Penn State Football: Nelson Says Line Not Satisfied After Dominating Performance

Penn State’s offensive line finally started to figure things out last weekend as the Nittany Lions rushed for five scores and over 200 yards on the ground.

None of Penn State’s massive blockers carried the ball a single time or even threw a pass, but for them the success was seeing the running game succeed after three straight weeks of questions.

Success that has been in the works for a long time.

“I think there’s been a ton of improvement,” Freshman tackle Andrew Nelson said earlier this week. “A lot of the offensive line is communication and executing together, and I think we were kind of struggling in the beginning to communicate not only amongst ourselves but with the tight ends, the backs and the quarterbacks. So I think just because our communication has improved so much and we’re kind of clicking on that level, that really helps us to execute better.”

Even with the success Penn State’s front line had this weekend, there is an understanding of who the Nittany Lions were playing. Even if UMass is a Division I team, there isn’t any doubt Penn State will face and has already faced tougher opposition. So for Nelson and his teammates, there is an appreciation for the success that was had, but an understanding they still have a long way to go.

“We definitely have to prove ourselves against every team we play,” Nelson said. “And we’re definitely not going to take the attitude, hey, listen, we dominated up front against UMass so we’ve kind of figured this thing out. We’re going to go into every game thinking, listen, these guys are going to be the best up front that we’ve played and we have to dominate them. We definitely don’t think we have it all figured out and we definitely think we have a lot of room for improvement.”

Luckily for Penn State, this weekend will feature a Northwestern team not very prone to rushing the quarterback. So while the Nittany Lions will do their best to play a balanced game on offense, quarterback Christian Hackenberg ought to get the green light to throw the ball at will. And that means a different kind of blocking.

“Well, there’s a lot of different things,” Nelson said of pass blocking and run blocking. “Even from stance to alignment definitely changes a lot, but obviously pass protection I’d say is kind of more finesse blocking than the run game, which is kind of more just dominating the person across from you.  So a lot of it kind of is where your athleticism comes in a lot, especially at tackle when you’re going against quick D‑ends and stuff like that.”

“It definitely takes a different kind of skill set. Like I said, I think athletically as far as your feet and technique and stuff like that, pass blocking is probably more difficult, but it also depends who you’re going against.  There’s D‑ends that are a lot better in the pass game, some that are a lot better in the run, backers that field real hard, so a lot of it depends on your opponent, too.”

Depending on how you look at it, the fact Penn State’s offensive line still has a long way to go can be a good or bad thing. On the one hand it means they haven’t peaked. On the other hand it means they’re spending weeks against tough teams figuring it out. Considering how young the line is though, all Penn State may really care about is eventually finding itself. Be that now or five weeks from now.

“That’s probably the most exciting part about where we’re at right now is the fact that we’re 4‑0 even while at times playing‑‑ not executing well and playing very sloppy, so knowing the fact that we have a lot of room to improve and we’re at the spot that we’re at is really exciting knowing that this is definitely not the best we have.” Nelson said.

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