PSU turns in ‘special’ effort

Various times throughout the season, James Franklin has mentioned how much time his staff and players invest in special teams, and on Saturday that investment payed huge dividends. Penn State’s special teams have been good in 2017, but on Saturday its special teams’ unit was not only good, it was great.

Heisman hopeful Saquon Barkley took the opening kick 98 yards for a touchdown, and the Nittany Lions also added a score on a fumbled Indiana punt return, scoring two special teams touchdowns in the first half en route to a 45-14 Big Ten East victory. The Nittany Lions jumped out to a 28-0 lead, which proved too much for the Hoosiers (2-2) to overcome.

When fighting to stay in the conversation for a College Football Playoff spot, all three phases need to be good for a team week in and week out. When one unit isn’t performing particularly well, another unit needs to pick them up.

A struggling Penn State (5-0, 1-0 Big Ten East) offense only totaled 370 yards on the day against the Hoosiers, which is well below its season average. Barkley was held in check in the rush game, rushing for just 56 yards, and the entire Nittany Lions rushing attack averaged only 1.1 yards per carry.

It was the prefect scenario for the Penn State special teams group to step up, and its performance proved that it has a valuable “x-factor” at its disposal as Big Ten play starts to ramp up.

“I don’t know if I’ve seen a better half of special teams in my 23 years of doing this,” said Penn State head coach James Franklin. “That has been something that we’ve worked really hard on and invested in since we’ve been here. We are really starting to get some really positive returns.”

But Overall, great win as a program, really pleased. We are 1-0, and we’re going to enjoy this win tonight and then we’ll move on to the next opponent. There are areas we have to get better, for where we want to go and what we want to do, we have to get better.”

Something that often gets overlooked in the game of football is drive-start average. It’s an aspect of special teams that isn’t so highly touted outside of the coach’s room, but it certainly does make a difference. The further you make a team drive for a score, the better, especially if you’re able to make that team go 75-plus yards to the end zone consistently. That’s exactly what Penn State was able to do to the Hoosiers, which once again helped out the struggling offense on the day.

Out of Indiana’s 16 offensive possessions, it started outside their own 25-yard line just three times.

“Drive start average is one of the most important metrics in a football game. We talk about it all the time; we take tremendous pride in it,” said Franklin. “I think that’s probably one of the biggest differences in our program in year four compared to years one and two is drive start, field position, and punting.”

Despite the offensive problems on the day in the run game, the passing game was solid for the Nittany Lions. Trace McSorley wasn’t great in the first half, but he got going in the second half to put together a 315-yard day through the air with two touchdowns and one interception.

McSorley’s top target on the day was DaSeasn Hamilton, which had nine catches for 122 yards and three touchdowns. In the midst of his big day Hamilton also became Penn State’s all-time receptions leader with (181) and he passed Allen Robinson (177) and Deon Butler (179) in the game.

“They’ve been playing football at Penn State for a long time, there has been a bunch of really good players and so whenever you can say that you’re the all-time leader at Penn State, that’s pretty special,” said Franklin.

FIRST QUARTER SHUTOUTS… The Nittany Lions a the only FBS team to not allow a score in the opening frame this season. Penn State is outscoring its opponents 73-0 in the first quarter in 2017.

TURNOVER TOWN… The Nittany Lions have forced at least one turnover in their sixth-straight game dating back to the 2017 Rose Bowl, which is their longest streak since forcing a turnover in six-straight games to begin the 2015 campaign.

GOOD START… Penn State has started a season 5-0 for the first time since 2008, when the team started 9-0.