Penn State Football: Who needs to step up in season’s second half?

Penn State Football RG Juice Scruggs

As was already mentioned, the inability to run the ball well has been the biggest weakness for this Penn State Football team through the front half of the regular season. Although there is a variety of reasons for this, the primary one lies with the offensive line’s lack of success to create running lanes.

Left guard Eric Wilson has improved on a weekly basis, not only from a run blocking perspective, but in pass protection too. His counterpart at right guard, Juice Scruggs, has the potential to be a great all-around offensive lineman.

Scruggs’ pass blocking has been outstanding so far according to this tweet;

If the Nittany Lions’ right guard can replicate that same level of success when it comes to run blocking, this offense might be able to vastly improve upon their 3.7 yards per rush, which ranks 10th in the Big Ten.

Against Iowa, false starts were one of they many factors that led to Penn State Football’s lone loss this season, and Scruggs was the one to jump most often. Obviously there is blame to go around. James Franklin said that backup quarterback Ta’Quan Roberson was not loud enough, but the coaching staff also could have changed the cadence sooner than they did.

At the end of the day though, there did not seem to be much of an issue for the rest of the offensive line when it came to hearing their quarterback. With two big-time road games (Ohio State and Michigan State) in tough environments remaining on Penn State’s schedule, Scruggs will need to be sure not to repeat those mistakes.

The interior of the offensive line as a unit needs to step up down the stretch, and Juice Scruggs is the most talented of that bunch. For that reason, he needs to set the tone and elevate his play to help this offense and this team be successful in the second half of the season.