Lions' atypical offense might be 'boring,' but it's part of beautiful results

ALTOONA, Pa. -- Let's play a game of guess the score.

It's Penn State vs. Iowa. The Nittany Lions' starting quarterback has just 166 yards passing. The team's presumed best running back has 49 yards rushing. The other guy, who actually just might be the better running back, has 72 yards rushing. The leading wideout has 66 yards receiving, and no other receiver has more than 17 yards.

Now, guess the score, based on those pedestrian offensive numbers.

Whatcha got? Maybe something like Penn State 17, Iowa 13?

There's no way you'd think the Lions would have won that game, 31-0. The math just doesn't add up.

That's where we'll begin this edition of the midweek top five.

1. The sum is greater than the parts with this particular offense on this particular team

After the Iowa game and again Tuesday, James Franklin talked about how the offense can be boring. The actual word he used on both occasions was "bored."

"We did not win the explosive play battle, but I do think we grinded that game out, which when you're playing a team like Iowa, you can't get bored of grinding it out," Franklin said after the game.

Then, on Tuesday, he added this: "In the locker room at halftime, that was a point that I made to the offense is do not get bored. When I say the offense, (I mean) the offensive coaches. Do not get bored with grinding this game out because it is working for us in a style that is going to allow us to beat this Iowa football team."

Penn State's defense has been awesome so far, and there's really no reason to think that's gonna change all season.

But even though the Lions are undefeated, ranked No. 6 and crushing opponents, and have the only offense in the country that hasn't turned the ball over, there's still this sort of weird feeling that, you know, maybe the offense isn't all that great.

The Lions rank 33rd in the nation in total offense, with 449.8 yards per game. That's decent, not great but certainly not bad.

You want to know something interesting, though?

Ohio State is 34th in total offense (447.5 yards).

Michigan is 60th (405.2 yards).

So, if we're keeping all of this relative, even though Penn State hasn't shown a sexy offense just yet, the reality is that it may not have to. At all.

If, as many of us suspect, the defense really is that good.

Franklin keeps talking about how the offense needs to be more explosive, and did so again Tuesday.

"We've got to do a better job of being more explosive when the opportunities present themselves," he said.

But a reporter also pointed out Tuesday that Penn State has done this already, which is another pretty amazing stat:

"This year you've had 12 touchdown drives that have lasted four or more minutes. Last year, you had 13 of those." -- Ben Jones from StateCollege.com.

The point of the question, as Jones continued was this: "We talk about explosive plays and all of the excitement that you're trying to find in the offense, but you have found a lot of success sitting on the ball, tenderizing people, taking what the defense gives you, and you're scoring 30 points or more a game."

All that, in a nutshell, is what makes this offense in this program very interesting right now. Because we've heard and seen for years that explosive plays matter and matter a great deal to Franklin and his offensive staff. So, it's kind of ironic that perhaps the best Penn State team we've seen under Franklin isn't doing the explosive play thing at all.

To repeat the word I used above, that's just weird, right?

Franklin gave sort of a meandering answer about wanting to be balanced, and again stressed the need to have more explosive plays -- when the defense provides that opportunity. But the more interesting thing he said was ...

2. Let's talk about egos, and everyone working toward the common goal.

Offensive coordinator Mike Yurcich wants to throw the ball deep. He's shown that his entire career. He's shown that during his first two seasons at Penn State. But the Lions aren't throwing deep this year, and as Franklin pointed out Tuesday, he mentioned to Yurcich to not get bored and just keep doing what was working in the grind it out style against Iowa.

When asked about Yurcich, Franklin brought up the word "ego," and also mentioned defensive coordinator Manny Diaz."

"I think Mike is a guy that — both him and Manny talked about in the offseason what they want their offense and defenses to be is winning offenses and defenses — I think both would probably admit that maybe earlier in their careers they were focused on maybe leading the country in yards or points or whatever it may be, and that's really ego, not necessarily what's in the team's best interest," Franklin said.

"When those two things can go hand in hand, that's fine, but that's just a byproduct of doing what you have to do to win. I think that was a really strong message from both of our coordinators on the retreat before the season started, which I thought was excellent."

That word ego is very, very interesting to me. And this isn't the first time Franklin has mentioned it.

I wrote this story back in August of 2022, leading into the season: Franklin: Can't allow 'ego' to interfere with building offensive identity.

Here's the key quote from that story:

"The reality is, you have to be flexible enough and put your ego to the side to do what's best for your team," Franklin said. "And that's easier said than done. Because you may want to be a 10 personnel team with four wides on the field all the time. But if you got a bunch of really good tight ends, you better have the flexibility to use them. I think you see some of the stuff that we're doing with the tight ends. That's kind of what I'm talking about. You got to be willing to play to your strengths, no matter what."

All of that, with relation to Yurcich this season, seems to be what's happening with Penn State. The head coach appears to be more on the same page with the offensive play caller, and has gotten him to put some of his ego aside and call plays that, while boring, are actually what the team needs called in a given situation.

And let's not forget, Yurcich now finds himself in a tremendous situation, because he knows -- as do we all at this point -- that Penn State's offense doesn't have to do everything to win.

