The coaching staff seemed to go into this game with a conservative plan, and that’s understandable considering it’s a MAC team.
However, there was a little bit too much “dinking and dunking” in the first half with all the short passes, and not enough establishing the run. A solid running game in the first half would have opened the field up a lot more for Sean Clifford.
Despite the rough first half, I thought the coaching staff did a really nice job of making adjustments in the second half. They let Clifford air it out down the field a little more, and that worked well. In addition, the team was very disciplined, as they only had three penalties for a combined 25 yards.
The most interesting stat from this game was that Penn State’s longest drive was only seven plays (credit to @PSU_Strong on Twitter for picking that up). There’s a lot of different ways you could look at that stat.
First, you can say that happened because Penn State punted four of the first five drives. Second, you can say that happened because Penn State kept scoring so quickly in the second half. Both are the right answers here.
It would definitely be helpful to the defense though if Penn State can have some longer drives throughout the game going forward. The defense was on the field for over 70-percent of the game, so it is understandable why they gave up so many yards. They were exhausted.
Looking at the bigger picture, the Nittany Lions did come away with a 32-point win, and the coaching staff deserves credit for that.