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Prolific Moorhead lauded for red zone efficiency

UNIVERSITY PARK — Nine days ago, Sports Illustrated did a big profile piece that labeled Penn State’s Joe Moorhead “the guy behind the most dynamic offense in the nation,” and in recent months, several publications named him one of the best assistant coaches in the country.

On Thursday, however, the offensive coordinator found himself answering questions about why the Nittany Lions’ offense sputtered in the red zone, scored only 21 points and made a lot of mistakes in Saturday’s 21-19 win at Iowa.

“I think it’s been interesting,” Moorhead said of all the attention he’s received. “Like anybody in the world, people don’t like to be criticized. They like to be praised. But when you get caught up in it and allow it to affect your approach and who you are as a person, that’s when it becomes something that could be a distraction.”

Penn State is averaging 40.5 points per game, pretty much what people were expecting during the preseason. But the number was 47 through three games, before the Lions managed only 21 points at Iowa.

It’s not like the offense struggled in that game. Far from it — Penn State gained 579 yards and had 29 first downs. Still, the team had only 15 points for the first 56 minutes and 56 seconds, until winning on a 7-yard TD pass on the final play.

Failures inside the 5-yard line, going just 6-of-18 on third down and other concerns have been brought up this week. Penn State makes one assistant coach available to the media each week, and it just so happened that Moorhead’s turn came around Thursday.

“I definitely think offensively our best football is still ahead of us,” he said.

The expectations for this offense were so high following last year’s Big Ten title run — Penn State averaged 37.6 points in Moorhead’s first season — that seeing the Lions struggle to score points in just one game has thrown some people off.

“To this point in the season, we’re averaging 40 points and close to 500 yards of total offense,” Moorhead said. “But I do think we have more in us.”

The Lions have a superstar in running back Saquon Barkley, the Heisman Trophy frontrunner, and he’s coming off a career-high game with 211 yards rushing and 12 catches for 94 yards. As long as he’s on the field, the offense has a chance to do huge things.

Quarterback Trace McSorley is completing 66.1 percent of his throws, up from last year’s 57.9 mark, and has 10 TD passes to three interceptions. He’s also second on the team in rushing with 198 yards.

Despite those numbers, there are some who feel McSorley hasn’t quite gotten going yet in terms of smoothly running the offense. A lot of that, once again, is probably a result of the offense scoring just 21 points last week.

“When you look at it from objective measurable criteria, I think Trace has done a very good job,” Moorhead said. “He sits at or near the top of a majority of the passing categories in the Big Ten. When you compare it to the opening four games of last year, he’s way ahead of where he was in passing yards, he’s doubled his touchdowns, he’s lowered his turnovers and he’s rushed for about 200 more yards.”

One thing McSorley and the Lions’ offense have not done yet this season is find success throwing the deep ball. Barkley took a screen pass 85 yards for a score, but no one else has a catch of more than 35 yards, which is a major difference from a year ago.

Moorhead said defenses have been focused on taking away the deep throws, so the Lions have taken what’s available underneath.

“Entering the season, a lot of people talked about, would we be able to maintain our explosiveness pushing the ball down the field in the pass game,” Moorhead said. “Some people felt that we maybe needed to be more efficient and work on the underneath stuff. You just have to strike a balance.”

Moorhead was asked about having a fullback and said there is not one on the roster. He also explained why the offense never has the quarterback under center.

“When the defense is playing cover zero, they’re adding another defender who can take the run away.” he said. “When you’re under center, there’s nobody to read. So essentially you’re handing the ball off to an unblocked defender at the point of attack.

“We’re not a two-back team that runs those kinds of plays. So it would be like asking a wishbone team to spread out and throw four-wides when you need a passing situation.”

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