3 biggest fixes Penn State needs to avoid another upset at Northwestern in Week 5

Plenty went wrong for Penn State in Matt Campbell’s Big Ten debut against Wisconsin in Week 4. Most of it was on the offensive side of the ball. Penn State managed just one offensive touchdown, which came off a short field thanks to a Daryus Dixson interception, and when the offense had a chance to put the game away in the fourth quarter, it went on three straight three-and-outs. 

So, the biggest fixes heading into a pretty terrifying matchup against a plucky Northwestern team in Week 5 are all on that side of the ball. Chip Kelly has found something as the offensive coordinator in Evanston with journeyman quarterback Aidan Chiles, so that offense will be difficult to stop, but D’Anton Lynn’s defense looked great against the Badgers until the offense hung it out to dry one too many times. 

So, let’s focus on fixing Taylor Mouser’s offense, and the quarterback is probably a good place to start. 

3. Buy Rocco Becht more time

By EPA/dropback, Rocco Becht had the worst game of his career in Week 4. He had three passes batted down at the line of scrimmage, including one that was popped up for an interception, and was generally inaccurate downfield all day. 

Becht needs to be better, and one way to help is for Mouser to buy him more time. There’s not one player on the offensive line who has been a glaring issue, but they’ve seemingly all had enough problems that it’s constantly springing a leak. 

Because the issue isn’t consistent, the solution can be hard. One catch-all is to get Rocco Becht on the move more. The benefit would be two-fold:

1. He’s a talented thrower on the run, and getting him outside the pocket would prevent him from having passes batted and would simplify his reads. 2. By threatening the bootleg off under-center play-action, you force the defense to account for him, even on run play, typically with the backside edge. That takes one player out of the run fit and could help get the ground game going. 

Then, when you are going to have a straight dropback, more often than not, I’d send help to the left side and hope everything else sorts itself out. Malachi Goodman is a talented player, but he’s too slow getting depth in his pass set right now and is continually losing to speed rushes at his left shoulder. 

With the lack of explosiveness in the passing game, Penn State can’t afford to keep a tight end in, but it can have one chip to buy Goodman a bit of time, and that way, even if he loses, it won’t be a quick pressure on Becht. 

2. Just get your playmakers the ball

After he had three catches in the first quarter, Benjamin Brahmer didn’t have another until the fourth, and Becht hardly looked his way. With Koby Howard out, he’s probably the most dynamic playmaker in the Penn State passing game, and he was nonexistent for much of the night on Saturday. 

Brett Eskildsen didn’t catch one of his six targets, but five of them were over 10 yards downfield, and his average depth of target was 25.7 yards. Zay Robinson, Howard’s replacement in the slot, saw just one target all game. That’s just not enough. 

Mouser needs to do a better job designing touches for his playmakers in this offense because they did not get much separation downfield. That’s a big problem, for sure, but to work around it, Mouser needs to rely on screens, pre-snap motion, and whichever quick-game elements he trusts the most to get the ball in their hands and let them run after the catch. Penn State had just 25 yards after the catch in Week 4. 

1. Get to the perimeter run game and hope your tight ends can block it up

It’s easy to point the finger at Quinton Martin Jr. and Carson Hansen, who both averaged fewer than three yards per carry in Week 4, and blame them for the issues in the run game. And certainly, both of those running backs are not getting more than what’s blocked for them the way James Peoples is. But there really hasn’t been a whole lot blocked for them. 

To me, it starts with the interior offensive line getting pushed around, and one of the natural solutions is to run the ball outside. However, Andrew Rappleyea, coming off an injury, struggles at the point of attack on many of those runs. Still, it’s probably the best chance of hitting explosives on the ground, which this offense desperately needs. 

I broke it down in more detail on social media:

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