aubiefifty 18,231 Posted August 5, 2021 Share Posted August 5, 2021 auburnwire.usatoday.com Auburn football schedule analysis: Grading the Penn State Nittany Lions Lance Dawe 4-5 minutes This is the third article in a series grading Auburn’s opponents by position groups. Things get interesting for Auburn in week three. After opening the season with back-to-back cupcake games in Akron and Alabama State, the Tigers must go on the road up north to Happy Valley, home of the Penn State Nittany Lions. Auburn and Penn State have only faced off twice before, with the most recent game being a close 13-9 win for Auburn in the 2003 Capital One Bowl. Both teams enter 2021 in somewhat of a rebuilding stage. Auburn, of course, breaking in a new head coach along with multiple staff changes. Penn State, on the other hand, is trying to bounce back from an embarrassing year in the Big 10, which can be attributed to both coaching and player mistakes. Let’s grade the Nittany Lions by position group to see how they stack up. Matthew OHaren-USA TODAY Sports Sean Clifford has been consistent for Penn State over the course of two full seasons as the starter, but he’s not gotten over the hump. Clifford has thrown for 4,732 yards and 41 touchdowns in his three years with the program. Clifford is 1-3 when throwing for over 300 yards and 3-3 VS Top 25 teams. His best win against a Top 25 team came against Michigan in 2019 where he completed 56% of his passes for 182 yards. He has not been the answer in Penn State’s biggest moments. When they rely on him too much, he has proven to be unreliable and turnover-prone. Tim Heitman-USA TODAY Sports Noah Cain, the projected 2021 starter, was injured in Penn State’s opening game against Indiana. He was second on the team in rushing with 443 yards as a freshman in 2019. Freshman Keyvone Lee shouldered the load for the running back room in 2020, finishing with 438 yards on 89 carries over the course of eight games. No running back on Penn State’s roster averaged over 4.9 yards per carry last season. Matthew OHaren-USA TODAY Sports The receiving core is the strength of this offense. Jahan Dotson led the team with 884 receiving yards and eight touchdowns last season. Parker Washington (36 receptions, 489 yards, six TDs) and KeAndre Lambert-Smith (17 receptions, 164 yards, two TDs) are solid depth options behind Dotson as well as emerging tight ends in Brenton Strange and Theo Johnson. John Jones-USA TODAY Sports Three starters return from a unit that was 39th best in the country in 2020 according to PFF. They allowed 28 sacks in nine games for the Nittany Lions. That averages out to 3.11 sacks per game, which was 109th in the country. It’s a mark that’s going to have to go way down in 2021. Bruce Thorson-USA TODAY Sports One starter returns from a unit that earned 21 sacks in nine games last year. The line only gave up 130.2 rushing yards per game, but lacks experience heading into this season. Matthew OHaren-USA TODAY Sports Penn State’s top 2 tacklers from last season were from their linebacker core. They both return this season and should bolster a defense that was stout when it came to total yards allowed per game (328.8 yards, 17th nationally) Rich Barnes-USA TODAY Sports Three starters return from a unit that only mustered three interceptions in nine games, (four total if you include one from linebacker Brandon Smith). However, Penn State’s back end only gave up 198.6 pass yards per game. Something else worth noting is that Penn State was 108th in the country in starting field position. Opposing offenses on average started at the 33-yard line. They didn’t give up a lot of yards, but they were already working with a shorter field on average because of Penn State’s turnover problem last season (-7 TO margin, 10 fumbles). Evidence of this was allowing 27.7 ppg (55th nationally), while only allowing 328.8 total yards per game (17th nationally). Matthew OHaren-USA TODAY Sports Penn State’s lack of offensive efficiency and explosiveness led to a lot of dead drives ending in the red zone. Penn State’s 18 field goal attempts were the second-most in the Big 10. They only made 11 of them, second-worst in the Big 10. Penn State averaged 41.6 yards per punt. The return game was electric. Penn State was one of only four FBS teams with two punt returns of 50 yards or more. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AUpreacherman22 3,945 Posted August 5, 2021 Share Posted August 5, 2021 This analysis seems to indicate our trip to HV is a very winnable game! Offense not great with TO problems, D gave up more points than I thought. We have way too many unknowns to put a high percentage on much of anything, but as of now (and a lot will take place between now and then), I believe we can go up there and give them a heck of a game and maybe even leave PA with a W! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
