With Penn State headed into the off week and a Big Ten opening clash with Maryland set in College Park next week, now is as good of a time as any to reboot The National, a weekly look at how Penn State’s stats stack up against the rest of the nation.
Of course there are some immediate caveats here, including the fact Penn State’s win over Idaho is going to inflate figures for the entire season, especially early in the year. Once the Nittany Lions are farther into Big Ten play, we’ll switch the rankings to only include conference games across the country.
But for now three games is enough, even with Idaho in the mix, to unpack a few trends both good and bad. As the Nittany Lions continue to find themselves, especially on offense, the trends will take shape in a more definitive direction.
Rushing touchdowns: 6th in the nation with 10.
The Idaho game is a big contributor here to be sure, but the Nittany Lions are getting production out of their backs this year so far. It looks like it’ll be the Noah Cain and Journey Brown show for the immediate future and it will be interesting to see how their do with larger roles.
Some extra figures in this area, Penn State is 26th in yards per carry at 5.70 and 46th in the nation averaging 192 yards a game. The Nittany Lion offensive line has gotten its far share of flak from people, but it’s opening holes for solid runs more often than not. Time will tell if this bunch is up to the task against larger defensive lines, but for now they’re at least serviceable
Third downs: Penn State comes in at 125th in the nation, a 23.33% clip that’s seven conversions on 30 attempts.
There are some third downs in here that come from garbage time in the Idaho game, but it’s safe to say Penn State’s third down woes haven’t been solved from last year or the early part of this season. The cause is a little harder to define, sometimes it’s bad first and second down, other times it’s inconsistent execution on third down. Third down conversions are not a hard and fast solution, but Penn State will need to find an answer to keep the offense on the field.
In 2017 they did, converting nearly 48% of their attempts, good enough for 5th in the nation.
Scoring defense: Nittany Lion defense is 7th in the nation giving up just 10 points a game. Wisconsin leads with a zero point average, but also has only played two games.
Penn State’s issue here really isn’t keeping teams out of the end zone as much as it is the chunk plays that will eventually lead to those scores. It’s one thing to give up 15-30 yard gains against Buffalo or Pitt, but eventually teams will finish drives and this number will go up. That being said, this group has done a good enough job in the red zone giving up three touchdowns on seven trips.
In general Penn State has done a pretty good job slowing teams from getting seven every drive the past few years, this number will go up as the competition improves, but don’t be surprised if it sticks inside the Top 20.
Tackles For A Loss Allowed: 18 so far which is 73rd in the nation. Also Penn State has given up six sacks, which is 77th.
This has been less of an issue in the post-Barkley era, but a new offensive line is a new offensive line. There are a lot of ways to give up a tackle for a loss, so I would worry less about the actual number and more the general trend. Not every play is going to gain yards, that’s just how it words, but is it a frequent thing or just every once in a while. The six TFLs per game average is somewhere between 2018 and 2017’s.
The somewhat good news, Penn State has only given up 59 yards on these tackles, which is 66th in the nation, slightly better than the actual total.
Touchbacks: 24 total is second best behind LSU’s 27. Jordan Stout’s 96% touchback percentage is best in the nation.
I mean we pretty much could have guessed this. There hasn’t been a kick specialist in the past decade to average over 90% on his touchback rate. We’re a very long way from this being a serious thing, but Stout is certainly on the right track. It will be interesting to see how he handles the stronger winds. Winter is coming, after all.
