Penn State Football 2021: Keys to success on offense

This season, the way this Penn State Football offense performs will be crucial for the success of the team.

Not only will the way Sean Clifford performs be more important than anyone else on the team, but some of Penn State Football’s best players are on the offensive side of the ball, such as Jahan Dotson and Rasheed Walker. To be successful, a team needs their best players to play like it.

This team may rely on the running game more so than the pass, so they need to be effective at that. However, they will also need some of their key components in the passing game to step up this year, as there will be times where they need to push the ball downfield through the air against some of the top defenses in the conference.

So, here are three things that this offense will need to do to be successful, as well as three key players who will play a big role in that happening.

Key #1 – Limit Turnovers 

Limiting turnovers is crucial for any offense to be successful, and that is the primary reason for Penn State Football’s slow start last season.

While running backs not fumbling the football, as well as receivers and tight ends when they get the ball in their hands, is important … Penn State Football should be in good hands (pun intended) when it comes to fumbles from those positions. The only offensive player (that is not a quarterback or is no longer with Penn State) on the team that has fumbled the football over the past two seasons is Devyn Ford, with two fumbles. John Lovett also had two fumbles over the past two seasons with Baylor, both coming in 2019.

Obviously, the skill position players will need to continue to do their part of holding onto the football, but Clifford is in primary control of whether or not turnovers will haunt this offense or not. In his first two seasons as the starting quarterback of the Nittany Lions, Clifford has 16 career interception and six career fumbles, losing four of those fumbles.

Last season, many of Clifford’s turnovers led to short fields or even touchdowns the other way. Penn State’s defense was second in the conference in yards allowed per game, but sixth in points allowed per game, in large part due to having a short field to work with often times after a turnover.

Understandably, there are certain times where an interception or fumble that is credited to the quarterback when it is not entirely their fault. Maybe they fumbled while getting sacked, the offensive line could have protected them better. Or maybe on an interception the wide receiver ran the wrong route or had a pass tip off their hands and wind up an interception.

Those positions will certainly need to do their part to prevent those things from happening. Although, at the end of the day, Clifford carries most of the responsibility with a majority of his turnovers.

If Clifford and the rest of the offense can limit turnovers and force opponents to have to sustain long drives against Penn State’s defense to score points, this team will win a lot of games.