W.E.D 11,071 Posted August 5, 2021 Share Posted August 5, 2021 1 hour ago, AUpreacherman22 said: This analysis seems to indicate our trip to HV is a very winnable game! Offense not great with TO problems, D gave up more points than I thought. We have way too many unknowns to put a high percentage on much of anything, but as of now (and a lot will take place between now and then), I believe we can go up there and give them a heck of a game and maybe even leave PA with a W! They were pretty bad last year. It would be a huge momentum builder for Harsin and us Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hank2020 3,355 Posted August 5, 2021 Share Posted August 5, 2021 52 minutes ago, W.E.D said: They were pretty bad last year. It would be a huge momentum builder for Harsin and us How they started was not how they ended, last year. Schedule looks like it was easier last half of year though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
toddc 13,197 Posted August 6, 2021 Share Posted August 6, 2021 8 hours ago, aubiefifty said: auburnwire.usatoday.com Auburn football schedule analysis: Grading the Penn State Nittany Lions Lance Dawe 4-5 minutes This is the third article in a series grading Auburn’s opponents by position groups. Things get interesting for Auburn in week three. After opening the season with back-to-back cupcake games in Akron and Alabama State, the Tigers must go on the road up north to Happy Valley, home of the Penn State Nittany Lions. Auburn and Penn State have only faced off twice before, with the most recent game being a close 13-9 win for Auburn in the 2003 Capital One Bowl. Both teams enter 2021 in somewhat of a rebuilding stage. Auburn, of course, breaking in a new head coach along with multiple staff changes. Penn State, on the other hand, is trying to bounce back from an embarrassing year in the Big 10, which can be attributed to both coaching and player mistakes. Let’s grade the Nittany Lions by position group to see how they stack up. Matthew OHaren-USA TODAY Sports Sean Clifford has been consistent for Penn State over the course of two full seasons as the starter, but he’s not gotten over the hump. Clifford has thrown for 4,732 yards and 41 touchdowns in his three years with the program. Clifford is 1-3 when throwing for over 300 yards and 3-3 VS Top 25 teams. His best win against a Top 25 team came against Michigan in 2019 where he completed 56% of his passes for 182 yards. He has not been the answer in Penn State’s biggest moments. When they rely on him too much, he has proven to be unreliable and turnover-prone. Tim Heitman-USA TODAY Sports Noah Cain, the projected 2021 starter, was injured in Penn State’s opening game against Indiana. He was second on the team in rushing with 443 yards as a freshman in 2019. Freshman Keyvone Lee shouldered the load for the running back room in 2020, finishing with 438 yards on 89 carries over the course of eight games. No running back on Penn State’s roster averaged over 4.9 yards per carry last season. Matthew OHaren-USA TODAY Sports The receiving core is the strength of this offense. Jahan Dotson led the team with 884 receiving yards and eight touchdowns last season. Parker Washington (36 receptions, 489 yards, six TDs) and KeAndre Lambert-Smith (17 receptions, 164 yards, two TDs) are solid depth options behind Dotson as well as emerging tight ends in Brenton Strange and Theo Johnson. John Jones-USA TODAY Sports Three starters return from a unit that was 39th best in the country in 2020 according to PFF. They allowed 28 sacks in nine games for the Nittany Lions. That averages out to 3.11 sacks per game, which was 109th in the country. It’s a mark that’s going to have to go way down in 2021. Bruce Thorson-USA TODAY Sports One starter returns from a unit that earned 21 sacks in nine games last year. The line only gave up 130.2 rushing yards per game, but lacks experience heading into this season. Matthew OHaren-USA TODAY Sports Penn State’s top 2 tacklers from last season were from their linebacker core. They both return this season and should bolster a defense that was stout when it came to total yards allowed per game (328.8 yards, 17th nationally) Rich Barnes-USA TODAY Sports Three starters return from a unit that only mustered three interceptions in nine games, (four total if you include one from linebacker Brandon Smith). However, Penn State’s back end only gave up 198.6 pass yards per game. Something else worth noting is that Penn State was 108th in the country in starting field position. Opposing offenses on average started at the 33-yard line. They didn’t give up a lot of yards, but they were already working with a shorter field on average because of Penn State’s turnover problem last season (-7 TO margin, 10 fumbles). Evidence of this was allowing 27.7 ppg (55th nationally), while only allowing 328.8 total yards per game (17th nationally). Matthew OHaren-USA TODAY Sports Penn State’s lack of offensive efficiency and explosiveness led to a lot of dead drives ending in the red zone. Penn State’s 18 field goal attempts were the second-most in the Big 10. They only made 11 of them, second-worst in the Big 10. Penn State averaged 41.6 yards per punt. The return game was electric. Penn State was one of only four FBS teams with two punt returns of 50 yards or more. You really should use the “post as plain text button before posting. Your pictures are unreadable like this anyway. Thanks for your posting though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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