James Franklin said the words ‘third down’ on 10 occasions during his Tuesday afternoon press conference. That’s three more times than the Nittany Lions have converted on that same down, just seven of 30 attempts.
Only Georgia Southern has done worse this year.
Of course the Nittany Lions have gotten away with it so far, at 3-0 only Pitt has given Penn State a true late-game scare. It stands to reason that luck won’t last forever, and as the Nittany Lions head to a sold-out College Park for a Friday night game against Maryland, the Terps will give Penn State their biggest test of the year so far.
And moving the chains might be the difference.
‘You know, one of the things that we’re doing is we are obviously doing a little bit more right now of emphasizing third down in practice,’ Franklin added. ‘But as you all know when you shift time and resources to one area, which is third down, then you have to take it from somewhere else that we have in our normal week. You just can’t add time. Although, as coaches, we’d love to do that.’
‘So that’s always a discussion: Do you just emphasize it and spend more time on it, or do you leave the plan the way it is and try to work through it gradually.’
In fairness to Penn State’s offense, a usual stout third-down defensive unit has given up its fair share of long third downs. Overall the Nittany Lions the 25th best third-down unit on defense, but even they have had their moments. Against Buffalo the upset-minded visitors coverted 10 of their 23 opportunities. In the following week a slightly less coherent Pitt offense managed five conversions on 16 attempts.
A clip of 38% conversion rate over the past two games is a slightly less appealing figure than Penn State’s season average that includes a 1-for-15 effort by Idaho.
The bad new for Penn State? The Terps have the sixth-best defense in the nation on third down. The season is young and opponents like Howard and Temple don’t pack quite the same punch as a talented bunch of Nittany Lions, but Maryland has found a way, giving up just 11 conversions on 43 attempts.
So something will have to give if the Nittany Lions want to head back home with their fourth win of the season.
