We knew that the would-be bowl eligible Nittany Lions (6-4, 3-3 B1G) could run all day on the porous Purdue (1-9, 0-6 B1G) defense, but we didn’t know what sort of game plan Bill O’Brien would employ to beat the Boilermakers. It turned out that he relied heavily on the rushing attack to do the job quite well, rushing 58 times versus 23 passes for a total of 501 yards.
Zach Zwinak was the featured running back of the week, with 26 carries for 149 yards and 3 touchdowns. Bill Belton added 19 for 81 and a touchdown, and we saw the return of Akeel Lynch who carried the ball 9 times for 44 yards. Although Zwinak and Belton were able to get some tough yards on their own, this turkey is encouraged by the progress of the offensive line. I will remind you, however, that this was Purdue, the dregs of the Big Ten in just about every category — except maybe kick returns, and I’ll touch on that later.
The passing attack was tame, and while Hacky committed one egregious error, he survived a day on the upswing, completing 16 out of 23 for 212 yards, with one passing touchdown and the aforementioned heinous INT. Allen “Gimme Da Damn Ball” Robinson led all receivers with 8 catches for 98 yards, while the ball was spread around to other receivers, including freshman tight end Adam Breneman, who scored the only passing TD.
Both teams, as expected, were sloppy with the ball, but Penn State managed to reduce its season differential by one to -7, whereas Purdue augmented its differential to -9.
Amazingly, Penn State was penalized only twice for 15 yards, which means they got away with a lot of holding, while Purdue were assessed 61 yards on five penalties. I don’t know why I mentioned penalties — I never have made a big deal out of them before — but I wanted to touch on the holding thing just because.
Now, look at this: third down conversions were 10-12!!!! Holy shit, that’s 83%! But I’ll remind you that this was against Purdue.
The Penn State defense held up well, speaking of third downs, allowing only 4 of 11 and holding hapless Purdue to 264 yards, of which 223 were through the air. But you can’t run on Penn State — not if you’re Purdue, anyway — so the mere 20 rushing attempts yielded a crappy 41 yards. Alas, they allowed Purdue to score 21 points, which equaled Purdue’s point output in the four prior games — BELIEVE IT OR NOT!
As I predicted, special teams suuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuucked. Although Penn State never had to punt, which meant that one point of suckage — namely, Alex Butterworth — didn’t get to rear its ugly head. And Sam Ficken was one for one, so that wasn’t an issue. However, all of the potential good or benignity in general was wiped out by a 100-yard kickoff return by junior running back Raheem Mostert from, of all places, New Smyrna Beach, Florida, about 35 miles from here. Yeah, nobody stayed at home on that return. Without it, Purdue would have been held to the number of damn points I told you they’d score.
I am pleased that the boys were able to score 45. Sure beats having 45 scored on them. On the other hand, put this in perspective. It was against Purdue, the crappiest team in the B1G. There is no statement gleaned to have been made here, even though some Sanguinarians will say that Penn State actually won 70-3 (I guess the 3 would be the three extra points because the touchdowns didn’t count due to cheating) and they’re really 9-1 at this point, poised to win out and show the world what an 11-1 team with the best offense and second best defense in the B1G really looks like. OK, that’s them, and this is I, your cynical and sometime all too realistic Turkey. Whazzup wit dat?
I’ll tell you. Win or no win, we’re dealing with quite an ordinary team here. Some writers have used the word “average”, but I have no idea just what the hell that means. I think it is a sloppy adjective meant to be a euphemism for mediocre or even crappy. I’m saying ordinary, meaning replete with flaws and nothing spectacular — middle of the B1G pack material at best. The 3-3 conference record is a very accurate depiction of what they are and where they are. But they’ll get better eventually. How much better is anyone’s guess, as the sanctions and the scandal will have a negative impact on recruiting, whether we like to admit it or not, as will the forthcoming flux at the prexy’s office and potentially in the AD’s office and head coach’s position. This is not going to be an easy hole to dig ourselves out of, and even if we beat Wisconsin and Nebraska, I’ll probably go into next season expecting 6-6 at best, along with a potential visit to the Toilet Bowl in Kohler Wisconsin on Christmas Eve.
So, am I bitter because my prediction sucked? Nahhhhh. PSU whacking the spread and hitting the “over” never pisses me off. It’s an unexpected pleasure. But I’m now 7-3 straight up, 5-5 against the spread, and 5-5 on the over/under.
Looking forward, we have two games left. At the beginning of the season, I regarded both of them as losses. Watching Nebraska falter through the middle part of the season and get bitch-slapped by Moo U. last week made me believe the 7-3 Huskers might be beatable, but putting the whole thing into perspective, I was looking through rose colored glasses. We tend to do that, you know. Think about “what is” in terms of “what should be if only…” Well, I’m still sticking with my 6-6 prediction for the season, but it will still be interesting to see how these guys step up for Nebraska and Wisconsin. Hey, at least Nebraska is a 3:30 start!
On another note, how about ex-Nittany Lion quarterback Matt McGloin today? In his first NFL start, subbing for the ailing Terrelle Pryor, McGloin threw for 197 yards, three touchdowns and no interceptions, leading Oakland to a 28-23 victory over Houston, the Raiders’ first away game victory. He received plenty of favorable comments from the broadcasting booth, and one Tweet I saw nominated him for secretary-general of the moon.
I’ll be back soon with some real (i.e., not out of the ass) comments about the Nebraska game, and of course, the usual flawless prediction.
