Penn State Football: Position grades versus Wisconsin
By Dylan Burd
Quarterbacks
As stated before, the offense hasn’t been the same since Trace McSorley went down with a knee injury over two weeks ago against Iowa. McSorley as seemed hesitant with his throws, and unable to plant his left foot, thus causing the ball to sail high.
However, a ton of credit has to be given to McSorley for Saturday’s game. On a day that was freezing cold with a ton of wind, he managed to fight through the injury, and complete 19 of his 25 passes for 160 yards and a touchdown. The touchdown came in the first quarter on a 14-yard pass to DeAndre Thompkins to tie up the game at seven.
McSorley’s stats vs Wisconsin won’t blow you away, but they were more than sufficient in a game like Saturday’s. It’s worth noting that the injury to McSorley has caused his running ability to be almost completely absent. However, offensive coordinator Ricky Rahne doesn’t seem to want to admit this, as McSorley still ran the ball 11 times vs Wisconsin, but for only a total of nine yards.
In order to help the option aspect of the offense a bit, backup quarterback Tommy Stevens ran the ball seven times, for a total of 25 yards. It’s fair to say that Trace McSorley is definitely going to be limited during the last two games, but hopefully a month’s rest between the Maryland game and the bowl game should have him fully healthy by then for one last finale.
Furthermore, Trace McSorley only needs one more win to become Penn State’s all-time winningest quarterback.