Penn State’s Offense Looked Broken in Whiteout Loss to Oregon … Can It Be Fixed? | PURDY
It’s 3-3 late in the 2nd Quarter, Nittany Lions quarterback Drew Allar has just found wide receiver Devonte Ross for a first down. Penn State is driving.
With 1:30 left in the half, three timeouts, and in Oregon territory, the Nittany Lions’ offense goes rocket speed to the line of scrimmage.
Allar is barking out instructions, Kaytron Allen is trying to get lined up, Wide Receivers are running everywhere, and false start.
The situation that I just described is one of the many things that went wrong for Penn State and coordinator Andy Kotelnicki‘s offense on Saturday night in the Whiteout game against the Oregon Ducks.
As running back Nick Singleton was lining up in the Tight End spot, all of the confusion led him to false start.
Singleton lined up as a Tight End and then tried to go out wide as a receiver, and he and the rest of the offense were clearly out of sync.
This sequence totally stalled Penn State’s drive going into half, as they punted three plays later.
The Andy Kotelnicki led, Penn State offensive attack looked disjointed on Saturday. Disjointed, fragmented, jumbled, and out of sorts. I believe it is due to having too many up tempo and gimmick plays.
What is a Gimmick Play?
Before we go any further, we must define our terms.
I propose the definition of a gimmick play as follows: Any football play that is run out of an extremely uncommon, nontraditional, or never-before-done formation or action.
This definition is my shot at putting into words things like these: Direct snaps to a non-quarterback, 2-4 yard splits by Offensive Linemen, A Quarterback motioning out of the backfield, and countless other uncommon to football formations. This is how I will be defining a gimmick play.
Defining a tempo play is much easier.
A tempo play will be defined as any play that is ran after going no-huddle, and within 15 seconds of the 40-second play clock.
Additionally, this also includes breaking the huddle and running a play within 5 seconds of leaving the huddle. While not neccesarrily tempo on the playclock, it is tempo for the players.
So, for simplicity’s sake, those are our definitions.
By The Numbers: Gimmicks and Up-Tempo Failed
Gimmicks: 6 plays, 8 yards, one false start, and the longest play was an 8 yard scramble.
Up-Tempo: 7 plays, 8 yards, one false start, and a long play of 4 yards.
So, for everyone counting at home, that is 21% of Penn State’s snaps against the Ducks.
In a game so big, where each snap is uber important, Andy Kotelnicki used 13 of his 60 plays to try to gimmick around Oregon’s defense. As the numbers indicate, it was not successful. The cost was 10 yards in penalties, a third-down conversion failed, 16 total yards, and zero explosive plays.
Interestingly enough, half of those 16 yards came on a Drew Allar scramble. The Offensive Line has massive splits, while Allar is alone in the backfield. Allar drops back to pass and everyone is covered, so he scrambles for a first down.
The numbers show it, Penn State’s gimmick plays were deeply unsuccessful.
On a night where the Nittany Lions needed to get their offense going, 1.2 yards per play from the “bag of tricks” isn’t going to cut it.
Anecdotally, on Penn State’s first Touchdown drive, they ran zero gimmick or up-tempo plays. This resulted in a 4 play Touchdown drive. Drew Allar was 3/3 with 56 yards and looked to be finding a groove. This got the offense going. Penn State’s offense came to life the further removed it was from rapid tempo and gimmicks.
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Is There A Solution?
The question most Nittany Lion fans find themselves asking is: Can this offense get fixed?
Well, I would argue yes. After watching the film of Penn State vs. Oregon, I believe that the Penn State offense can be fixed.
Running plays like they did in the fourth quarter would certainly help. There was only one gimmick play in the fourth quarter which resulted in a false start.
Isn’t it notable that Drew Allar and the Penn State offense looked markedly better in the Quarter in which only one gimmick or up-tempo play was called? That raises eyebrows for me.
Now, I am not a football guru, I don’t get paid to call plays, but I believe that in order to get Penn State’s offense fixed, they have to go back to the basics. Forget having Drew Allar try to line up at Wide Receiver, or having Kaytron catch snaps from the shotgun. Just go back to the basics. Feed Kaytron Allen the ball out of traditional formations and work in some play action off of that.
You see, when Kaytron Allen lines up at Quarterback, that doesn’t fool anyone, and no one is afraid of Allen throwing the ball.
It only tips the opponent off to running the ball.
So, why not hand it to Allen from the shotgun where the defense has to defend Kaytron Allen’s legs, Drew Allar’s legs, and Drew Allar’s arm? That would seemingly open things up more.
Like I said, I am just a sports journalist giving an opinion, I’m not an offensive genius. But the eye test makes me skeptical of gimmicks and up-tempo; the stats also back up my eyes.
Penn State and Andy Kotelnicki must ditch the up-tempo gimmicks and get back to a more traditional offense, with a ground-and-pound identity.
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Purdy was born and raised in central Ohio and served for four years writing for his high school's newsletter. Currently studying Biblical Studies at Lancaster Bible College in Pennsylvania, Ian has been a lifelong Nittany Lion fan.
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