Rocco Becht’s 3 best throws vs. Temple and 2 he probably wants back

Penn State’s offense has caught some flak after a slow start in Week 2, but much of the scrutiny has been on the underperforming run game. None of it has been directly at fifth-year senior quarterback Rocco Becht, and justifiably so. 

Against lesser competition to start non-conference play, Becht has looked every bit the most experienced QB in the country. However, it’s not just experience and decision-making that have made his start so impressive; it’s the big-time throws that have led him to average 12.0 yards per attempt with seven touchdowns and no interceptions. 

The Iowa State transfer went 21/27 for 268 yards and three scores against Temple, but three throws in particular stood out above the rest. 

Rocco Becht’s best throws of Week 2

3. Becht’s 1st-play deep shot to Koby Howard

While there were some struggles in the first quarter of Penn State’s 29-7 win over Temple in Week 2, Becht came out of the gates firing, connecting with Koby Howard for 56 yards on the first play from scrimmage. Penn State max-protected, so Becht had plenty of time to step into this bomb, which traveled 48 yards in the air and allowed Howard to get behind Temple’s deepest defender. 

Howard did slow up a bit to reel it in, or else he may have had a house call, but it was still a good throw from Becht. 

2. Cover 2 hole shot to Chase Sowell

Temple gave Penn State a lot of Cover 2 on Saturday. Penn State planned for it, as Matt Campbell revealed about Becht’s first touchdown pass of the game just before halftime. One of the best ways to exploit Cover 2, which has two deep safeties and corners accounting for the flats, is to hit the ‘honey holes’ on corner routes. 

However, just because it’s a known weakness of Cover 2 doesn’t mean it’s an easy throw. Andrew Rappleyea’s route is designed to hold the corner so Becht can read him and go high or low. The corner doesn’t drop, so Becht layers rips the out-breaker to Chase Sowell just out of his reach. Not an easy throw at all. 

1. Anticipation is Rocco Becht’s best trait

Frankly, this is a bananas throw from Becht, not because he worked through his progressions to the backside dig or because he drives this to the intermediate level with some serious velocity, but because he releases it before Zay Robinson clears any of the traffic created by Koby Howard running the seam in this dagger concept. 

The ball hits Robinson right on the numbers, which allows him to protect himself from the closing safeties while still giving him the chance to create yards after the catch. There are plenty of quarterbacks with more arm talent than Becht, but you can probably count on one hand the number of college QBs who play with this level of anticipation. 

Rocco Becht’s worst throws of Week 2

2. Arm strength concerns or should Sowell have hauled it in?

I’m willing to hear the other side of the argument here, but I think the fact that this wasn’t a touchdown is more on Becht than Sowell, who had the ball dislodged by the Temple defender. 

Watch Sowell’s route: he gets the DB to slow his feet with a slight deceleration, then stacks him and leaves room to the sideline for Becht to lead him towards the front pylon. Becht’s throw forced Sowell to bend his route inside and brought the Temple defender back into the play. If this throw is to the outside, it's six points. 

Becht’s biggest concern from an NFL evaluation standpoint is the physical tools and the arm talent. This might be a case where he didn’t have the arm to drive it to that front pylon, or maybe it was just a bit of an inaccurate throw and a play his receiver still probably should have made. Regardless, I’m filing this one away. 

1. Red zone struggles

Becht, like the rest of the Penn State offense, wasn’t perfect in the first quarter. After his big completion to Howard, the unit spun its wheels, especially in the red zone, and on this play, Becht simply left six points on the table. Not only could he have gotten the ball to Carson Hansen, whom the play is designed for, but when he does come back to Rappleyea, who is wide open, he puts far too much zip on the throw for a receiver navigating traffic over the middle of the field. 

If Penn State gets this look against this play call, Becht probably cashes in eight or nine times out of 10. This was the one, and it made the final score look much closer than the game was.

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