Penn State Keys To Winning

I thought I'd take a stab at the three things we need to do on offense and defense to win tomorrow against Penn State.

Offense

We must protect Brady. I think Penn State will blitz until we prove we can stop it. This means setting the tone early with our offensive line and backs in our protection schemes but it also means going 3/4/5 wide and spreading the field to get their linebackers off the field. Screens and draws should also help slow the defense down.

Get the matchups we want. Weis needs to get Rhema and Samardzija matched up one on one with corners or LB's. The LB's can't cover them and the corners are one of the weak spots of the defense. If they play underneath and over the top we need to run them deep and come underneath with our TE's. This is fairly simple game planning and Weis should have it noted. We need to keep their LB's out of the game. Use their aggressiveness to our advantage via mis-direction and play action. And for the love of God, let's go up top to Samardzija without overthrowing him.

We have to get Darius involved and establish the run. We need a ball control offense to keep our defense off the field but we need a big play offense to keep the crowd in the game. Weis has proven he has a knack for setting up plays and calling them at the precise time they should be called. Hopefully he has something saved up for this.

Defense

Stop the run. This is necessary for two reasons. First, we want them off the field. Second, we want to make Morelli beat us. Stopping the run will be challenging given the fact that Hunt is more of a pound it out guy and we have a small LB corps. But we have to stop the run and force them into third and long situations where Morelli has to make a play. And I will throw quick hitches, reverses, etc. to the wideouts into this category as well. We must play containment on that to negate their speed. Getting ahead early would also effectively limit their ability to run the ball.

Get pressure on the QB. When given time, Morelli can make the throws. We need to put pressure on him with the front four only. Morelli isn't mobile so we should be able to cut loose on the D-line and not worry about containment like we had to with Ball. Getting pressure on him without blitzing all the time will be key as I don't have faith in Richardson, Wooden, Walls, Lambert, et. al. to cover their receivers. A lot of nickel and dime man two deep coverages would be preferable.

Contain their big play makers at wide receiver. We have to contain their talented wide outs (Williams, Golden, Bell, Norwood, etc.) and not let big plays occur. We did a great job against GT but that was only one receiver. This week, while none are as good as Calvin Johnson, we have to defend multiple receivers. Let's see the freshmen earn their scholarships.

Of course we will also need to contain their special teams but that goes without saying for every game.