STATE COLLEGE — It’s a quarterback’s dream, really.
It’s high on an offense’s wish list of things to see, and for a defense, it’s often a sign of desperation. An attempt to find something, anything, that will spark a big play at a key time. An all-or-nothing type of move.
Problem for Penn State was, it was more all than nothing for Central Michigan’s defense when it went to a cover zero look Saturday.
Of course, the Nittany Lions did enough to win, a fact coach James Franklin was happy to point out after the 33-14 triumph over the Chippewas at Beaver Stadium. But he didn’t shy away from his offense’s lack of production. And, perhaps, it was symptomatic of passing game issues not limited to one sluggish Saturday.
“We made it harder than it needed to be in the run game and pass game,” Franklin said.
Cover zero, in football parlance, is an aggressive defense where there are no deep safeties, defensive backs at the line are playing man coverage and an extra rusher is coming at the quarterback. Typically, Franklin said, defensive coordinators call those sparingly, trying to create a havoc play to get the offense off the field quickly. The tradeoff, of course, is one-on-one coverage all around, rather easy matchups for the quarterback to spot — Penn State’s Sean Clifford said he called every cover zero scheme correctly at the line pre-snap Saturday — and chances for receivers to break big plays deep.
“We didn’t hurt people,” Franklin said. “When people play cover zero, you should be excited on offense and you should create huge, explosive plays. Because if you break one tackle or make one guy miss, there’s no one left. We didn’t do that (Saturday).”
Penn State had so little success against that formation Saturday, Central Michigan ended up playing it “a ton,” Franklin said.
On pass attempts of 15 yards or more — the type of play they want to make against that scheme — Penn State quarterbacks completed just 1 of 10 passes Saturday.
While they’ve been strong completing short and intermediate routes, the Nittany Lions haven’t connected often on deeper throws. They were 7 for 23 on similar attempts in their first three games.
“Our antenna goes up. We’re alert,” receiver Parker Washington said of seeing the cover zero scheme. “We felt like we were in the plays we wanted to be in.”
In some phases of the passing game, they haven’t. Because of that, Penn State hasn’t been able to find a deep threat. The leader in yards per catch is a tight end, Brenton Strange, at 15.1. Among wideouts, Washington’s 13.3 is at the top of the list, but he has done most of his work running after the catch.
Penn State knows it will have to complete more passes down the field to stretch defenses and help the running game. The Nittany Lions hope defensive schemes like the ones they saw Saturday will help moving forward.
“We have a plan going in every single week on what we’re going to do with cover zero,” Clifford said. “We just have to execute.”
