Penn State Rushing Chart (Michigan): Tommy Stevens Finds Success, But That’s About It

Welcome back to the Penn State rushing chart. Each week we’ll show you all of the different runners’ charts from the most recent game, as well as their cumulative stats for the season. There may be a few differences here and there from the stat lines you see on ESPN, Sports Reference, or elsewhere, but I’ll try to make sure to explain each of those differences below.

Tommy Stevens was able to find some room to run, but that’s about it. The offensive line once again let Miles Sanders down, and Trace McSorley was clearly hobbled from the get go. The Michigan defense wasn’t about to let the Nittany Lions do anything of note on the ground in this one.

• Like last week, I’m documenting Stevens’s runs here. Only one of these runs came as a running back though- the rest were as a quarterback when he relieved McSorley.
• Stevens did do a nice job on the ground. He had the awful interception, but the offense was doing a decent job of moving the ball with him under center, primarily thanks to his legs. Basically every time he takes a step forward, it’s a guaranteed four yards thanks to his length.
• The offensive line is continuing to let Miles Sanders down. He has proven this year (think Michigan State) that he doesn’t need much space to get the job done. But he simply isn’t a threat when there are multiple defenders in the backfield before he even receives the hand-off. It’s frustrating to see these deficiencies in the offensive line again during the tough stretch in the schedule, especially when you consider how long most of them have been playing together at this point.
• Shout out Journey Brown for getting a solid eight yards on his only carry. He’s looking like someone who can definitely have a role at some point in his career.
• The fumbled exchange between Sanders and McSorley was 100 percent on McSorley. He made the decision to keep the ball very late in the play, and Sanders never had a chance to take it and run into the wall that was waiting for him. Just a brutal way to lose the ball at the 50-yard line after the touchdown-that-wasn’t-but-probably-should-have-been on the blocked kick.

• The chart says it all. The only real weakness this Michigan defense has is containing running quarterbacks, yet McSorley only carried the ball eight times. That alone should have been enough to show the coaching staff that he wasn’t healthy enough to lead this team to a win.
• The third down run on the first drive is the best example of this. McSorley had a lot of green in front of him to the left on this play, but chose to slide down short of the sticks anyway. A healthy McSorley absolutely breaks left to at least try to evade the defender. This play showed me everything I needed to know about McSorley’s knee.
• On the day, McSorley was sacked four times for a loss of 28 yards. Stevens was sacked once for a loss of eight yards.