After back-to-back wins on the road in Big Ten play, Jedd Fisch and the Washington Huskies are looking for their third straight victory on Saturday afternoon against coach Matt Campbell and the Penn State Nittany Lions.
Here are three things the Huskies can do in search of their first-ever victory over Penn State.
Advertisement
Run the ball effectively
As the Huskies deal with several injuries along the offensive line, with the status of both center Kolt Dieterich and right guard Champ Taulealea questionable, running the ball might not come easy, even against a Penn State defense that ranks No. 16 in the conference against the run, allowing an average of 154.88 yards per game on the ground.
While Fisch noted those numbers are a bit skewed after the Nittany Lions let up 413 rushing yards against Northwestern, the Huskies have struggled to run the ball to the tune of a Big Ten-worst 95 yards per game. With Demond Williams Jr. expected to step back into his starting role, his ability as a scrambler could give UW’s backfield, headlined by freshman Brian Bonner and transfers Jayden Limar and Trey Cooley, a boost.
Advertisement
Pressure Rocco Becht
The Iowa State transfer has been prone to making mistakes this season, with just 4 touchdowns and 5 interceptions thrown against Big Ten opponents, while completing just 60.6 percent of his passes in conference play. Unlike Nebraska’s Anthony Colandrea, whom Washington’s defensive line played arguably its best game of the season against, containing him throughout the night, Becht is more of a pocket passer who could be forced into some bad decisions if he starts to feel pressure in front of him.
Control field position
With one of the best defenses in the Big Ten, the Huskies have been stingy for the majority of conference play. When adding in specialist Hunter Green, who leads the Big Ten with an average of 48.1 yards per punt, finding a way to make the Nittany Lions drive the length of the field as often as possible will be critical, as Campbell’s team could stifle Washington’s offense, led by the best pass defense in the conference, allowing an average of 141.4 yards per game.
Advertisement
“There’s no question that the consistency by our punter and our punt coverage units enables us to say, ‘Make them go the long way against our defense,'” Fisch said during his Monday press conference. “When you feel like you have to be in games where there’s shootouts, when you feel like you have to, you’re not fully confident in where the punt will land if you’re punting from the 48-yard line, you do not want them to get the ball on the 25.”
This article originally appeared on Huskies Wire: Three keys to a Washington football homecoming win over Penn State
Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: Sports.yahoo.com
