Saquon Barkley
- Thread starter Relayer
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Matchups. Penn State's starting right tackle, Chazz Wright, didn't play. His replacement, Andrew Nelson, gave it his best shot, but his repaired knees simply wouldn't cooperate. They finally went to third string tackle, Will Fries, a redshirt freshman. He did a better job, but was not great.
Red zone is a product of that RPO offense. In the clutch, McSorley was 7-11. He's a winner.
Great analysis EPC FAN. Andrew Nelson had his hands full with Iowa's Anthony Nelson, who is going to be a high draft pick if he stays healthy the next two years. Fries battled hard and did ok. He overextended at times, but looks like he has the potential to be a good right tackle.
Iowa had a good plan. They kept the pocket around McSorley. He usually moves around which gives him excellent passing lanes. He had a number of passes batted down because Iowa had 3 very tall DL (the Nelson's are 6'7" and 6'8" and Epenesa is 6'5") surrounding him at all times.
Yes, he played well down the stretch. But, a QBR of under 35 when your RB goes off for over 200 yards rushing? It should have never came to that last second TD.
Is that QBR you quoted based on the NFL formula? If so, it's an irrelevant statistic since they're in the NCAA. His NCAA Passer Eff Rating is 158.2. Individually, that's the stat that counts. He's ranked 26th in the NCAA and 4th in the B10 and his team is 4-0. Can their RZ offense stand to improve? Of course. Can he play better? Sure.
Let's give credit to Iowa, another 3-0 team with a rep for beating top 10 teams in their house, for an excellent game plan...and to Penn State for being the 1st of the last 4 or 5 teams to come out of there with a win.
Teams would kill to have such a first world problem at this point in the season.
Just some perspective.
First world problem - agreed! But, it would have quickly felt like a third world problem if that Hawkeye gets his hand 2" higher on the final play of the game.
As previously stated, red zone struggles usually point to the QB - especially when the team has a RB threat that no one can tackle. First real game of the season, so hopefully it was just growing pains following the opening 3 laugh'ers.
Yep. And I agreed with you...McSorley has to make some corrections and PSU has to do better in the RZ.
PSU - 12 (line is 17 but I think it's a bit rich).. Indy had a strong 1st half against OSU but couldn't keep it going in the 2nd half..
last week the left side of their line was Soph or fresh.. same for this week.. some of the issues they had, had more to do with putting together an OL on the fly.. at one point they had a 3rd string tackle starting..
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