Penn State's offense has been anything but balanced in its first year under head coach James Franklin. The offense ranks 90th overall in the country, but while the passing game (282 yards a game for 32nd overall) hasn't been shabby, the run game (93 yards per game for 118th overall) has been downright deplorable.
But even though Penn State's running backs amassed a paltry 2.8 yards per carry against Michigan, James Franklin stuck with the running game. Penn State finished with 35 runs (compared to 21 passes) and almost walked out of Michigan Stadium with the "upset" victory.
Penn State was on a bye last week, and although it's going to take more than a week to fix their running game's woes, James Franklin says he will be committed to the run game and offensive balance throughout Saturday's contest against Ohio State.
From Greg Pickel of PennLive.com:
"The games that we have had some balance and have been able to establish somewhat of a running game we've been able to do some nice things," Franklin said. "That's something we're not going to shy away from. We're still committed to doing that."
[...]
"We worked on it [balancing the offense] really hard all last week, and we're going to do that again this week, and that's not going to change," Franklin said. "We're going to stay positive.
"We're going to stick to that, stick to the running game and keep committing to that, finding creative ways to help our guys and put them in position to be successful."
If Penn State can't get anything going in the run game, the Nittany Lions could be in a world of trouble. Penn State's surrendered 20 sacks this season; only 15 teams in the country have a worse mark.
