by Kyle Golik
Every journalist in their time fumbles a question. I am not immune to fumbling. As I was racing home from Indianapolis, I wanted to ask Oregon head coach Dan Lanning about his approach to the holes Penn State was able to exploit to have success offensively against Oregon.
While Oregon won the Big Ten Championship in its inaugural season, Penn State gave Oregon as good a fight as Ohio State did and many would argue Penn State’s offensive line had as good, if not an even better day, than the Oregon offensive line as both lines simply shut down the elite EDGE rushers both schools possess.
I was wordy, wishing I would have succinctly asked this question to Lanning: What is going to be your approach with three weeks of prep to fix a rush defense that gave up nearly 300 yards to Penn State?
I got the usual Lanning coaching clichés that he typically offers, and he moves on quickly. Lanning has been a wizard at evading the media, as seen in his long monologue at Big Ten Media Days for a prime example.
Lanning did give me this: “I don’t know how much the game piece matters but I think they certainly put some things on tape that we should expect to see you know moving forward so that’s part of what we get to attack the next few weeks and how can we defend that better. What can do a better job of and what we’ll be attacking for sure.”
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In a lot of ways, what I was trying to ask was how, with no games for almost a month, the defense has to sit on being physically manhandled by Penn State. Some say that is an easy motivator, but it does not give Lanning or defensive coordinator Tosh Lupoi — who, after the Big Ten Championship, was incensed at the points and the yards surrendered.
Oregon now enters essentially the “no mulligan zone,” where you either win or you’re out, leaving Oregon very little margin for error..
It was the third time this season Oregon surrendered 200 or more yards rushing on the ground: Ashton Jeanty and Boise State gained 221, and the surprise entry was the 1-11 Purdue Boilermakers, who gained 208 yards rushing despite being shut out by Lanning’s defense.
The pressure on Penn State quarterback Drew Allar was nonexistent, as the only sack of the evening came on a gadget play where backup quarterback Beau Pribula was sacked by defensive lineman Derrick Harmon. This was almost an onus, as the success was there the entire evening for Penn State offensive coordinator Andy Kotelnicki not to abandon the run, despite Penn State trailing by two possessions for much of the game.
The issue Oregon faces is that the winner of the Tennessee and Ohio State College Football Playoff First Round matchup has the ability to stretch Oregon out. Ohio State and Penn State are the only two teams to have 400 or more yards of total offense, and even Ohio State had success on the ground with 141 yards rushing. What Ohio State has that Penn State does not is the explosive perimeter athletes that can stretch the field and make a difference.
After a season-high 16 tackles for loss and 10 sacks against Washington in the “Cascade Clash,” Penn State had season lows in sacks and tackles for loss. Defensive lineman Matayo Uiagalelei was asked if they had been challenged by any other team. “I feel like we played some good teams, but they definitely brought their ‘A-game,’” Uiagalelei said.”
As Lanning discussed the road to the national championship, “It takes work. I’m thinking right now, how can we improve and get better? And there’s a lot more we can grow from in that game in all phases. That’s where my focus is at. I think when you focus on the process, the rest takes care of itself.”
I don’t feel Lanning will see an offensive line like the one they faced against Penn State, unless Penn State appears again in the College Football Playoff, but Oregon showed that if a team has a proper mixture of misdirection from offensive sets and some physicality, they can have tremendous success in the trenches against Oregon.
I know the next time I approach Lanning, I will be smoother in my delivery when questioning him, but there is a riddle teams have figured out about Lanning, and that is the obstacle preventing Oregon from finally earning a national championship for Phil Knight and the community. There will be plenty of motivation to improve, but with no true experimental time to see if the changes will work, it gives Lanning and Lupoi a tighter rope to figure it out.
