The Nittany Turkey

Primarily about Penn State football, this is a tale told by idiots, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.

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Home Sports Penn State Football Passin in da Rain

Passin in da Rain

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On this crappy, rainy Saturday in Beaver Stadium, the mighty Penn State Nittany Lions (3-1) laid to waste the wet, Archerless Golden Flashes of Kent State (1-3) by a score worthy of the best offense and the second best defense in the B1G, 34-0. Alas, the true best offense in the B1G was busy beating FAMU 76-0 with its second and third team, but I digress.

What happened in this game doesn’t prove much — PSU was expected to win big and it did — but it did manage to highlight some potential strengths and weaknesses. I’ll Phil Grosz it, with numbered paragraphs.

  1. Christian Hackenberg is human and had an off day. Sanguinarians with blinders on will blame that on the rain, but c’mon! He was forcing throws and making just plain bad ones, winding up with a lackluster 13-35 for 176 yards, 1 TD and 1 INT. He also did one of his lovely inadvertent Statue of Liberty plays. Fortunately, Penn State got to keep the ball this time.
  2. The defense did its job this week, albeit against a struggling offense. Nevertheless, this was an offense that scored 13 points against LSU, also without their star. Limiting the Flashers to 190 yards, 56 of which were on the ground, is a trend that we must hope continues into the B1G season. Mike Hull sat out this game, which portends well for a complete recovery before the B1G play begins, with a bye week forthcoming. The pass rush was actually able to put some pressure on young Colin Reardon. Congratulations to the Big D on the shutout, the first since the last time they shut out the Flashers back in the St. Joe Era, 2010. (A shutout that was not an official win, thanks to slimy Mark Emmert, but I digress.)
  3. The Flashers have yet to beat a B1G opponent and are 0-4 against PSU.
  4. Ahhhh, the re-emergence of the rushing game was satisfying, although we had to wait until the second half to see it! O’Brien was probably a little too intent on using the passing attack to get the rout going in the first half. That obviously didn’t work (see ¶1).  The halftime adjustment to Hackenberg’s off day was obvious: run the damn ball down their throats. Speedster Akeel Lynch finally showed some game, and so did Bill Belton. In this game, Zach Zwinak (15-65) enjoyed a little respite while watching Lynch (14-123) and Belton (13-90) set him up to score three TDs. The offensive line did its job. But remember, this was Kent State.
  5. Sam Ficken. Can you believe it??!?! Another perfect day, including a career long 54-yarder that might well have been good from 60. In da freakin’ rain!
  6. Alex Butterworth is a great holder. But maybe O’Brien should let Hackenberg handle the punting.
  7. Kent State got called for some phantom penalties. Maybe the officials are finally listening to K.John.
  8. The third down situation is improving, but still sucks. I mean 7-18? Against Kent State’s defense? Lousy coaching and lousy execution for the number one offense in the B1G, I’d say.
  9. The B1G continues to suuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck. Hey, Michigan!?!?! You gonna wake up over there? Last week, a near loss to Akron; this week, if UConn hadn’t shot itself in the foot in that final drive, the Wolverines would have gone down in flames. #18 Northwestern needed a couple of defensive scores to beat Maine. Moo U had the cow colic — although the best defense in the B1G held ND to 220 yards, they were unable to generate enough offense to overcome 17 point scored by the Irish. They were too busy shooting themselves in the foot with 10 penalties for 115 yards (of course, we all know that officiating always favors Notre Dame, don’t we?). Our next opponent, IU, lost to Mizzou — even though they amassed 475 total yards, Missouri had 623. (The PSU-Indiana game might just turn out to be an entertaining slugfest, which has many of the same letters as Sudfeld). On the bright side for the B1G, Minnesota, Iowa, and Nebraska won convincingly. Wisconsin demolished Purdue, and I can’t find the right verb without resorting to scatology to describe what tOSU did to FAMU in a 76-0 win with clean jerseys on the field much of the game.

And so, how did this Turkey do? Well, BigAl was right about the rain keeping the score down, only I don’t think it was as much the rain as Hackenberg’s rookie mistakes and O’Brien’s misplaced confidence in Hacky getting the job done on third down. Soooo, the prognostication won straight up and against the spread, but took a dive on the over/under. I shoulda listened to BigAl.

Let’s keep this win in perspective by continuing to remind ourselves that this was not OSU, Wisconsin, Michigan, or even Indiana the Lions manhandled — it was the Flashless Flashers, missing their Dri Archer. This is not the time for the boys to be sitting on their haunches basking in the glory of a magnificent shutout, such as it was. They clearly have more work to do, but they’re getting there, slowly but surely.

