CHAMPAIGN, Ill. -- When it comes to Penn State's offensive potential, we ain't seen nothing yet.
That's kind of a peculiar thing to say after a team has scored 101 points through two games. But for all the good things we have seen from the efficient offense thus far, there's one major thing we have not seen.
Explosiveness.
The Nittany Lions lead the Big Ten in both points and offensive yardage this season. That's a very interesting statistic.
But here are some even more interesting stats. The Lions have scored 13 offensive touchdowns, and only one of them has been on a long play.
• Vs. West Virginia: Scores from 72 yards, then 2, 12, 25 and 5 yards
• Vs. Delaware: Scores from 2, 4, 5, 5, 2, 1, 6 and 4 yards
Remember, that 72-yarder against WVU was more of a fluke. It was a busted play that saw Drew Allar elude pressure, step up in the pocket and fire a laser to KeAndre Lambert-Smith, then a Mountaineer defender missed a tackle.
It's remarkable, if you think about it, that Penn State didn't have a touchdown longer than 6 yards against Delaware. That's an FCS defense, and the Lions just methodically moved the ball up and down the field all day until they got into easy scoring situations.
Here's what James Franklin had to say Wednesday when asked about his team leading the Big Ten in points and yardage:
"I think the stats are nice. I think they matter at the end of the season, I don’t think they really matter at the beginning of the season because the schedules are so different. But obviously, we’re doing some good things.
"We’re balanced right now on both the run game and the pass game, in terms of the ability to do it. We’re able to get the ball in the end zone, we’re efficient, staying on schedule, and we were better last week on third down. So, we’re doing some nice things. But I don’t get caught up, we don’t get caught up a whole lot in stats early in the season."
There are two big things we haven't seen yet from the offense, and there's a good chance we could see one or both of them when the Lions take on Illinois on Saturday.
First, a history lesson.
The great thing about Penn State's amazing 2016 offense is that it could score literally from anywhere on the field. Trace McSorley was fantastic at throwing the deep ball, and he had a sensational receiver in Chris Godwin who came down with far more than his share of 50-50 balls.
For anybody who forgot just how great Godwin was at Penn State, I highly recommend spending a couple minutes watching his highlight tape.
It's cool reliving some of those throws that were made by Christian Hackenberg, before the targets by McSorley.
Also, of course, on that fantastic 2016 offense was Saquon Barkley, who could take it to the house from anywhere, as he did in this breathtaking Rose Bowl touchdown run. No matter how many times you've seen this, it's still worth watching again to witness one of the greatest scoring runs in college football history.
This year's Penn State offense has a home run hitting running back in Nicholas Singleton, who had numerous long scoring runs last season, including an 87-yarder in the Rose Bowl.
The wide receiver corps is led by Lambert-Smith, who had a record-setting 88-yard TD reception in the Rose Bowl last season.
But what we have not seen yet this year is Allar taking any deep shots at all, to KLS or anyone else.
The deep ball has been a staple of Penn State's offense for a number of years. The last few offensive coordinators loved calling a lot of deep throws, and the current one, Mike Yurcich, absolutely does.
So, it's sort of strange that we haven't seen the Lions try a long ball even once through two games.
Or, maybe not so strange at all.
A strong case can be made that Franklin and Yurcich had already decided NOT to show the long ball against West Virginia or Delaware. The Lions were going to beat the Mountaineers, there was never any question about it, and Delaware is an FCS team that posed no challenge at all.
Therefore, the smart play would have been to save the deep passing game and showing off Allar's arm until the offense really needed it.
Which could be the case this week.
Illinois had an excellent defense last season, leading the nation in scoring defense. But the Illini have struggled this year, allowing 62 points in their first two games against Toledo and Kansas. Their secondary has been inefficient, allowing 230 yards passing against Toledo and 277 against Kansas, and more importantly, some timely passing plays.
Put all of this together -- the fact that Penn State has likely saved its big-play passing game until now and that Illinois doesn't have a great secondary -- it's easy to assume that we will see Allar take some deep shots in this one.
So far, Allar has been extremely efficient in the short passing game, taking what the defense has given him. He has completed 43 of 55 passes -- a staggering 78.2 percent -- for 529 yards and four TDs with no interceptions.
Yurcich is coaching from the press box this season, after being on the field the past two years. He's a coach who already has a proclivity for calling deep passing plays, and you know he'll find something watching from above against the Illini defense this week that will lead to taking some shots down the field.
"I think that’s a reason for the (good) stats," Franklin jokingly suggested about Yurcich being in the booth. "It’s been good. I said before, I think it’s clearly the better place to call the game. You just can see it better. You’re removed from the emotion.
"I think Danny O’Brien has done a good job on the sidelines, as well. That’s helped. But I think I think so far, so good. And we’ve had to iron out a few kinks that have happened, whether it’s been with personnel or substitutions or some things that we got to get ironed out in terms of just a little bit of the differences on the sideline."
Franklin talked after last week's game about how defensive coordinators would have to pick their poison going against Penn State's offense. A smart game plan, he noted, would be to try and take away the running game and force a young quarterback to prove he can beat teams with his arm.
Well, Allar already has shown -- against weaker defenses, mind you -- that he does indeed have all the tools necessary to beat a defense. So, you'd have to think defenses will now face a more difficult challenge of whether to load up against the run or start to respect the passing game a lot more.
Here's the major thing about all of this: Once Yurcich turns Allar loose to throw the ball down the field, then Penn State's offense has a chance to become, well, sensational. Because if defenders are forced to protect more against the pass, that is when things could open up for Singleton to start hitting more runs with long TDs like we saw last year.
Singleton has only 117 yards rushing in two games, although he has scored four times. Kaytron Allen leads the team with 154 yards while averaging 5.3 per carry, to 4.7 for Singleton.
Penn State's usage of those two impressive running backs only puts defenses in more of a difficult position, because both can stay fresh as they split carries. Then, ideally, as defenders wear down and/or have to protect against the pass, we could see more long runs that can change games in a hurry.
"I think they have complementary skill sets," Franklin said of the running backs. "I think the thing that’s nice, though is they’re both big backs, which allows them both to do a lot of things. That’s why that short-yardage, goal-line (T formation) package is so effective for us, because both them are 220 pounds-plus, they both block, they both carry, they both can run for hard yards inside, they both show ability to make people miss and get on the perimeter.
"I think if you look at their ability to be explosive, I think they’re really good complementary pieces that we can do a lot of different things with. Which, I think that’s what makes it so exciting as an offensive coordinator to be able to work with those two guys and call a game with those two guys."
All the pieces are in place for Penn State to have an explosive offense. And it's harder to sustain drives going up against Big Ten defenses, so being able to strike quickly from anywhere on the field is a major plus.
Don't be surprised if we start seeing the Lions trying to do that this week.
