Putting one good drive together isn’t all that hard. Putting together multiple drives all in a row? That’s how you win football games. That’s how you turn an okay team into a good one. It’s the most important kind of consistency, the kind that finds you celebrating points, not good punts.
And slowly but surely Penn State is finding ways to do that. To turn an occasionally struggling offense into a productive and efficient machine. Nobody is going to confuse the Nittany Lions with Oregon anytime soon but there is progress being made. The numbers don’t lie.
In fact under James Franklin Penn State is 4-0 in games where the Nittany Lions score on three straight offensive drives. And in the last five games Penn State has done just that on three occasions and have won all three games as a result. It’s not rocket science, but it is good football.
On Saturday the offensive spurt came midway through the first half. Three straight drives all lasting seven plays, three straight drives moving the ball at least 53-yards and up to 72.
The problem in this case, Penn State came away with just 13 points and gave up seven. The Nittany Lions were moving the ball, but they weren’t finishing drives with touchdowns.
That problem is perhaps a secondary one for an offense that is just happy to see the ball in their hands for more than three plays at a time. Primary target No. 1 is moving the ball down the field, at this point maximizing scoring has become a secondary issue.
So what makes for a good drive? What are the common factors for each of those successful marches down the field despite games where Penn State.
According to Christian Hackenberg it’s a few different things.
“We’re usually very efficient on first and second down,” Hackenberg noted. “Getting in very manageable third downs and being able to execute on third down. Once you keep the chains moving a little bit and you get a chunk play here a chunk play there that’s when you tart to see things coming together for us.”
“I think when you look back at our drives that we score on, they almost always go around that. We’re good on first and second down and then explosive plays.”
And those numbers hold true. On Penn State’s back-to-back-to-back scoring drives on Saturday the offense faced third down just twice. The first drive featured a 12-yard completion, the second drive a 34-yard run, the final drive massive chunk plays of 46 and 21 yards. It wasn’t just a matter of good field position it was a matter of being efficient on early downs.
The byproduct of this, an easier afternoon for Hackenberg. Short yardage situations are by their very nature easier to deal with, but it also means the defense doesn’t have the advantage. A third-and-9 means you can give up seven yards and still force a punt. A third-and-3 and the tables aren’t tilted quite as much.
“It just gives you a more level playing field with the defense in terms of their calls. You become a little more one dimensional in that situation (long yardage). So for us we want to make sure we can have as much of an advantage as we can at certain downs and distances and situations. Because it’s all about situations.” Hackenberg added.
The key now will be to get into situations where drives end in more than just three points. A touchdown or two earlier in the game and Penn State may have never needed a 71-yard scoop and score by Austin Johnson to seal the deal.
Whatever the case, Penn State is just happy to have the ball moving down the field again.
“The last couple of weeks we have had a lot of success,” center Angelo Mangiro said. “We are setting a high standard for ourselves and I felt like we hit that standard at some parts of the game but not consistent enough.”
It’s a small step, but for an offense that looked entirely dysfunctional not too many weeks ago, even the smallest signs of progress are good ones.
