Penn State Football: 3 glaring problems that need to be addressed

2. What is the identity?

What exactly is Penn State’s offensive identity?

It looks like the Nittany Lions want to be a run-first team, but they just don’t consistently run the ball well enough to do that. This is leading to too many obvious passing situations, which defenses are easily prepared for.

This is leading to a lack of points.

The Nittany Lions have been struggling on offense since putting up 41 points on Auburn. They scored 33 against Central Michigan and then just 17 against Northwestern and 10 against Michigan.

This is just not going to get the job done.

Penn State is struggling on offense for a few reasons. First off, Michigan’s defensive line won the line of scrimmage pretty much all day against Penn State’s offensive line. It’s hard to run the ball when that happens. Second, the play calling at times has been questionable and seems to lack creativity.

Everyone saw that Michigan’s defensive line was getting pressure on Sean Clifford, but time and time again, the Nittany Lions ran long-developing pass plays in obvious passing situations. This led to Clifford either being sacked or throwing the ball away.

Penn State just did not game plan for ways to get the ball in the hands of the skill players as much as possible and as fast as possible.

This doesn’t just go for the passing game either. With the running backs just running into a wall on every play on Saturday, it would have been nice to see a couple pitches or sweeps and let Nick Singleton’s speed be a factor.

The Nittany Lions had just 268 yards of offense, and 110 of those yards came on two plays. That just isn’t going to cut it.

Going forward, regardless of who the quarterback is, Penn State needs to get more creative.

If the offensive line is problem, move the pocket like Michigan did so well on Saturday. Run bootlegs, which not only result in extra time for the quarterback, but usually lead to an open receiver as defenses try to account for the quarterback’s running threat. Give Singleton a pitch outside the tackles, give KeAndre Lambert-Smith a jet sweep, just try something creative.

If this offense is going to totally turn it around, the offensive line and the running backs need to play up to their potential. If that doesn’t work, just find the easiest and most efficient ways to get the ball in the hands of these talented skill players.