Penn State Football's Offense Explosive In Win Over West Virginia

Yes, you read that correctly.

Penn State’s explosive offense bolstered the team to its first victory of the season over West Virginia on Saturday afternoon. The offense didn’t miss a beat, even through the over two-hour rain delay, as it put up 34 total points.

The Nittany Lion’s offense was firing on all cylinders with new offensive coordinator Andy Kotelnicki. Drew Allar threw for three touchdowns, a top receiving threat may have emerged, Nick Singleton had over 100 rushing yards, and the offensive line didn’t give up a sack.

As for explosive plays, specifically, James Franklin said after the game that his goal was to have 15 percent of snaps on offense go for explosive plays. According to Franklin, the team ended at 18.3 percent.

The first big play of the game was a 50-yard touchdown pass from Allar to Trey Wallace. Allar hit Wallace wide-open over the middle of the field and the speedy redshirt junior receiver did the rest.

Right before halftime, Allar took a shot downfield and found Omari Evans with a Mountaineer draped over him. The receiver went up and came down with the ball for a 55-yard gain.

“We know how fast he is,” Allar said after the game. “I was like ‘I’m just going to give [Evans] a chance’ and I think he did a great job of fighting for the ball and coming down with it.”

Evans’s grab set the Nittany Lions up at the West Virginia 18-yard line and a play later, Allar found Wallace again on a back-shoulder fade in the end zone with six seconds remaining in the half.

“[Allar] gave me a chance,” Wallace said. “I just knew I had to go out there a make a play for him.”

“I think we saw [Wallace] be who we always thought he was,” Allar said of his receiver. “It was really good seeing that from him.”

Wallace finished the game with five receptions for 117 yards and two touchdowns. However, the offense switched gears after halftime when the game was hit with a two-hour and 19-minute rain delay.

After the hours of rain, Penn State started flexing its running game in the second half. Singleton was the Nittany Lions’s leading rusher as he finished with 114 yards and a touchdown on 13 carries.

Singleton’s only game where he rushed for over 100 yards last season came in the last week of the regular season against Michigan State.

Singleton attributed the run to his offensive line who paved the way for over 200 yards on the ground and didn’t allow a sack during the game on Saturday.

“Shoutout to the whole line. They were doing their jobs,” Singleton said. “Shoutout to the tight ends, everybody. It was a whole team effort.”

As for Penn State’s most experienced offensive lineman Sal Wormley, he looks forward to explosive plays for the rest of the season. Wormley said the more explosive plays, the faster the offensive line can get off the field and stay rested.

“I don’t want to be taking these 14 play drives,” Wormley said jokingly. “We can do it, but it’s better if we can get them one and done.”

Although Penn State’s offense looked good against West Virginia last season, it wasn’t able to get anything going in the big games. Only time will tell if this offense is built to perform on the big stage this season. However, Allar believes the explosive plays can be consistent in Kotelnicki’s offense.

“We want to be an explosive offense,” Allar said. “We want to put points up on the scoreboard, so that’s going to be our goal every week.”