Penn State 20, Rutgers 7
I literally did fall asleep during this epic snoozer, but I’m glad I woke up in time to see the Ohio State-Maryland game — in which Maryland’s performance doesn’t portend well for the Nittany Lions’ next weekend.
Noon Start Syndrome in Full Swing
Trace McSorley wasn’t playing with a full deck. Why was he playing in the first place? Backup QB Tommy Stevens was seen for nary a rep.
Oh, you say because McSorley became Penn State’s winningest QB with this win. But with two more games ahead counting the bowl game, he didn’t have to play this one. He’ll have to play on Senior Day next weekend and, of course, he’ll want to play the bowl game, his last game in the blue and white. Not only did he start this game, but also he played every snap.
It was just a shame that the team didn’t show up to play.
I don’t have a lot to say about this game. It was bad. Bad. Soporific NOON KICKOFF AWAY GAME shit. Rutgers won the IITOP battle, 32:18 to 27:42.
#14 Penn State (8-3, 5-3) got a needed win over hapless Rutgers (1-10, 0-8). That’s all I know.
No Shut-out
Hell, I was asking for a shut-out, and they couldn’t even give me that wish. Aside from the crappy offensive performance, they allowed the Scarlet Schmucks a fourth quarter touchdown.
At least Jake Pinegar made both field goals and both extra points. And although Blake Gillikin punted six times (which paints enough of a tale of offensive incompetence), he had a long one of 70 yards. Woo hoo.
The defense was just a-ight. They wound up knocking starting gigantic freshman quarterback Artur Sitkowski out of the game after his second interception, with a quarterback rating of 0. Our old friend Giovanni Rescigno replaced him and went 2-8 for 28 yards. Rough day for Rutgers QBs.
And, of course, McSorley moved ahead of Todd Blackledge and Tony Sacca into the top spot as winningest quarterback in the history of Penn State’s culture of football. And his two touchdowns puts him on a pedestal occupied by Drew Brees and J.T. Barrett as the only Big Ten quarterbacks to have scored over one hundred touchdowns.
We can talk about personal achievement all day long, but this game suuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuucked.
New Year’s Day — Buh Bye!
Bowls scouts looking at this game are saying, “You must be kidding? These guys are going to Kohler.”
What of the Scarlet Knights? Bowl games are out of the question for Rutgers. Not even the toilet bowl. At 1-10, and a game with Moo U. to wrap up the season, they’re looking like next year needs to be either a rebuilding or a reloading year. Or maybe a decision by the administration to eliminate the football program. Yeah, that’s it. Euthanasia.
Maryland Looks Scary
Yeah, we’ll be at home at the Big Beave, but those guys gave the Buckeyes all they could handle and showed balls in their decision to go for the 2-pointer for the win on their first overtime possession. With bowl eligibility on the line for the Terps, they’ll come to play. It will be a 3:30 kickoff and it will be on our home turf, so one would expect the Nittany Lions to show up. They better. If they don’t, they can just start thinking about the Foster Farms Tainted Chicken Bowl.
Anthony McFarland was nothing short of monstrous in Maryland’s balls-to-the-wall 52-51 overtime loss to the dullards of Ohio State, racking up 298 yards on 21 carries and two touchdowns. This guy is 5-8″ 193 lbs of dynamite with a bouffant hairdo that looks like it has been styled by an outboard motor propeller at full throttle. These guys don’t quit! PSU defense beware!
Being made the underdog by 13½ points don’t mean shit to these Terps! tOSU was favored by 14½ and how did that go? This is a bowl play-in game. Big bucks involved. Team pride in a very daunting year for the program, musical coaches and all. They need redemption and they will come to play. Will Penn State be ready for them?
By our kickoff time the tOSU-Michigan game will have decided the Big Ten East winner, who will have the privilege of squaring off against Northwestern in Indianapolis on December 1. Michigan opened as three-and-a-half point favorites over tOSU in the Horseshoe, something that rarely happens, so beware that NOON KICKOFF dullard look, Urbz!
