Over the course of eight games Penn State’s defense had given up a modest 1,693 passing yards. It hadn’t always been pretty, but at 8-0 it was efficient enough to get the job done. There had been chunk plays sprinkled throughout the season leading up to Penn State’s clash against Minnesota, but not tons of points to go with them.
Over the course of the next two weeks that trend drastically changed, Penn State’s defense giving up 710 yards through the air, roughly 42% of all the yards the previous eight weeks.
Against Minnesota it was a 18-for-20, 339 yard and three touchdown effort that scorched the Nittany Lions. Then on Saturday against Indiana it was a 31-for-41 outing that totaled 371 yards and a touchdown. In total opposing quarterbacks have completed 80% of their passes over the past two weeks, a striking number for a defense that was ranked 15th in total pass defense just a year ago. [As an side, for all the struggles Indiana has had with actually winning, the Hoosiers have been ranked 15th, 36th, 35th, 28th and 22nd in passing yards per game over the past five seasons.]
The question of course is how that happened, and like all things in football, the answer is not entirely clear cut.
For one Penn State hasn’t really gotten to the quarterback like it would want to, equally true, both Minnesota and Indiana were fairly quick to get rid of the ball. Short drop-back situations don’t lend themselves to sacks and Penn State’s commitment to stopping the run (against Minnesota in particular) led to more difficult coverage situations down the field.
Enter safety Garrett Taylor and quick lesson the word ‘execution.’
‘Within a certain play all eleven guys have a job,’ Taylor said following Penn State’s win on Saturday. ‘And if everyone does their job, technically speaking, that should be a successful defense.’
‘And, you know, sometimes you’ll have a one-on-one matchup where say the receiver makes a great catch. That’s not an execution error that’s just making a play. But an execution error is if we have a play call, and someone doesn’t do their job and that [offensive] play [works], that’s because we’re not executing. We had the right call, we had guys in position but you know, someone might have gotten loose [with their assignment], someone might have been out of their gap, something like that and the [offensive] play works. That’s not executing.’
How exactly you fix that is a bit film study, a bit practice and a lot of discipline.
And some of it, according to Taylor, is what you do before the ball is even snapped.
‘I think something we can definitely get better as tempo,’ Taylor added. ‘I think sometimes, you know, offenses get a good play and they get on the ball quick. I think sometimes we’re not getting lined up or getting set fast enough. So we’re a little bit out of position. I would say tempo is pretty important and I think that goes with the execution a little bit.’
And of course don’t forget the details, at the core of every complex football topic is a fundamental, and sticking to those fundaments, even something as simple as pre-snap behavior can be the difference between a good play and a bad one.
‘Sometimes I think we can do a little bit better job with our pre snap,’ Taylor added. ‘Sometimes we’ll give away tells, we might be tilting, you know, give her a hand away on a blitz early. The quarterback will get into a play that’s better for that call. So we can do a little bit better with that.’
‘It’s just something you work on and practice every week, just making sure that we’re practicing those little things where we’re making sure everyone’s getting home fast and getting the call from the sidelines. Making sure that we’re not stagnant too much, or moving around showing different looks.’
To a certain extent Penn State’s defensive woes in coverage might not make a huge difference when it comes to the general outcome of the season. The Nittany Lions are unlikely to round back into form over the span of seven days to fix their issues in time for Ohio State. While certainly possible even a good pass defense might not be enough to slow down the high-powered Buckeyes.
A date with Rutgers in the following week is unlikely to pose massive issues even for a struggling defense and Penn State’s bowl opponent could be so many different types of teams it’s impossible to say what role an improved pass coverage will play in the outcome of that game.
But in the broad sense, Penn State will need to improve this season and beyond if it wants to turn the tide against the more competent passing attacks in the nation. Also in reality the Big Ten’s somewhat absent stable of high profile quarterbacks brings up an issue like Penn State has seen the past two weeks less frequently.
‘We got to get better, there’s no doubt about it,’ James Frankly said Saturday. ‘I will also say that [Indiana] has done that to everybody. I think they’re leading the conference in passing, one of the best passing offenses in the country. They’re doing a really good job. Although they threw for that many yards, they only have 8% explosive plays. They did a really good job with that. Can we get better there? There’s no doubt about it. Obviously we’ll work on that a great deal. But again the most important stat is that we found a way to get.’
And at the end of the day, Franklin isn’t wrong.
