Blue White Illustrated

N O V E M B E R 3 0 , 2 0 1 6 B L U E W H I T E O N L I N E . C O M 9 If you had told Michigan State head coach Mark Dantonio that his defense would limit Saquon Barkley to 14 yards rushing on 12 attempts, and that his of- fense would rack up 276 yards and 17 first downs in the first half, he probably would have expected his team to have a substantial halBime lead over Penn State with a very good chance of pulling off an upset. But that wasn't the case. The Spartans held only a two-point halBime lead, and in the second half, that lead quickly be- came an insurmountable deficit, as PSU pulled away for a 45-12 victory. There's a reason why the conventional wisdom didn't apply in this game. It's because the Nittany Lions' offense is not a one-man show. Going into their regular-season finale, there was a case to be made that the Lions were fielding the most balanced offense in the Big Ten, with averages of 187.9 rushing yards and 238.7 passing yards per game. They had the leading rusher in the Big Ten in Barkley, with 1,205 yards and a conference-best 14 rushing touch- downs, but they also had a playmaking quarterback in Trace McSorley, who had completed 167 of 304 passes for 2,600 yards, with 17 touchdown passes and only five interceptions. That's why Dantonio's defensive game plan was doomed from the start. All season long, Penn State has done a great job making the kind of halBime adjust- ments that create offensive outbursts in the third and fourth quarters. It hap- pened again vs. Michigan State. The Nittany Lions scored 35 points in the second half, with McSorley passing for 265 yards, including touchdown throws of 34, 40, 45 and 59 yards. Penn State's rising offensive produc- tivity poses a dilemma that defensive coordinators haven't come close to solving during the past two months. McSorley has become very adept at op- erating Joe Moorhead's offense, and his growing confidence is one of the main reasons why the Nittany Lions have been undefeated since rallying past Minnesota, 29-26, in overtime on Oct. 1. With Michigan State keeping its safeties within 7 yards of the line of scrimmage, playing eight men in the box and asking its cornerbacks to han- dle Penn State's receivers in man-to- man coverage – all in an effort to keep Barkley under wraps – McSorley had an opportunity to have a big day. "It's almost like pick-your-poison," the sophomore quarterback said. "What do you want to try to stop? Once he sees the opportunity to throw the deep ball, Coach Moorhead is going to continue to take shots. That's what he does. He's not going to back away, and he trusts the guys on the field, trusts the line." McSorley ended up completing 17 of 23 passes for 376 yards, with four touchdowns and no interceptions. He averaged an amazing 22.1 yards per catch and 17.1 yards per completion. In the second half alone, he threw scoring passes of 34 and 59 yards to Godwin, 45 yards to Gesicki and 40 yards to backup running back Andre Robinson. Heading into the Big Ten Championship Game against Wisconsin, McSorley is averag- ing 16.17 yards per completion, second- best in the Football Bowl Subdivision. Even more amazing is the fact that seven Penn State receivers have at least one catch of 40 or more yards this sea- son. Godwin is the Nittany Lions' lead- ing receiver with 47 catches for 762 yards and nine touchdowns, and four other players have 20 or more catches. Mike Gesicki has hauled in 44 recep- tions for 610 yards, a single-season yardage record for a Penn State tight end. DaeSean Hamilton has 26 catches for 388 yards, DeAndre Thompkins has 25 receptions for 431 yards, and Barkley has 21 catches for 327 yards. Offensively, Penn State's biggest con- cern as it prepares for the Big Ten title game is Barkley's health. He exited the Michigan State game late in the third quarter with an ankle injury and ap- peared to be having some trouble mov- ing around on the sideline. He said on Monday that he intends to play against the Badgers, but even if that's the case, we likely won't know until Saturday whether he's able to resume his normal workload. With Barkley's status uncertain, it will be interesting to see whether Badgers coach Paul Chryst uses a different ap- proach to try to derail a Penn State of- fense that has averaged 46.4 points and close to 490 yards per game in its past five games. If Barkley, who is averaging 19 carries per game, is limited this weekend, the Lions will have to rely more heavily on Robinson, Miles Sanders and Mark Allen. Will Penn State be able to field the kind of balanced attack that has led to its recent success? It's a big question as PSU prepares to face a Wisconsin de- fense that many believe to be the Big Ten's best and one of the best in the country. This past spring, the website SB Na- tion argued that spread offenses like Moorhead's could spell doom for Michigan State over the next few sea- sons. A spread offense, if run properly, will prevent opponents from putting eight and nine people in the box and using single coverage to handle re- ceivers – a tactic that the Spartans have used quite effectively in recent years. Given what McSorley and company have been able to accomplish using Moorhead's offense this season, I'm starting to think that SB Nation may have been on to something. Dantonio may be thinking the exact same thing. Nittany Lions' offensive versatility gives rival defenses a lot to think about PHIL'S CORNER

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