Penn State-Temple: Five Tools to Penn State Dominance

Penn State's performances against Akron and Syracuse have been mediocre at best. If the Nittany Lions are to be a top five team this year, there are some things that it will have to work on and improve greatly before the Big 10 season starts.

1) Blocking

The offensive line has been completely pathetic. The guards especially are unable to block for the running game. If you notice, the few big runs Royster and Green broke were usually to the outside, like on Royster's stretch play touchdown against Syracuse. 

The offensive line is just going through the motions, but if it expects to block out the bigger defensive lines of the Big 10, it really has to get a good push and block hard.

Another thing I noticed is that on many occasions, the linemen will block and then release their blocks before the running back is through the hole to block out a linebacker or safety. 

So instead of having a six or seven-yard run—or potentially more if a broken tackle is made—the running backs are stuck at the line of scrimmage or get tripped up by the defensive linemen and get three yards at the most.

The linemen have to hold their blocks until the running back is through the hole, as he will have a better chance of getting past a linebacker or safety than a big defensive lineman.

Also, Clark seems to scramble out of the pocket a lot. Although pass protection has been good for the most part, Clark is sometimes forced to scramble around a lot and it exposes him to big hits when he is out of the pocket.

The pass blocking has to improve just a little to keep Clark from scrambling out of the pocket as much as he does, which will lower the risk of an injury to him—something we cannot afford.

2) Running

Penn State has to improve its running game if it wants to have a balanced attack in the Big 10 and to compete against teams like Ohio State and—hopefully—teams like Florida or USC in the national championship.

Now I know most of this is because of the offensive line, which needs to block better.  However, the backs will often choose the wrong hole to go through and won't get as many yards. Also, I expect the backs to break at least one tackle in the open field, which they usually can do, but I would like to see more of that.

3) Tackling

Penn State has been tackling pathetically. Other than Sean Lee and the defensive line, defenders consistently miss tackles. I've seen too many linebackers have their weak tackles broken by bad Syracuse and Akron running backs. 

Also, the secondary cannot tackle. Sometimes it will take five people to tackle someone. The secondary rarely is able to tackle anyone and at best slows down the wide receivers so that Sean Lee can come in immediately after and tackle the ball carrier.

Sloppy tackling will not work in the Big 10.  If PSU cannot tackle well against these teams, the Big 10 running backs will break all the tackles and run right through Penn State. The Nittany Lions need to improve their tackling immediately.

4) Secondary

As we all know, Penn State's secondary is consistently bad. However, against teams like Akron and Syracuse, it usually doesn't give up big passes and touchdowns. But even against these teams, it has been burned and beat this year. 

The secondary is worse than it usually is. Although this usually isn't an issue in the Big 10, with a secondary this bad, even an awful passer like Terrelle Pryor might be able to throw well against Penn State.

The secondary needs to go through covering drills and actually cover their areas instead of letting a wide receiver run past them and beat them deep by 10 yards. Secondly, it needs to work on tackling, as no one in that unit has been able to tackle well or tackle at all.

5) Kickoff Coverage

Kickoff coverage has always been bad, but has improved in the past few years. This year, however, the Nittany Lions have given up many big kickoff returns to opponents.  This needs to stop. Although we still have potential pro punter Jeremy Boone, we lost a very good kicker in Kevin Kelly, who was drastically improved from his freshman to senior year. 

We need to win the field position battle, especially against Ohio State, as that is what Tressel and Joe Pa battle for. Both coaches know their defenses will prevent many touchdowns, so field position is very important to score points.

I have seen kickoff returns during which the Penn State players haven't even gotten in sight of the television cameras until the return man is at the 30 yard line. Penn State has to get better returns and cover and tackle better on kickoffs so that it can win the field position battle.

Overall, Penn State is a very good team. If it improves in these areas and plays with some passion, it can be a great and probably a top three team this year as it was last year.

I am hoping against Temple that Penn State will work on these things so that it will be at its best for the Big 10 season. If it makes these improvements, Penn State will hopefully be unstoppable and go undefeated to a national championship.

Fight on State!