Path to Victory: Three things Penn State must do to beat Arkansas
Penn State football takes the field one final time this season on Saturday in the Outback Bowl against Arkansas.
What do the Nittany Lions need to do to finish off their season with a win?
1. Penn State must find a new big play threat on offense
Penn State will be without Jahan Dotson in this game after he opted out earlier this week.
Dotson, who finished the season with 1,182 yards and 12 touchdowns, supplied much of Penn State’s big-play dynamism throughout the year.
Now, without his spark, the Nittany Lions must find a new outlet for those big plays.
The run game supplying them feels unlikely. Penn State averaged 3.1 yards per carry as it struggled to sort out its ground attack all season.
Certainly, though, the Nittany Lions have pass-catching options capable of making big plays. Parker Washington and KeAndre Lambert-Smith each showcased explosive potential on occasion during the regular season. Malick Meiga has been hailed by his coaches and teammates as a big-play threat, and he could get more snaps on Saturday as well.
With the Penn State defense down five starters at the time of this writing, the Nittany Lions are going to have to score points.
2. The Nittany Lions need to patch together their front seven
Interim defensive coordinator Anthony Poindexter has his work cut out for him.
As previously stated, five starters on Penn State’s defense have opted out of the bowl game as of Friday. The Nittany Lion front seven is particularly thinned out. Defensive end Arnold Ebiketie, defensive tackle Derrick Tangelo, and linebackers Ellis Brooks and Brandon Smith will all miss this game after opting out.
Add in the absence of defensive tackle PJ Mustipher — who was injured midseason — and the Nittany Lions enter this game without five of their seven starters on the defensive line and at linebacker.
That’s a huge problem in any game, but the matchup here seems particularly troublesome.
The Razorbacks run the ball a ton. Only three Power Five teams averaged more rushing attempts per game against FBS opponents than Arkansas.
The Nittany Lions can expect to be challenged 40-plus times by this Arkansas running game. They’ll need depth players on the defensive line and at linebacker to step up, otherwise, this is going to be a tall task.
3. PSU must play complimentary football
Complimentary football has become a bit of a buzzword for coaches at every level, but it’s key for Penn State on Saturday.
In all five of the Nittany Lions’ defeats this season, they’ve lost the time of possession battle.
In three of those losses, Penn State allowed its opposition to hold the ball for more than 35 minutes.
This is an Arkansas team that is more than capable of beating the Nittany Lions by grinding things out on the ground, keeping the Penn State defense on the field and wearing them down.
Penn State will ask several defensive players to endure snap counts they aren’t used to in this game. The Nittany Lions are very clearly undermanned on that side of the ball. They lack depth.
If Penn State’s offense can’t support the Nittany Lion defense by embarking on some longer drives of its own, Penn State won’t win this game.
