In football, a lot of times it’s easy to get carried away with the flashy things — a high-powered offense, Heisman hopeful running back, or a risk-it-all quarterback that makes plays seemingly out of nowhere.

The Penn State football team has all those things and it’s a big reason for its success over the last two years. Those very things have brought excitement and expectations back to the program.

However, there’s an old football cliche that you hear almost every week whether it’s on television, radio, or in the newspaper. That cliche is “this game will be won in the trenches.” If there’s anything Penn State followers have learned over the past two weeks after their two losses, it’s that statement may be old, but it still holds to be very true.

The Nittany Lions possessed leads in the fourth quarter against both Ohio State and Michigan State and couldn’t finish them off. It’s not because they lack the talent at the skill positions we talked about, it’s because their offensive line and defensive line just isn’t at the point mentally and physically where they can finish off elite opponents.

The offensive line has been an issue for Penn State since head coach James Franklin has arrived on campus. There’s no doubt he’s made strides with that unit and it has improved, but it’s not the road grading physical type of offensive line you need to be successful year in and year out in the Big Ten. The offensive line needs to have an identity built upon physicality and tenacity and right now that group just isn’t quite there, and it’s showed by the Nittany Lions inability to run the football against talented fronts over the past few weeks.

“It’s not something that’s going to change overnight. We have done some really good things this year, but we need to do it more consistently, and we need to do it in every circumstance,” said Franklin. “We have to be consistent at home, on the road, against ranked opponents, versus non-ranked opponents, in conference games, in nonconference games. We need to be more consistent with everything we do.”

I thought coming into this season the defensive line had the chance to be really good through the mid point of the schedule. That, of course, was predicated upon health, and right now the Nittany Lions are not healthy up front on defense. Starting defensive end Torrence Brown was lost for the season and another starter, Ryan Buchholz, missed almost all of the Ohio State game and was out against the Spartans with no time table set for his return.

Simply put, both J.T. Barrett and Brian Lewerke have been able to stand in the pocket comfortably and throw the football downfield over the past two weeks. The proof is in the statistics. Barrett threw for 328 yards and four touchdowns and Lewerke threw for 400 yards and two scores. That is entirely way too many yards given up, especially when you’re on the road. It doesn’t matter who you have in the secondary if a quarterback has all the time in the world to throw.

“We’ve got to find a way to get the quarterback pressured on defense. We haven’t done a great job of that recently,” said Franklin. “That’s a really good quarterback we faced last week. I think that was a major factor in the game.”

“Whenever you lose two starters at one position, that’s a challenge. Losing Torrence Brown and then you loss Ryan Buchholz, that’s a challenge. We can’t say we don’t miss those guys. Saying that would not be truthful.”

Moving forward there’s no doubt Penn State must be better up front on both offense and defense, and it will try and start to do that this week against Rutgers (noon ET, BTN).

The Scarlet Knights (4-5, 3-3 Big Ten) have been playing some solid football of late, winning three out their last four games.

The main objective this week for Penn State is to get back on track offensively in the run game. The Nittany Lions need to gain some confidence up front and also need to get Saquon Barkley going again after two weeks in a row of limited yardage.

The Rutgers defense has been susceptible to the run game this season, as it’s giving up almost 180 yards per game on the ground.

Balance is always the key offensively even though I’ve continued to preach this season that if teams are going to stack the box, the ball should just be handed to Trace McSorley and the passing game. I believe they have one of the most talented receiving groups in the country, but last week turnovers in the passing game hurt the Nittany Lions big time. McSorley still had a good game statistically besides the miscues, throwing for 381 yards and three touchdowns.

But it was McSorley’s three interceptions that were the difference and in my opinion, all three could’ve been avoided, especially the last one where he had Saeed Blacknall open, but he threw behind him. That turnover resulted in the game-winning drive for the Spartans.

McSorley will need to be better this week and he will have opportunities to do just that. Rutgers is giving up 214.3 passing yards per game. As a unit, the Scarlet Knights defense is giving up almost 400 yards of total offense per game.

Las Vegas has Penn State as a 31-point favorite.

The key to winning this game, besides a more balanced offensive attack and of course taking care of the football, is stopping the Rutgers rushing attack. Scarlet Knights running back Gus Edwards has rushed for 630 yards and six scores on the season and Rutgers is averaging a solid 167 rushing yards per game.

Rutgers hasn’t done much in the passing game this season as it’s averaging just 127 yards passing per contest.

I like the middle of the Penn State defense to bottle up Edwards and the Rutgers rushing game this week. I think Penn State will get back to playing a more physical brand of football after two disappointing losses have shined some light on what it needs to work on.

Look for Barkley to have a big game in this one. He’s due and with his ability I can’t foresee three weeks of lackluster performances.

My pick is Penn State 49, Rutgers 13.