Looking down the road, after watching Michigan suck the big one two weeks in a row, I might be thinking about predicting a Homecoming win, but I need to see more from both teams before I’ll pull the trigger on that one. I can’t get too euphoric about the defense until watching it perform against the Hoosiers.

With a bye week upon us, I’ll try to post something here and there before getting down to writing my thoughts and predictions for the Indiana game. For now, Happy Autumnal Equinox!

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Comments

  1. K. John says

    Even if you are mocking me, it pleases me to know that you are paying attention to the officials and conceding they do influence the outcome of games. As for Saturday’s ‘phantom’ calls, I didn’t see any. However, since I could barely see the field at times due to the rain, I will need to watch the replay. What did see was the defense not making the stupid self inflicted mistakes that allowed an inferior UCF team to stay in the game they should have been blown out of.

    Next up, Indiana. I did watch the Hoosier’s game last night while trying to dry off and unshrivel my fingers and toes. A couple of observations. Indiana has no defense to speak of. If Indiana has a prayer, it has to be to outscore Penn State. Indiana’s defense is the worst Penn State will have played through five games, and that includes Eastern Michigan. Missouri doesn’t have a defensive player that would start in Happy Valley, yet managed to mount a decent pass rush at times and were able to cover Indiana’s allegedly vaunted receiving corps. And Michigan looks like the team I thought they would be coming into the season. I fully expect a 5 and 1 record heading into Ohio State. Unfortunately the Columbus crew (which worked last year’s officiating debacle against Ohio State and the recent UCF game) will likely be on hand.

    • jd says

      o look game settings on “no holding will be called against OSU”

      i’m with the turk in that bad reffing (i.e. “a few phantom calls”) usually will not dictate the outcome of a game.

      however, consistently horrendous officiating will.

      it’s all a matter of degree, i guess.

      • The Nittany Turkey says

        Nice waffle, counselor!

        Yeah, IMHO, it all evens out. I don’t like making excuses. Officials are just part of the field; variability and human foibles are part of the game. If it’s so close that it comes down to piddling little calls, you just haven’t scored enough points or you haven’t held the other guy to few enough.

        In K.John’s blue-and-white bleeding, Sanguinarian heart, it seems there is no such thing as a bad call that favors Penn State, while in any Penn State loss there are myriad bad calls favoring the opponent. That’s just plain wrong!

        —TNT

    • The Nittany Turkey says

      The defense still made mistakes, but they didn’t get burned because Reardon was off the mark most of the day, sometimes due to hurry-ups, but some were unforced.

      You keep calling UCF vastly inferior, but they’re not. I will let the season’s tale unfold for both teams, and we’ll let the record books decide.

      Having two cream puffs and two up-and-comers on the schedule thus far, Penn State has managed to find itself #15 in total defense, 4th in the B1G. It gets tougher from here. Still thinking they’re second best?

      As for the best offense in B1G (LOL), PSU has improved to #120 in third-down conversions, vaulting ahead of USF, FIU, and hapless Roethlisburger U. If the measure of the best offense is total offense, they’re now #48 overall, with only Wisc, IU, OSU, and Northwestern ahead of them in the B1G. You might be right about one thing, though. Michigan sure as hell appears to be overrated, depending on who did the rating.

      Question: Has Penn State ever lost a game they deserved to lose? Just askin’.

      —TNT

      • K. John says

        Football, above all, is a qualitative sport, not a quantitative sport. Statistical rankings are largely irrelevant, more so in college. Third down conversion rate? Who cares. Talk to me in a month once they have a few league games behind them. Go watch a few Big Ten games and tell me which defense (other than Sparty) is better? Which defense has potential to improve more? The answer is none.

        As far as losing, they have lost lots of games they deserved to lose. The first two last year. A couple the year before. A couple the year before that and so on. Sadly, the officiating is something the good guys have to deal with and will likely deal with all year just like they did last year.

        • The Nittany Turkey says

          I don’t disagree that there is a large qualitative aspect to any spectator sport that lends itself readily to opinionated commentary. One man’s opinion is just that. The quantitative view, however, is significant. Yeah, it ain’t as simply quantitative as track and field, and becoming too dependent on numbers gives us crap like BCS rankings, which were an attempt to consider both Qs.

