even with super star running backs. Our OOC games should be no basis for predictive statistics, yet that is what people tend to cite over and over again this time of year.
 
  • Like
Reactions: ftlpsu
Rahne has been fine until tonight. He was bad tonight. But It’s the QB. He’s been less than good and it’s hard to put the game in his hands when he struggled like he did tonight.

And yet he still did put it in traces hands on the last play and he made the ultimate bonehead play
Trace does not have a Hail Mary arm...should have put Tommy in there to gun it and see if KJ could come down with it. Instead we got that weak flutter ball that an MSU DB easily swatted down.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Statefan09
He was God-awful vs OSU as well.

It was masked to the average casual fan due to the super-hero work of McSorley.

Rahne has shown - repeatedly now - he has no answer for ANYTHING that an opposing defense might do. He simply is not a competent OC. He may - truly - be no more qualified than JVP Jr.

His offensive schemes do NOTHING to cause angst to an opposing DC..... quite frankly, the schemes and strategies are both boring and inept (in addition to being ineffective)..... And have managed to take an incredibly talented and experienced offensive squad and turn it into a Sominex Offense any time they simple can’t overwhelm the opposition with talent.


I will be shocked and disappointed if CJF does not make a change after the season.


Why wait?
 
We attacked the number one rush defense with a running game while throwing too seldom against a weak pass defense. Maybe I am missing something but who does that?
It’s an offense designed to take what the defense gives them. Penn state lost due to poor execution at critical times on both sides of the ball — and they were out-hustled on special teams. I didn’t see much of a game-day coaching problem, except maybe on the fake punt. That play wasn’t obvious in the moment but anybody not watching for it v dantonio at this point in his career isn’t fully prepared.
 
  • Like
Reactions: JeffClear and DSCP
The loss of the WR coach to Alabama was obviously huge, and his replacement has not gotten it done with the way #84 is playing. Franklin perhaps made a mistake in who he promoted to take over the offense.

Also, the OL coach is clearly not good. I remember the days when Andersen and Kenney could only produce a good OL once every four years. The current coach does not seem able to even do that.
 
  • Like
Reactions: ftlpsu
The loss of the WR coach to Alabama was obviously huge, and his replacement has not gotten it done with the way #84 is playing. Franklin perhaps made a mistake in who he promoted to take over the offense.

Also, the OL coach is clearly not good. I remember the days when Andersen and Kenney could only produce a good OL once every four years. The current coach does not seem able to even do that.

I don't think it is a bad line by comparison to any of the lines we've had since '94. Menet might not be quite ready, but that's about it. The offense and blocking schemes set them up to fail. It seems like linebackers don't have to worry about covering short passes, so they put more pressure on the OL. Hackenberg could not throw short passes accurately, and McSorley needs a gap due to his size. I shudder to think what we would be on the ground with average running backs. We have been very lucky there.
 
ADVERTISEMENT