3. The smothering defense is what brings this all together.

The complementary football being played right now by Penn State is tremendous. No, the offense isn't lighting things up, but it doesn't have to at all because the defense has just been so good.

Check out this graphic, showing Penn State's defense leading the nation in numerous categories.

We all know how much the defense has helped the offense by forcing turnovers that lead to points. But in a weird way, the offense helps the defense by being so methodical, as opposed to being explosive.

Let's say the defense forces a three-and-out. Then the offense scores in three plays, hitting a 60-yard TD pass. Now, the defense is right back out on the field.

OK, another three-and-out. Then the offense scores in five plays. Defense right back out on the field.

Yes, the Lions have a lot of depth on defense, but it can wear guys down if the offense doesn't give the defenders a little time to rest. Franklin has never been a big believer in time of possession -- a lot of great teams score so quickly that they lose TOP battles in many games -- but when you have an amazing defense, that defense can be even better because of the rest it gets by the offense going on long, methodical drives.

Franklin gave this truly incredible stat early in his press conference.

"After the shovel pass for the fumble that we just talked about (in the first quarter), Penn State ran 80 of the next 96 plays in the game," the coach said. "There were 96 plays in that game after the fumble, and 80 of them we ran, which is amazing. Of those 16 plays that they ran, went for negative-5 yards."

Wow, if you're a stat person, that really is amazing stuff. To think about one team being so dominant both on defense and in ball-control offense that it runs 80 out of 96 plays, that kind of thing is almost impossible to believe.

That's the formula, though, for this Penn State offense -- and defense -- right now. It's so different from what we've been accustomed to with all the talk of explosive plays over the years, but when a team can play that level of complementary football, it's going to be extremely difficult to beat.

4. Drew Allar, game manager.

This could have been the primary focus of today's story about the weird offense, because it's fascinating in and of itself.

You have a 5-star quarterback, a potential superstar who could be a top-five pick in a couple of years, and at this point, he's really only been asked to be a game manager in the offense.

That phrase -- game manager -- sort of comes with a negative connotation, because quarterbacks would rather be described as prolific or productive or whatever. But for this team, all it needs is for Allar to be a game manager.

He enjoyed a brilliant opener, completing 21 of 29 passes for 325 yards and three TDs against West Virginia. But since then, Allar has thrown for 204, 208 and 166 yards in the past three games. He had four TD passes against Iowa, all on short throws.

The remarkable patience and poise he's shown as a young quarterback has been interesting to watch. He has not turned the ball over -- which is just, wow, after throwing 125 passes this season -- and just takes what the defense gives him instead of trying to force anything.

There could come a time when Allar is asked to force things if the Lions are trailing in a key spot, and we'll see how any and all of this might change in that type of game. But so far, having merely to manage games has allowed the sophomore to learn a whole lot without facing much pressure.

"We stress that every week in the quarterback room -- taking what the defense gives us," Allar said. "After we take it and march down the field, then they're going to have to eventually come up and take that stuff away, and that leaves them vulnerable over the top. That's our mentality as an offense, especially with the offensive line that we have and the running backs that we have, we can just run the ball and give them body blows the whole time with how physical we can be in the run game. That really opens up everything in the pass game, as well."

Keep in mind that, even though we haven't seen Allar chuck it deep yet, it's gonna come at some point. If the Lions can add that element to the offense, along with the ability to grind things out, that could be the final piece to the puzzle to get the team to a College Football Playoff berth.

"It's just a fine line," Franklin said when asked about Allar throwing mostly short passes. "We still want to throw for a high completion percentage. We still want to make sure we're protecting the football. We still want to reduce the sacks because we don't want to take negative yardage plays that get us off schedule, but when the opportunities come for a big play, we've got to hit it."

5. The Beau Pribula element in all of this.

Franklin alluded once again Tuesday to perhaps trying to get the backup QB into games for various situations here and there to take advantage of his running skills.

Pribula has 166 yards rushing -- not far behind Singleton's 203 -- on only 28 carries, averaging 5.9 yards per attempt. All of that has been in mop-up duty when games have been out of hand, but there's no doubt he is a good runner.

Will we actually see a Pribula package during a meaningful portion of a game? The guess here is yes, at some point. And then if it's effective, we could see more of it.

But one thing Franklin is doing by continuing to mention the possibility of using Pribula is that he's forcing opposing teams to spend time preparing for that possibility. There could be some cat and mouse game stuff at play here -- talking about things that you never truly intend to use -- and that's an effective strategy because, hey, why not give the opponent something else to worry about, real or not.

"We'd like to get him involved more in a situation where he can actually run our offense, because I think right now, he's being used primarily as a runner, but we feel like we can run the whole offense with him," Franklin said.

Any and all experience Pribula can get will be valuable, just in case something happens to Allar at some point. But one thing we need to see Pribula do at least to some degree is throw the ball. He's attempted 12 passes, completing five (41.7 percent) for 45 yards and one TD. If he gets into a game, defenses know he's most likely going to run the ball, so his effectiveness could be limited until and unless he proves to be a threat with his arm.