          Without any form of measurement, you or any other commentator can spew any kind of unsupported scree without making a convincing case. We should believe you why? Because you’re K. John? We should believe Bob Costas because he’s Bob Costas? I have an opinion, too. So keep on posting your opinions.

          —TNT

  2. BigAl says

    Think I’ll quit making predictions about this team. They’re so erratic almost anything can happen. I’m guessing the defense will dominate until they play an offense that has skill athletes who match their speed and strength. Then, the opposing quarterback’s execution will determine how badly State’s secondary will get toasted. Indiana, Michigan, Nebraska, Ohio State, and Illinois are probably the only teams that have enough offensive skill athletes to do this.

    Penn State’s running game will generate big yards when they play against defensive front sevens that can’t match their strength. Michigan, Ohio State, and Wisconsin can match them and slow down the running game. Indiana and Purdue can’t ,and I’m not sure about the rest.

    Passing (i.e. Hackenberg) will ultimately decide most of State’s success in the remaining games. It’s too early to tell how good Hack is. Technique wise he’s probably as good as any quarterback State’s had. His issues seem to be mental: not recognizing coverage (which will improve over time) and pressing too hard (which may not improve). Even in the games that the Sanguinarians were sure that he was the next Peyton Manning, he had stretches when he repeatedly missed open receivers.

    Penn State has had other quarterbacks with impressive arms and great potential that were not consistently accurate and never realized their potential. Only time will tell whether Hack is the next Kerry Collins or the next Tony Sacca.

    • The Nittany Turkey says

      Those defenses you mentioned will certainly force the pass, so indeed, the B1G season will be an onerous chore for the true freshman. He’s a work in progress — lots to learn. O’Brien, too, has to learn how to contain his enthusiasm over the kid and stop playing with passing plays and Hackenberg like they were his Christmas toy.

      Confidence will wax and wane as the season wears on, and team psyche IMHO will be of prime importance in how that season is navigated. I’m still not seeing any clear signs of a charismatic team leader emerging from the rank and file.

      Don’t stop predicting, please. Your perspectives are desirable, even when they’re not complete ringers. You’re pretty good at tossing those horseshoes.

      —TNT

      • K. John says

        “O’Brien, too, has to learn how to contain his enthusiasm over the kid and stop playing with passing plays and Hackenberg like they were his Christmas toy. ”

        Have you considered the thought that Bill O’Brien is using the out of conference portion of the schedule to fully install his offense before the bye week and the start of Big Ten play? Just a thought, and that little nugget isn’t my idea.

  3. Joe says

    I’m not sure what we got out of this other than a win to make it 3-1 in the non-con part of the schedule and I’m okay with that.

    Hack seemed a bit out of kilter, maybe it was the wet (heavier) ball and even though the O-line did okay, he did have people in his face for good parts of the afternoon. If he was going to have a “dogs-breakfast” game, glad he had it against Kent State and not in the middle of the B1G schedule (not to say that won’t happen, but one can hope it doesn’t). Also thought either Robinson was up against an All-American db on some of his routes; just seemed like he couldn’t get any separation.

    I’m glad Kent State didn’t cheat like UCF, but there were some calls that left me scratchin’ my head. I’ve said it before, the B1G officials for the minor games are not that good.

    Two thumbs up to the RB’s and remarkably accurate Ficken. That was a hell of a FG especially with the weather and field conditions. This to me is the feel good story of the season so far.

    A week off will be good, but I think they’re going to have their hands full with Indiana’s passing game.

    There were a couple of nice plays in the secondary Saturday, but they were lucky because of a few KSU overthrows and dropped balls and were also lucky that Archer didn’t play-just sayin’. Also gotta make those picks when the opportunity presents itself.

    Here’s Bob’s postgame presser. Listen at approximately the 8:50 and 11:00 minute marks; almost had another “fighters” moment. Hilarious!!

    http://pennstate.scout.com/2/1328679.html

    • The Nittany Turkey says

      I did catch that post-game interview, which cracked me up. BoB was also self-effacing about his coaching errors, which I admire. (Just don’t keep screwing up!)

      Having watched the IU-Mizzou game, I can see IU’s vaunted receivers getting a step on the PSU secondary, which to this turkey seems to be continually a day late and a dollar short. They’ve shown some improvement, but they still make me queasy against a competent passing offense.

      With a bye week nigh, I feel the urge to write a feel-good story about Ficken. Both you and Artificially Sweetened have expressed interest in that. I still feel the same about his nose, though.

      —TNT