Putrid Run Game Put in Perspective

[CaliLION79]

Sick alliteration, I know.

How BAD was Penn State's Run Game in 2021?

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fortheblogy.com

Anyway, really good research/stats in here. Unreal how bad we were on the ground. Historically bad. How the hell do you fix this? Seems like a multi-layered problem.

 

[RaymondReddington]

Seems like an awful lot of number crunching to tell us something that we already knew.

 

[SLion]

Here is a good fix.

 

[PSU20]

Even is hs, the kid runs hard, something "none of our RB's" do!

Journey Brown was the last RB to do exactly that!!!

 

[LongJakk]

It seemed like on every run play someone missed their assignment and on some plays more than 1. I dont think its scheme or strength just piss poor execution by the OL & TEs.

 

[The Spin Meister]

Here is a good fix.

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He looks really good, hits the hole really fast and hard. Notice he usually has a lead back blocking for him. And if he runs like that and our Oline doesn’t block any better than this past year he will quickly learn the dance and pick step that our runnings backs all seem to favor.

 

[CoastGuard2018]

Here is a good fix.

View embedded media

Does anyone know what Cains injury was last year? He looked so promising as a frosh but doesn’t even look like the same guy anymore. Sad thing is OL aside, we have a stable of highly rated HS running backs that many many schools wanted. Either they were way overrated by a lot of people or are just not being developed.

 

[Ian]

What’s troubling is the trend continues and we think it will change. It doesn’t take more analysts to figure it out. Jimmy Franks has to change his philosophy in the B1G. This ain’t southern football.

 

[LMTLION]

I have never seen such an undisciplined run game in college or the nfl as PSU 2021. It was not really a lack of push as it was missed blocking assignments and rbs dancing instead of hitting holes. Lee in particular dances instead of running over defenders. Our TE’s were horrible blockers as well… among the worst blocking TEs we have seen at PSU, especially Strange. He is a TE that thinks he is only a wr. It always felt that there were more defenders than blockers and nobody at rb has even 50% of the explosion of Barkley, Sanders or Brown to compensate for poor blocking. I think Slade could have helped this year if he stayed in the program.

 

[Texas Lion]

And yet if you changed probably 6 plays over the course of the year we are NY6 at worst. My problem is we did t just abandoned the run all together and used screens and wr screens as our running game.

 

[MacNit07]

And yet if you changed probably 6 plays over the course of the year we are NY6 at worst. My problem is we did t just abandoned the run all together and used screens and wr screens as our running game.

Lots of teams could say that…

 

[PSU20]

We could take an OL blocking lesson from Mich this year. Their OSU run blocking was a work of art. They made there initial block, then attacked the LB's who looked like bowling pins getting spun around. We can't even block the DL in front of us, let alone LB's. OSU LB's have been living in our backfield for years!

 

[HartfordLlion]

I have never seen such an undisciplined run game in college or the nfl as PSU 2021. It was not really a lack of push as it was missed blocking assignments and rbs dancing instead of hitting holes. Lee in particular dances instead of running over defenders. Our TE’s were horrible blockers as well… among the worst blocking TEs we have seen at PSU, especially Strange. He is a TE that thinks he is only a wr. It always felt that there were more defenders than blockers and nobody at rb has even 50% of the explosion of Barkley, Sanders or Brown to compensate for poor blocking. I think Slade could have helped this year if he stayed in the program.

Our TE block so poorly, not sure why we run so many 2 TE sets. Spread them out with WRs then run the ball.

 

[HartfordLlion]

And yet if you changed probably 6 plays over the course of the year we are NY6 at worst. My problem is we did t just abandoned the run all together and used screens and wr screens as our running game.

Not sure what games you were watching. As the season progress we ran on 1st down way too much and became way to predictable. loss/short gain on a 1st down run then we had to throw the ball the next two downs, started wondering if Joe was coaching our offense. Most of our early success came from abandoning the run game and throwing the ball a lot.

 

[Texas Lion]

Lots of teams could say that…

Sure they can and that is my point. Many of the sky is falling crowd needs to understand it is usually just a handful of plays. IMO, our year was made by the following plays:

1. PJ getting hurt at Iowa
2. Clifford getting hurt at Iowa
3. Deep crossing pattern TD vs Iowa
4. Brisker Non-INT in 1st overtime vs Illinois
5. Defensive Players Running in to each other vs a Michigan team that struggled on Offense that day.
6. Brandon Smith missed tackle on 3rd and forever vs Michigan State

 

[Texas Lion]

Not sure what games you were watching. As the season progress we ran on 1st down way too much and became way to predictable. loss/short gain on a 1st down run then we had to throw the ball the next two downs, started wondering if Joe was coaching our offense. Most of our early success came from abandoning the run game and throwing the ball a lot.

See my list above and tell me if those 6 things go our way what the record would be.

See my post before that when I asked why we even tried running the ball.

 

[Ian]

What's even more startling is the similarities to the 2014 team. We can only hope Singelton is the next Barkely.

 

[Waltwam]

He looks really good, hits the hole really fast and hard. Notice he usually has a lead back blocking for him. And if he runs like that and our Oline doesn’t block any better than this past year he will quickly learn the dance and pick step that our runnings backs all seem to favor.

I'm just hoping there are some holes to hit!!!

 

[MacNit07]

Hi

Sure they can and that is my point. Many of the sky is falling crowd needs to understand it is usually just a handful of plays. IMO, our year was made by the following plays:

1. PJ getting hurt at Iowa
2. Clifford getting hurt at Iowa
3. Deep crossing pattern TD vs Iowa
4. Brisker Non-INT in 1st overtime vs Illinois
5. Defensive Players Running in to each other vs a Michigan team that struggled on Offense that day.
6. Brandon Smith missed tackle on 3rd and forever vs Michigan State

How do you explained getting bullied and pushed around the field like the Little Sisters of the Poor? How does that for narrative of “ just a few plays away”

 

[Texas Lion]

Hi

How do you explained getting bullied and pushed around the field like the Little Sisters of the Poor? How does that for narrative of “ just a few plays away”

I say yes they did get bullied around and basically had no OL and still were 6 plays away from the playoffs.

 

[MacNit07]

I say yes they did get bullied around and basically had no OL and still were 6 plays away from the playoffs.

Well, that is a bit extreme…I could find some plays that could have led to defeats had they gone the other way (Wisconsin and Auburn to name 2)…no way this team will be anything but mediocre (and that is what we are despite top-15 talent) until we get tougher - mentally and physically - and get better in game managing from our head coach.

 

[Texas Lion]

Well, that is a bit extreme…I could find some plays that could have led to defeats had they gone the other way (Wisconsin and Auburn to name 2)…no way this team will be anything but mediocre (and that is what we are despite top-15 talent) until we get tougher - mentally and physically - and get better in game managing from our head coach.

I agree