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Football Penn State vs Purdue: Keys to victory for the Nittany Lions

  1. Win the time of possession so that we play defense by being on offense
  2. Have 200 yards rushing with SC getting 70 yards or more. We must establish our QB as a runner so the defense has to account for him, the RB, and a potential passing play
  3. Play the receivers tight until they show they can beat us deep
 
  1. Win the time of possession so that we play defense by being on offense
  2. Have 200 yards rushing with SC getting 70 yards or more. We must establish our QB as a runner so the defense has to account for him, the RB, and a potential passing play
  3. Play the receivers tight until they show they can beat us deep

Any way for us to win w/out #2 being critical? I hate that our only experienced QB HAS to be a run threat for us to win a game.
 
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Any way for us to win w/out #2 being critical? I hate that our only experienced QB HAS to be a run threat for us to win a game.
its a good question and i don't know. at the end of the day, the RPO effectiveness is greatly reduced if you eliminate the QB run option in that equation.
 
its a good question and i don't know. at the end of the day, the RPO effectiveness is greatly reduced if you eliminate the QB run option in that equation.
It's probably time to eliminate the RPO with Clifford. First, he gets injured too often doing it. Second, the second string qb has no game experience when Clifford gets injured doing it, and it will happen. Third, it's about time that we make our qb play like a qb rather than a de facto running back. Fourth, let the running be done by the backs who are trained to run the ball and take hits while doing it.
 
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its a good question and i don't know. at the end of the day, the RPO effectiveness is greatly reduced if you eliminate the QB run option in that equation.

Fair, thanks. Didn't MY have system that made Mason Rudolph look like a capable QB? Can't imagine he had him running for 70 yards a game? Not calling you out, just suggesting if whether Franklin is mandating MY to employ the RPO? Allar looks damn impressive in pictures...he also looks slow. Maybe time to work another style of offense.
 
Fair, thanks. Didn't MY have system that made Mason Rudolph look like a capable QB? Can't imagine he had him running for 70 yards a game? Not calling you out, just suggesting if whether Franklin is mandating MY to employ the RPO? Allar looks damn impressive in pictures...he also looks slow. Maybe time to work another style of offense.
QB Run, RB Run, pass....they are all co-dependent interlocking pieces. Trace was a pretty good runner but he was no Lamar Jackson. We haven't had the RB that the LBers keyed on since Miles Sanders. If one of the RBs emerges, we'll have to run the QB less. But know that there is a person responsible for the QB. The QB keys on him to decide if he should hand the ball off or pass. If that guy doesn't have to be consumed, taken out of the play, but his QB cover responsibilities, he is more likely to stop a RB or pass play (rush without having to breakdown to cover the run).

So your point is valid, if we can get a RB to break a few plays early, the need for a QB who runs is less necessary. Although we haven't done that in the last three years.
 
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QB Run, RB Run, pass....they are all co-dependent interlocking pieces. Trace was a pretty good runner but he was no Lamar Jackson. We haven't had the RB that the LBers keyed on since Miles Sanders. If one of the RBs emerges, we'll have to run the QB less. But know that there is a person responsible for the QB. The QB keys on him to decide if he should hand the ball off or pass. If that guy doesn't have to be consumed, taken out of the play, but his QB cover responsibilities, he is more likely to stop a RB or pass play (rush without having to breakdown to cover the run).

So your point is valid, if we can get a RB to break a few plays early, the need for a QB who runs is less necessary. Although we haven't done that in the last three years.
Great summation of the RPO and how it functions/stresses the defense. However, I think I misrepresented my point, I actually understand the mechanics of the RPO and why/how it is successful. I think my question was really geared towards whether it is even the offense that we should be running, the offense that aligns with the skillset of our players. I brought up MY and Mason Rudolph specifically, because whatever that offense was....that's what we should be doing. Clifford is fast, he isn't Cam Newton. Allar is built like a mac truck and doesn't seem particularly fleet of foot. Like last year, we really can't afford to have our QB hurt this year(albeit Clifford did get hurt IN the pocket). I haven't read anything about us transforming our offense, so I doubt it will happen, but MY has experience with pocket passers. Although effective at running the ball at times, I don't think any game plan in which Clifford needs to run for 70 yards is a sustainable model if we hope to win 9-10 games throughout the year.
 
Great summation of the RPO and how it functions/stresses the defense. However, I think I misrepresented my point, I actually understand the mechanics of the RPO and why/how it is successful. I think my question was really geared towards whether it is even the offense that we should be running, the offense that aligns with the skillset of our players. I brought up MY and Mason Rudolph specifically, because whatever that offense was....that's what we should be doing. Clifford is fast, he isn't Cam Newton. Allar is built like a mac truck and doesn't seem particularly fleet of foot. Like last year, we really can't afford to have our QB hurt this year(albeit Clifford did get hurt IN the pocket). I haven't read anything about us transforming our offense, so I doubt it will happen, but MY has experience with pocket passers. Although effective at running the ball at times, I don't think any game plan in which Clifford needs to run for 70 yards is a sustainable model if we hope to win 9-10 games throughout the year.
OK..yeah, much bigger question. Someone posted that SC takes a lot of hits. He does. He's not a very good runner in terms of elusiveness. He takes what is given but doesn't really create. You look at the tOSU QB's, if feels like you can never get a good hit on them. We'll see Thursday, I guess, with MY having had an entire year to install his offense.
 
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Purdue smoked an similarly talented, much better coached and much more fundamentally sound Iowa secondary and linebacking corps last season. The outside rush had no chance to get home because the ball was almost always gone. Iowa could have mitigated this with a strong inside pass rush which is the key to passing spread offenses. They didn't have it, and neither have we since Kevin Givens left. If we are going to win in anything but a shoot out, we need a strong inside rush without blitzing.

Offensively, same a last year. We can't play them 11 on 11 within 15 yards of the line of scrimmage. We can still score against Purdue this way but not enough if we can't get inside pressure as described above.
 
OK..yeah, much bigger question. Someone posted that SC takes a lot of hits. He does. He's not a very good runner in terms of elusiveness. He takes what is given but doesn't really create. You look at the tOSU QB's, if feels like you can never get a good hit on them. We'll see Thursday, I guess, with MY having had an entire year to install his offense.
Good point Re-OSU. Same with Fields actually. They always had a few QB designed runs but they were WIDE open, QB could slide or merely shuffle out of bounds. RUnning the QB is simply not foundational to their offense. It's a "nice to have" when they are in rhythm calling plays and one more thing to think about for the defense. Never forced.
 
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