Penn State is coming off a shaky offensive performance in their first Big Ten action last Saturday.
They still put up 30 points on the board, but it should have been a lot more considering all the possessions they had and the short fields the defense gave them.
[autotag]Drew Allar[/autotag] struggled in his first road start, finishing the game 16-33 for 208 yards and zero touchdowns.
The two star running backs ended the game with 91 yards and two touchdowns, but the running game hasn’t felt as dominate as they have been in the past.
They’ll have another challenge facing an Iowa team who has a defensive identity and knows they need to show up with their undermanned offense dealing with injuries.
Here are the three offensive keys to victory for Penn State on Saturday.
The first is to establish the running game.
Forget what has happened in the past and trust that the elite running unit of Nick Singleton and Kaytron Allen will explode at some point. The offensive line needs to do a better job of getting a push and creating running lanes. Doing that in this game will be vital in making sure the offense sustains successful drives.
The second is to make life easy on the quarterback.
Much of this falls in the lap of offensive coordinate [autotag]Mike Yurcich[/autotag]. It’s his job to scheme open receivers who have had trouble separating so that [autotag]Drew Allar[/autotag] can get them the ball. That did not happen against Illinois and it needs to happen in this game. Wide receivers also have to catch the ball when it’s thrown to them. Drops were drive killers last week and can’t continue moving forward.
The third key is to limit turnovers.
Penn State is one of two Power 5 programs, along with Oregon, who haven’t turned the ball over this season. It’s way too much to ask for them to continue that over the course of the entire year, but limiting turnovers against Iowa is a must. Their defense feasts on takeaways and will be one of the only ways their team can generate offense in this game. Not giving Iowa life through cheap turnovers is major key on Saturday.