Inexplicably, Penn State moved up from #16 to #15 in the AP poll, I guess because formerly #12 Syracuse lost to Notre Dame.
HAPPY THANKSGIVING TO ALL!
Speaking of beware, already, this turkey will be laying low in view of the annual carnage of my species during this week. They should do something about this attempted genocide, but we keep coming back. Hope I’ll be back to write for you after going incognito for a few days.
Let me wish all you turkey carnivores a very happy Thanksgiving, and please travel safely to your destinations!
I’ll be back — I hope — later in the week to preview the last game of the regular season.
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eyedoc90 says
I opened up the paper today to see Penn State as a 13 1/2 pt. favorite? REALLY?????? I guess our game with Rutgers and their game with the Bucks were both FLUKES!
The Nittany Turkey says
tOSU was a 14 1/2 point favorite over Maryland, and you see what happened there. Can the Nittany Lions vaunted defense contain McFarland? We’ll see, but I don’t see PSU covering the spread, home team or not, Senior Day or not. Mainly not.
—TNT
Big Al says
Since I was pretty sure the game would suck and that Rutgers would cover, I spent Saturday afternoon doing yard work. That was probably the best decision I made all week. Watched some of the 1st half on Youtube later and was so bored that I quit watching at 10-0..
Trace’s performance this year is starting to remind me of Zack Mills’ senior season. If Trace isn’t injured, he’s regressed dramatically and won’t get a courtesy tryout with even a CFL team let alone an NFL team. Hopefully, he’s only still starting because of Franklin’s misplaced loyalty, and not because he’s the best qb State has. If Stevens and Clifford can’t play better than Trace did against Rutgers, the Kitties offense will really suck next year – i.e. Deja Vue 2011/2014 bad all over again.
The Nittany Turkey says
Good choice, Al. Yard work was probably even better than Todd of Lion’s Den fame watching the blonde at Champ’s getting moved in on by a handsome lad a quarter century his junior instead of watching the damn soporific game.
I must give credit where due. ‘Twas you who opined several weeks ago that PSU would be courting a 9-3 season and, in another breath, Maryland would be playing for bowl eligibility in the manufactured rivalry game this year. Well, here we are, and here you go.
Let’s talk turkey, which is somehow appropriate here. I think Trace IS playing as if he is injured. What I don’t know is whether the curtailment of his gung-ho playing style is due to a psychological hangover from the injury, is due to the coaching brain trust pulling back on the throttles, or is due to impairment from the actual injury — or perhaps it is due to a combination of the three factors. Couple that “whatever” with the absence of decent receivers and the omnipresent offensive line issues and whattya got? An offense that suuuuuuuuuuuuuuucks. The decision to throw to the freshmen instead of the starters was made way too late in the season, so perhaps McSorley is out of sync with them as well, although throwing the ball like C.Hack, either over their heads, behind their backs, or into their feet, has little to do with whom he’s throwing to.
Franklin’s loyalty to McSorley is working against next year’s team. Trace could have set the Penn State QB wins record if he won the Maryland game. (Oops! Are Franklin, Rahne, and ohmigawd, McSorley thinking that one could be a loss?) Are we chasing individual records of demonstrating loyalty at the expense of next year? If Stevens and Clifford have no significant game experience other than some Blue-White game reps, they’ll be thrust into the earn-while-you-learn program next year. If they can’t get up to playing speed in the first two games (Idaho and Buffalo), then I am about to start worrying about the following five games (Pitt, Maryland, Purdue, Iowa, Michigan, and Moo). By the time they visit the Horseshoe in late November, they’re liable to be 4-6 or worse and will need both tOSU and Rutgers for bowl eligibility.
Thus, I think your analysis (contingent on whoever quarterbacks the team next year providing a performance level comparable to McSorley against Rutgers) of Dark Years 3.0 is a distinct possibility.
It’s my birthday as I write this. I don’t want to say how old I am, but my freshman year was the same year PSU beat tOSU in the Horseshoe 27-0.
