It’s a number that will be hard to forget for the rest of the season – 357.
Penn State’s defense, which faces Ohio State Saturday night, was punctured for 357 rushing yards in the Nittany Lions’ 20-18 overtime loss to Illinois last Saturday at Beaver Stadium. The Fighting Illini ran it 67 times and averaged 5.3 yards per attempt.
Two Illinois backs easily surpassed the 100-yard mark.
One, Chase Brown, ran for 223 yards before leaving with an unspecified injury late. That total is the largest rushing number ever recorded by a visitor at Beaver Stadium.
Worse, Penn State knew what was coming. Illinois loaded up with offensive linemen and tight ends on many of the run plays, sometimes using seven linemen and two tight ends.
And the visitors, 24 point underdogs, ran for 357.
“Obviously, they gave us a formation that we had not seen on tape and made some adjustments to it,” James Franklin said Tuesday.
“What I would say … is at the end of the day, we held them to 10 points (in regulation).”
Offensive line tweaks. Penn State flip-flopped two offensive linemen during the game, moving Juice Scruggs from right guard to center and sliding Mike Miranda to Scruggs’ spot.
Penn State did little in the run game, finishing with 62 net yards on 29 attempts after quarterback Sean Clifford’s sacks were figured in. Noah Cain topped the rushing list with 43 yards on 11 carries.
“We got to be more physical up front,” Franklin said.
“I think that’s really important. We got to get vertical push with the O-line and the tight ends. I love those guys. I know where their heart is, their mentality, what their approach is like.”
“I know having some lengthy discussions with (offensive line) coach (Phil) Trautwein about that, as well,” Franklin added.
“Now it’s translating it to the practice field and translating it to the games. We got to create more push and play to the echo of the whistle and create space.
“Then our running backs have to be decisive and get downhill, and then we got to keep people honest with our perimeter throwing game so people can’t overload the box.”
Lions miss Wormley. While discussing his offensive line and some of their issues in the run game, Franklin disclosed that redshirt sophomore offensive guard Saleem Wormley is out for the year with an undisclosed injury. He was injured prior to the season.
“With Saleem coming into training camp and kind of through training camp before he got injured, he worked himself into a starting role for us,” Franklin said.
“So when we lost him, when you lose a starter, that’s significant.”
Ends need relief. Penn State has leaned heavily on three defensive ends to this point – Arnold Ebiketie, Nick Tarburton and Jesse Luketa.
Ebiketie and Luketa have been doing most of the heavy lifting in terms of creating disruptive plays.
Ebiketie has 11 tackles for loss, 5.5 sacks and four quarterback hits.
Luketa, a former linebacker, has five tackles for loss, five quarterback hits and an interception return for a touchdown.
The duo has played a lot of snaps through seven games and Franklin acknowledged the need to get some more players involved. But are they ready, especially against an offensive line like Ohio State’s?
“So Zuriah Fisher’s development is going to continue to be important for us,” Franklin said.
“And Smith Vilbert, who is playing, we hope his rep count will continue to grow as he gains confidence and experience.
“We would like to have — we have typically been five deep at D-tackle and we’ve typically been five deep at defensive end — and that has not been the case this year with injuries, especially when you lose multiple starters like we talked about with (tackle) PJ Mustipher and (end) Adisa Isaac).”
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