Thank God for Small Victories
Alas and alack, the kicking game fucked us, as the Penn State Nittany Lions closed out their season against the Michigan State Spartans with a big, 30-27 loss in snowy East Lansing. The snow bowl loss assures Penn State fans that with a 7-5 record, the only thing that will bolster their bowl position would be the money Penn State fans spend in bowl venues.
Meanwhile, the Big Ten is completely nonploonesed, with Michigan beating tOSU and Minnesota knocking off Wisconsin. That means Michigan will face Iowa in Indy next week for the Big Ten Championship, and God knows whether a Big Ten team will go to the CFP, especially if Iowa wins. I have no idea who will be going to the Rose Bowl, either.
What I do know is that Penn State, with their 7-5 record, will be going to the Toilet Bowl. Whether it be Detroit or Nashville, it will be a lightly attended, mid-December matchup of mediocre teams, like PSU and MIssouri. Such fun, already.
Moo U. leaves the Snow Bowl with a 10-2 record and the abominable Land Grant Trophy (thank God). At 8-1 in the conference, they are in sole possession third place in the Big Ten East behind Michigan and Ohio State. Penn State winds up 7-5 and 4-5, which is good for fourth place in the Big Ten East and not much else.
Wonderful Game, Already
The game wasn’t fun to watch, so I won’t comment much, except to say that the kicking was atrocious. The losing margin was three points; four points were lost on a missed field goal and a missed extra point. That should be enough to tell you that Franklin’s experiment playing Jordan Stout for ALL kicking chores was a bust. Finally, he put Jake Pinegar in there for the final extra point.
Helluva statement, in view of the recent contract extension for Franklin. Is THIS what we can expect from our multi-million dollar head coach? If so, stay tuned for lots of middle-of-the-pack finishes in future years.
WTF are we going to do about that offensive line, anyway?
(I’m not quite done for the year yet. After all, we’ll have some kind of bowl matchup with another middle-of-the-pack team. So, I’ll be back.)
