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Upon further review: Examining Penn State’s 28-16 loss to Michigan

By Audrey Snyder/Pittsburgh Post-Gazette 8 years ago

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Brandon Polk took the ball to the edge for a gain of five yards, but Michigan’s Jarrod Wilson was able to make a big-time play by forcing the speedster to the boundary and getting him out of bounds at the one. 

Christian Hackenberg was unable to connect with DaeSean Hamilton on the next play, bringing out kicker Tyler Davis who converted on three field goals of 24 yards or less. It was a series of struggles for the Lions in the redzone Saturday afternoon against Michigan, ones where the Lions loaded the offensive line to the left side while Saquon Barkley ran to the right. Hackenberg had tight windows to try and fit the ball into as the defensive backs blanketed the receivers. The wildcat — the Lions’ most successful rushing formation two weeks ago against Northwestern— was stuffed back into offensive coordinator John Donovan’s bag of options.

“We were not able to run the ball consistently today whether it was traditional runs or wildcat,” Franklin said. “By the time the ball carrier got the ball there was someone in his face. We tried to do some new things with the jet sweep off the wildcat. 

“We were one-on-one on the edge, their guy had enough speed to keep it to a minimal gain, but we weren’t able to be consistent enough in the run game and it showed in the red-zone, we had too many field goals.”

When the field tightened and the Lions had less real estate to work with in the redzone here’s a recap of what happened:

Opening drive: 1st and goal at the Michigan 9:

  • Saquon Barkley rush +1
  • Saquon Barkley rush -1
  • Squon Barkley rush +3
  • 23-yard field goal from Tyler Davis

Why all three runs? Well, that wasn’t the plan but the based off what Michigan was showing Hackenberg used the run-pass checks to check into runs. “It ended up being three runs, but they weren’t all three run calls, they were checked,” Franklin said.

4th quarter: 1st and goal at the Michigan 3:

  • Hackenberg incomplete pass intended for Geno Lewis
  • Saquon Barkley rush for -3 yards
  • Hackenberg pass incomplete intended for Kyle Carter
  • 24-yard field goal from Tyler Davis 

4th quarter: 1st and 10 at Michigan 20 (following a Penn State timeout)

  • Hackenberg pass to Barkley +14
  • Hackenberg pass incomplete intended for Brandon Polk
  • Brandon Polk rush +5
  • (3rd and goal at Michigan 1) Hackenberg pass incomplete intended for DaeSean Hamilton
  • 18-yard field goal from Tyler Davis

Why not go for the touchdown there with Penn State trailing 21-13?

“At that point we had a hard time in the redzone and punching it in so we thought the field goal was the best decision,” Franklin said. 

Where was DE Carl Nassib?

Carl Nassib’s streak of having at least one sack in every game this season came to a close Saturday after he played on the first series but wasn’t in the game after that. 

Remember, Nassib didn’t play at the end of the Northwestern game after setting the school’s single season sacks record (15.5) and while Franklin doesn’t discuss injuries he did say Nassib was limited this week. 

“I could tell Friday in the walkthrough he wasn’t feeling great, but he wouldn’t tell us that,” Franklin said. “You could tell Saturday in the beginning of warmups that he wasn’t feeling great. Once we saw that he wasn’t going to be able to go and help us and help himself then we made the change and pulled him out.” 

A little something extra

This is supposed to be the deepest receiving corps Penn State’s had in Christian Hackenberg’s three-year tenure— at least that’s what WR coach Josh Gattis said in August— and when called upon to make a play sophomore Saeed Blacknall did his job. 

The 25-yard second-quarter touchdown was Blacknall’s first of the season and just his sixth catch of the year. He posted four catches for 101 yards against San Diego State this year and also had a 38-yard catch against Maryland. This touchdown however, coming against Michigan’s Jabrill Peppers meant a little bit more, said Blacknall. 

“It goes a little deeper than than because in high school I used to train with him, so obviously we are from the same area, same state, and we got highly recruited,” said Blacknall, who played his high school football at New Jersey’s Manalapan High School. Peppers starred at Paramus Catholic. “We used to talk [about the] game, prior to the schools that we are at now, so it was a little more than that.” 

Rivers picks Penn State

This was the biggest recruiting weekend of the year for Penn State and the Lions picked up a verbal pledge from three-star linebacker Dylan Rivers, who announced his verbal commitment on his Twitter account prior to kickoff. 

The Stephens City, Va. class of 2017 prospect had scholarship offers from Arizona, Clemson, Pitt, West Virginia and Vanderbilt, among others. Rivers, a three-star prospect, is the second member of the 2017 recruiting class, joining quarterback Sean Clifford who gave Penn State his verbal pledge in July. 

Bowl season heating up

Representatives from the Holiday Bowl, Music City Bowl and Peach Bowl were all slated to be at the game. With Penn State’s loss Saturday and a game with Michigan State on tap the Lions very well could be looking at options like the TaxSlayer Bowl (Jacksonville), Music City (Nashville), Foster Farms (Santa Clara) or Holiday Bowl (San Diego). 

Audrey Snyder: asnyder@post-gazette.com and Twitter @audsnyder4.