—TNT
K. John says
Happy Birthday plus one TNT. I can’t say the current state of the offense surprises me. I have always thought Barkley masked a lot of issues and that Moorhead did a great job of hiding Trace’s limitations. It took a few games to start the season but you could see where things were going to go, injury or not. Yes Trace is injured but I don’t think he is injured that much as he has always struggled throwing the routes he is struggling to throw right now. Maybe not as badly but struggled just the same. The difference is that he didn’t have’t to throw as many of them. Defenses have figured him out and they are taking away what he and the offense does well and focusing the passing game accordingly.
The Nittany Turkey says
I’m looking toward Maryland with some fear. I’m visualizing McFarland running through gaping holes untouched, followed by a plethora of missed tackles in the secondary. PSU is going to have to produce some offense in this forthcoming game, I fear, but what happened to the “quick strike” downfield offense of days of yore?
—TNT
K. John says
Barkley plays on Sundays. While the offensive scheme has remained, their departures have given opposing defenses new ways to attack it. While Miles Sandes is a solid back, he certainly isn’t anything special. Coordinators have figured out that they can contain the running game with 6 defenders and shut it down with 7 if they wanted to gamble on the back end. With Saquan on the field, defenses routinely committed 7 or 8 defenders gambling with cover 1 or cover 0 strategies. Without him, we see a ton of cover 2 and 3. While not a great coordinator, Rahne is not dumb enough to let Trace throw downfield given his lack of ideal arm strength. Knowing that they have safety help, DBs are now playing the ball more across the board and are using the extra personnel to take away certain areas of the field forcing Trace to attempt passes he has always struggled with.
They have abandoned the RPO game because it has been ineffective. They have abandoned the deep passing game due to concerns of turnovers. Sanders can’t make a play out of nothing and Gesicki isn’t there to go up and get balls nobody else can. It could come back next year with better QB play depending on who starts.
The Nittany Turkey says
My question was rhetorical.
We know where the offense has gone. We were reluctant to admit it at season’s outset, but now we’re getting frequent doses of reality.
—TNT
Big Al says
Happy belated Birthday, TNT.
Maybe the coaching staff’s preparation for Rutgers was adversely affected by Franklin’s negotiations for the soon to be vacant USC job. That might be a good opportunity for Franklin to escape before the offense completely collapses next year.
The Nittany Turkey says
I saw Neil Rudel and Corey Giger’s video discussing the USC rumors. They’re as in the dark as we are, but their commentary centered around Franklin’s agent using the USC job as leverage with Penn State. That’s a laugher… think he’ll ask for a raise?
While talking about why Franklin might want to go to LA, Giger talked about the benefits of Pennsylvania small town traffic over SoCal. “I can go to any of 30 places in 10 minutes.” First of all, I didn’t know there were thirty places to go to in Altoona, and if there are, they’re called The Horseshoe Curve, Weis Market, and Kentucky Fried Chicken, not the Getty Museum, Staples Center, and Ciro’s. But it’s hard to get to Tyrone from Santa Monica. And I’m full of shit, as usual…
—TNT
K. John says
I can BS on this nonsense. Franklin has zero leverage. If anything, he and his staff are overpaid. Our facilities aren’t top notch but they certainly aren’t bad or even behind the times. By most accounts Maryland is the only school in the league with better facilities. Unless someone like Terry Pegula steps up to pay for them, he is not getting the upgrades he wants.
The Nittany Turkey says
So, you thinks it’s all about facilities upgrades? Maybe the administration should call his bluff. Go ahead, James. Go to SoCal. (Then he’ll find out he’s candidate #5 in a pool of five). Nah, that would never happen — too much “mutual respect” between Barbour and Franklin. (That’s a joke).
—TNT
psudrozz says
I have a decade old text chain with my PSU friends. There’s 10 of us on there. Normally during the game this text thread lights up.
During this game there was one text: “Did anyone else fall asleep?”
The Nittany Turkey says
I guess it’s unanimous.
If you slept through it, you missed nothing important.
—TNT