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jd says
pitt beat detroit, psu won, eagles won, mcgloin moxied the sh!t out of houston….
nice weekend in football for the keystone state.
The Nittany Turkey says
Yeah, the Steelers did OK when they started realizing that Ike Taylor couldn’t cover Calvin Johnson on his own. I was happy to see Stafford looking frustrated, as the Steelers’ secondary has looked like Penn State at times.
As for the Eagles, where has that version of the team been all year?
I’ll ask the same thing about our Tampa Bay Bucs. They put a serious beatdown on Atlanta.
KC is no longer winless. Sorry, Tamba. Waterloo moved to Denver.
—TNT
Joe says
It was what I expected against a horrible team. Little concerned when they got within 7 though.
I thought the line played well and the backs ran great, although I still think Belton does a little bit too much east-west dancing.
Hack was serviceable, although again there were a couple dropsies from his WR/TE’s.
Lucas looks like he’s going to be a decent CB over the next couple of years.
All in all they did what they needed to do.
Did you see Baublitz is foregoing his last year of eligibility? Probably makes sense. He’s not going to play on Sunday’s, has his degree and I think it will open up another scholarship for next year. I also believe some of that direction as to what to do comes from BOB. You’ve got to believe he wants to get that roster full of new recruits now, rather than hang on to a guy, who while he contributed this season, he would rather replace with someone who’s going to be around for the next 4-5 seasons. I’m sure there are probably a couple others who fit in that same category.
Watched the Huskers and if the planets align, this could (and I emphasize) could) be a winnable game. I’m just waiting for the one day when Pellini is going to blow a blood vessel on the sideline! Yikes, he had some scary moments against Sparty!
The Nittany Turkey says
Thanks for the tidbit about Baublitz. I’m not a great visionary when it comes to recruiting and personnel for college teams. I’d be inclined to go with a bird in the hand beating the two in the bush were it not for the inevitability of that graduation thing. Alls I know is that if I went there to play football on scholarship, I’d want to play football. An extra year of graduate courses in Parks & Recreation management wouldn’t daunt me, even if I had no NFL chances. So, you’re right. O’Brien had to be behind it.
You watched the same Nebraska game as I did? Yeah, without Martinez, they’re missing a dimension, but they’ve still got enough to put 28 points on Moo U. and that alone is enough to tell me that PSU ain’t going to get it done. They gained 392 yards against the vaunted Moo U. defense, one that’s even recognized as superior by K. John. Penn State won’t be nearly effective escaping holding calls — Moo U. had six for 60 yards, so Penn State will have at least 12 for 120. Pelini said he would run on Moo U. and he did — 182 yards worth. I think that big-ass offensive line of Nebraska’s, a line that spawned Richie Incognito, will wear down the PSU defense and that’s all she wrote.
I realize that all but the last of the Nebraska TDs were the result of big plays, but the Penn State defense specializes in giving up big plays this year. That’s counterbalanced by Nebraska’s five turnovers, two of them unforced, which gave them a -8 for the season, one worse than even Penn State. However, they were playing Moo U., right up there in the top ten with a +11. This game sure helped them in that stat category, as they had none.
I think it will be more than the stars aligning. I think Jupiter will have to fly up my ass.
Oh, and Pelini ought to get something from his brother for that apoplexy of his.
Baylor closing in on OSU in the BCS rankings is a good thing, thanks to the AP geniuses, I guess. The Buckeyes have an easy schedule, though, with Indiana and The M. FSU still has Florida, such as they are, and Baylor still has OK State, TCU, and Texas. Alabama has to contend with Auburn. So, the Bucks still are in the SSMNCBGA mix.
—TNT
BigAl says
I didn’t see the Purdue game. Effing DISH classifies the B1G Network as a “Regional” network and doesn’t make it available in my part of the former CSA. And I’m sure as hell not going to drive 35 miles to the local sports bar on the slim chance that the resident rednecks might want to watch State play Purdue. (Although it would have been amusing to watch them piss and moan while the cHokies screwed the pooch against Maryland)
So, I can’t really comment on how well State played. It least they showed up in the first quarter and got off to a good start. And it looks like the Vegas odds makers knew what they were doing after all. So much for my lock of the year.
But I think the Turkey is right about Nebraska. The odds of Jupiter flying up his ass are probably higher than a Penn State win. Nebraska would have beaten Moo U if (1) they hadn’t committed 5 turnovers and (2) Armstrong Jr hadn’t repeatedly missed open receivers.
His receivers were only open by 3 yards against Moo U, and they’ll be open by a lot more against State. He won’t feel as much pressure and overthrow the ball as badly. And I don’t think Nebraska’s going to lose the turnover battle against State.
Plus, I think Donovan Smith is going to looking for his jockstrap most of the afternoon after Nebraska’s #44 fakes him out it a la Noah Spence. Hack better wear a flak jacket for this one.
The Nittany Turkey says
Yeah, Al, it’s always encouraging when they win, but it WAS PURDUE! No need to get anyone’s hopes up. The mighty Lions will surely be feeling the effects of the sanctions and the injuries against Nebraska, probably around 4:30 PM on Saturday, if not sooner.
Friggin’ DirecTV at least carries BTN as part of the regional sports package. That’s good, because the Nebraska game is going to be broadcast by BTN, too. Maybe you should plan on attending; your local sports bars likely will be showing BC at UMd.
I gotta do some reading. See what they think of us in the Lincoln Journal-Star.
—TNT