Penn State football: James Franklin discusses running game's lack of explosive punch

A look at Penn State’s year-by-year explosive play numbers reveals a considerable trend in the wrong direction.

In 2017, the Nittany Lion offense ranked 22nd nationally with 211 plays of 10 or more yards. In 2018, they slipped to 47th. They ranked 72nd in 2019. The 2020 season saw them bounce back slightly to 42nd nationally — and it should be noted that Penn State played fewer games than all but one of the teams ahead of it.

But Penn State didn’t sustain that improvement. Now, it sits tied for 89th in the country with 133 plays of 10 or more yards. It’s PSU’s lowest ranking in that category since 2015.

James Franklin said after Penn State’s 21-17 loss to Michigan Saturday that, save for wideout Jahan Dotson, the offense collectively wasn’t doing enough to create those plays.

After watching the tape, he amended his comments slightly during his Tuesday press conference.

“Now having time to think about that and watch the film, obviously Parker Washington has had a number of explosive plays right now,” Franklin said. “I think right now we just don’t have the explosive plays in the running game. That’s been our challenge and our issue.

“I think we’ve been running the ball a little bit better the last couple of weeks. But there’s been some opportunities for some big plays that we’ve made in the past and we need to make moving forward. So that will be a focus all week long. That will be a focus this week against Rutgers that does a really good job defending the run.”

In seven Big Ten games this season, the Nittany Lion primary running back trio has produced three runs of 20 or more yards.

Two of those came from Keyvone Lee in a game against 2-8 Indiana. In fact, they came on the same drive. Lee broke off runs of 44 and 21 yards during a Penn State touchdown drive during the first half.

Noah Cain accounted for the other — a 34-yard scamper in Penn State’s first game of the season against Wisconsin. John Lovett’s longest run for the season sits at 18 yards.

Certainly, this is not an issue specific to Penn State’s running backs. Penn State’s offensive line still has not cracked the run blocking code 10 games into the season.

Franklin said the Nittany Lions are continuing to invest in solving that problem. They’ve shown signs of improvement in that regard — Lee rushed for 88 yards this week. But the Nittany Lion running backs still haven’t broken off a run of greater than 20 yards since October 2.

“We’re just trying to get better every week, no matter what point of the season that we’re in,” Franklin said. “We’re just trying to get better. And we’re going to try to do that again on Saturday against a team that does a really good job of defending the run and prides themselves on it.”

The harsh reality for Penn State’s offense and, by extension, Penn State fans, is this: Lee, Cain and Lovett won’t suddenly display a burst of speed on Saturday against Rutgers that they hadn’t shown all season. Penn State’s offensive linemen won’t suddenly become more explosive off their block.

That type of thing is built over time. With two games left in the regular season, the Nittany Lions don’t have that. They need to find other ways to generate explosive plays on offense.

“I don’t think it’s something like you can become more explosive dramatically during the season as a specific athlete,” Franklin said. “But as an offense, obviously, there’s things you can do to put people in conflict from scheme. There’s the ability to strain on blocks to create a little bit more space in the hole to make the safety miss. 
 
“It’s doing a great job when you do get into the open field and on the perimeter of making people miss or breaking tackles and creating the long runs. 

“It’s a combination of all those things. We’re going to continue to work at it, keep coaching those details, and find ways to be explosive come Saturday.”