Everyone who closely follows USC football knows that the offensive line has been inconsistent at best, and generally not good enough, through Week 6. The Trojans’ offensive line played an excellent third quarter at Minnesota last weekend, but that was the only excellent quarter the USC offensive line produced against the Gophers. The other three quarters were inconsistent. The first five minutes of the fourth quarter were good, but then the last 10 minutes of that quarter were below average. USC’s running game thrived in the aforementioned third quarter but was bottled up for much of the first half. Penn State has a strong defensive line, which rightly gives Nittany Lions Wire confidence that PSU can contain USC’s ground game on Saturday:
USC’s passing game gets a lot of the headlines, but their running game has quietly been effective throughout the season. Relying on the two-headed attack from Woody Marks and Quinten Joyner, they rank 76th with 149.6 rushing yards per game that gives this offense balance.
Penn State continues to be dominant when defending the run, ranking fourth in the country with only 76.2 rushing yards allowed. While a lot of the game scripts they’ve been in sees the Nittany Lions leading so their opponents throw the ball, they’ve also shut down two strong running games in West Virginia and Illinois this season.
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