Rekindling run game a priority for Penn State heading into Washington matchup

Penn State’s decisive fourth-quarter failure at the goal line against Ohio State on Saturday encapsulated struggles in the running game that persisted all afternoon vs. the Buckeyes.

The Nittany Lions tried and failed three straight times to punch it in, starting from the 3-yard line, with Kaytron Allen getting stuffed at the line of scrimmage in each instance.

Then, on fourth-and-goal from the 1, the Nittany Lions switched it up and passed, but Drew Allar’s throw went incomplete, turning the ball over on downs to Ohio State, which proceeded to ice the game by eating up the final 5 minutes, 13 seconds.

During his news conference Monday, coach James Franklin revisited the key goal-line sequence, offering insight into what went wrong on Allen’s three touches.

“We didn’t get movement up front,” Franklin said. “We’ve got two of the better running backs in the country. You want to try to feed those guys and allow them to get downhill. They’ve done a really good job of it, not only this year, but throughout their careers. I think that’s the right thing to do.

“… Obviously, hindsight is 20/20, but at the end of the day, you’ve got to create movement and score when you need 1 yard. Whether that’s picking up a critical fourth down or whether that’s goal line — we’ve got to do some things better scheme-wise, but also, we’ve got to do little bit better job fundamentally and technique-wise to make sure we get the movement we need.”

With a front-row seat to No. 6 Penn State’s run game, offensive lineman Olaivavega Ioane believes the Nittany Lions are on the right track to putting up the kinds of explosive performances seen earlier this season.

That said, in three of the last four weeks, Penn State (7-1, 4-1 Big Ten) has averaged less than 4 yards per carry.

The 3.8 yards per carry — 32 rushes for 120 yards — against Ohio State is also somewhat misleading, given that a 33-yard burst by tight end Tyler Warren served to inflate the numbers.

Tailbacks Allen and Nick Singleton were held to a combined 42 yards on 18 carries.

“We’re close on every run,” Ioane said. “It’s a mistake here. It’s a wrong block there — all the little things that we need to get fixed. Technique-wise, we’ve just got to focus on the little things yet again. We’re getting closer and closer to bettering ourselves, more explosive runs, but we’ve just got to focus on that a little bit more.”

As he recounted what went wrong at the goal line, Franklin admitted it would have made sense to give Warren a look of some sort.

After all, on that drive that put Penn State on the 3-yard line, Warren had made two splash plays of 31 and 33 yards to set it up.

Can't give Tyler Warren this much space to run ????

He picks up 35 yards for @PennStateFball pic.twitter.com/Se1HbkLVaG

— FOX College Football (@CFBONFOX) November 2, 2024

Also absent from much of the game was fellow Swiss army knife Beau Pribula, who only had two touches.

While expressing regret at not attempting a more exotic look featuring Warren at the goal line, Franklin remains confident in the abilities of Allen and Singleton as a one-two punch.

“I think we’ve got two really good running backs that we feel good about,” he said. “Those guys have got to touch the ball, as well.”

That said, it should be noted that Ohio State boasts the No. 7 run defense in the nation, yielding only 2.95 yards per rush and 94.9 yards per game.

Penn State’s next opponent, Washington (5-4, 3-3), is considerably more porous against the rush, allowing 4.27 yards per attempt and 150.7 per game, ranking 70th nationally.

“We’ve got to commit with the right mindset of focusing on the little things, the mundane things,” Ioane said. “So, getting back to the basics, I think that’ll be a huge part of us doing a better job up front.”