Penn State 34, Indiana 27
The fragrant bloom might be off the rose of unbeatenness for the Nittany Lions (9-1, 6-1), but they showed they still can ball, outlasting mighty Indiana for a one-touchdown victory. The winning score came on a Sean Clifford run up the middle at the end of an 18-play, 75-yard, nine-minute fourth-quarter drive to answer the Hoosiers last touchdown. Good, old fashioned football. They played the last three quarters without leading receiver K. J. Hamler, who suffered an injury in the first quarter.
Alas, defense sucked the entire game. The Lions gave up 462 yards, 371 of them in the air, as Nativeamericaniana backup quarterback Patrick Ramsey connected on 31 of 41 passes. Looking toward next week, I cringe at the thought of tOSU picking apart that Swiss Cheese secondary and running through three or four missed tackles all too frequently for huge gains.
Penn State offense was balanced with 179 yards passing and 192 yards rushing. Journey Brown led the ground game, hitting the century mark on 21 carries. Sean Clifford contributed 55 yards to the running totals, and was 11-23 passing, with one touchdown and fortunately, no interceptions this week. They also converted half their third-down opportunities. K.J. Hamler wound up the leading receiver with two receptions for 52 yards before he left the game after landing on his head after a kickoff return in the first quarter. (This is why we don’t want him doing kick returns, but I digress.) Finally, no spitting was observed.
You would have wound up a dual winner if you took Indiana and the points, and bet the over.
Well, what do you think? Is this team ready for tOSU? Will the defense suddenly learn how to tackle? Just how much embarrassment do you think we’re in for? The Sanguinarians will be saying how “underrated” (whatever that means) Indiana was, so sure, if we mind our Ps and Qs, we can easily beat the “overrated” (whatever that means) Schmuckeyes. On the other hand, the rest of us with average to above-average intelligence have been counting tOSU as a loss since the Buffalo game.
Meanwhile, in the Big Ten, Minnesota’s fragrant bloom of the rose of unbeatenness fell off at the behest of the Hawkeyes a week after they dispatched our Nittany Lions. Michigan showed that it isn’t dead yet, with a 44-10 victory over Moo U. Nevertheless, unless PSU can pull off a miracle win in Columbus, it still looks like tOSU vs. Minnesota in the Big Ten championship. Finally, Baylor’s unblemished record took a hit from Oklahoma, so they, too, have fallen from the vaunted pantheon of unbeatens.
I’ll be back with an assessment of just how bad the tOSU loss will be. (How’s that for negativism?) Oddsmakers have installed tOSU as a 19-point favorite.
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Upstart says
Tough not to be negative after watching our secondary make another pedestrian quarterback look like Tom Brady. Also not sure whatever happened to our vaunted pass rush. Rahne better have a good plan of attack because PSU will need to score a lot of points if we are to keep the game close.
The Nittany Turkey says
Frank Bodani of the York Daily Record summed up our collective feelings in two interrogative sentences:
“Can the Nittany Lions’ suddenly shaky defense halt the most explosive offense in the country?
“Can their offense, which was without injured star KJ Hamler and rugged runner Noah Cain this past weekend, possibly produce enough to stay close?”
Sportsbooks have seen enough to establish tOSU as a 19-point favorite. I’m not even tempted to go over to BSD to see how they’re pooh-poohing that ultimate disrespect. (Actually, it might show a modicum respect, because the Schmuckeyes have outscored opponents by at least 24-points in each outing).
Could it be that the Lions will actually show up with a credible effort? They’ve been sandbagging all along, right?
—TNT
Big Al says
At least I got the margin of victory right with my prediction. It looks like the Kitties performance peaked in games 7 and 8 and is now on a slow decline through the end of the year. If Indiana hadn’t shot itself in the foot with multiple errors (which is pretty much expected every time they play in the Beav), Sate would have lost this game.
It seems like pressuring the quarterback is State’s only way to defend against the pass. The is no Plan B to fall back on if the D Line can’t apply enough pressure. The safety play, in particular, was horrible
The Nittany Turkey says
The safeties seem to be getting worse instead of better. Like, isn’t it their job to keep the play in front of them? Why are they either getting beat or not showing up? Even the Sanguinarians at BSD gave the secondary an “F” in their stupid cliche grading schema. (OK, I’ll admit that I peeked).
After that performance, I’m feeling like tOSU gonna cover that 19-point spread easily in the Horseshoe.
My friend Toejam, a former long-time season ticket-holder and contemporary of mine at PSU, texted me this after the Indiana game:
“They should just forfeit the OSU game. Save time, money and potential injuries. They can use the time to prepare for Rutgers.”
Caesar’s Palace has their odds to win the national championship at 75-1 now, even longer than last week’s 40-1. I think absent a miracle win at Columbus (and the gods would have to be completely pissing on tOSU for that — fat chance!), they’ll be over in Tampa on New Year’s, where they’ll lose to Texas A&M.
—TNT
psudrozz says
Positives from the Indiana game: pulling brown for a bit to let him relax and then inserting him back into the game, all the while staying with the run. I liked the offensive gameplan-losing hamler did put the kibosh on the offense (friermuth was blanketed the rest of the game). But as we all have lamented, WTF is hamler doing back there on special teams. When Dotson is your second best WR and he’s been shaky…
The corners and the safeties appear to speak entirely different languages on the field and cannot effectively coordinate with each other. Not sure how we plan to stop OSU from going deep other than maybe a weather prayer.
Worked for patton….
The Nittany Turkey says
The 18-play drive was impressive. However, I see many three-and-outs on Saturday, as is my pessimistic wont.
The weather prayer — or just generalized prayers — might help.
—TNT
psudrozz says
Happy Thanksgiving Turk! While you head to the midwest, I’ll be down on the treasure coast reeling in Neptune’s bounty off the Jupiter inlet.
The Nittany Turkey says
I think Tiger Woods’ estranged wife Elin still lives in the big house on Jupiter Island, so pay her a visit, if you will, while I freeze my ass in Chicago.
Happy Thanksgiving!
—TNT