Penn State Football: Grades versus Rutgers

By Dylan Burd | Nov 20, 2018

PISCATAWAY, NJ - NOVEMBER 17: Trace McSorley #9 of the Penn State Nittany Lions hands off to Miles Sanders #24 against the Rutgers Scarlet Knights during the second quarter at HighPoint.com Stadium on November 17, 2018 in Piscataway, New Jersey. (Photo by Corey Perrine/Getty Images) /

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PISCATAWAY, NJ – NOVEMBER 17: Trace McSorley #9 of the Penn State Nittany Lions throws the ball against the Rutgers Scarlet Knights during the fourth quarter at HighPoint.com Stadium on November 17, 2018 in Piscataway, New Jersey. Penn State won 20-7. (Photo by Corey Perrine/Getty Images) /

Offensive Line

The stats are a bit deceiving with the offensive line in this game. The two main stats that you’d normally evaluate offensive line play on are opponent sacks, and rushing yards for.

If you look at the stat sheet, you’d see that Rutgers had zero sacks. However, the rushing total for Penn State was extremely underwhelming. Penn State only rushed for 139 yards, as mentioned before, on 39 carries. That’s only 3.6 yards per rush against a defense that was outside the top-100 in the FBS in defending the run.

In addition, Trace McSorley had minimal time to throw the ball, and was hurried twice. This is a game where you’d expect McSorley to have all the time in the world. It just wasn’t a pretty game for the offensive line, as they played down to their competition.

Grade: C

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