Archives for 2021

Penn State Season on the Line against the FFI

Yep, the 2021 season could all but vanish if the heavily favored #7 Nittany Lions (6-1, 2-1 B10) stumble against the Formerly Fighting Illini (FFI) (2-5, 1-3 B10) at High Noon on Homecoming Day.

Why do I even admit the possibility of stumbling? You DID see how our backup QB performed with the offense two weeks ago, right? You did see a veritable plethora of key injuries to key players, didn’t you?

Banged Up Lions

Penn State’s backup situation is not good. Not good at all. Ta’Quan Roberson can’t even get plays off. At least, he couldn’t in Iowa City. Talk about the noise all you want, but this act wasn’t ready for prime time and two weeks of practice with “the ones” won’t get it anywhere near ready for this week. Couple that with a demoralizing loss and some general lack of confidence after significant injury losses on both sides of the ball, and you have the potential for an upset this week. The upset potential is further enhanced by the natural tendency for everyone to look past this game to tOSU next weekend.

However. I guarantee that the FFI will not be worried about Ohio State. They are, as our guys should be, only concerned about going 1-0 this week.

The offensive brain trust has been working third-string freshman QB Christian Veilleux from Ottawa along with Roberson. Neither is seasoned enough at this point to run a game against a Big Ten opponent. I have not seen Veilleux in action and I have no idea of his strengths and weaknesses.

Not a Dumbass

Brett Bulimia (I know how it he really spells it) is not a dumbass, so he will no doubt ask his defense to load up on the run and force one of the raw QBs to pass, hoping for a disaster or two. Not that he really needs to worry, given the state of the Lions’ running game, which not only sucks this season, but now must be conducted without two talented running backs in Devyn Ford and John Lovett.

Bielema (actual spelling) spent the latter portion of the week doing damage control after he berated his roster earlier. He claims his remarks were taken out of context. That might be enough of a distraction to open the door a crack for Penn State. (I’m not Sanguinarianizing very much here, am I?).

Back to the field of mortal combat, Roberson can run, which might be the salvation if he can hang onto the ball. Maybe, just maybe, he’ll connect with one or two of our talented receivers, but I just don’t expect much from the passing game.

So, given all that, which you all knew already, let’s move on with this week’s predictions. First, the weather.

Da Wedda

We’re looking at a gray fall day in Central Pennsylvania with a high of 57 and a 40% rain possibility. Not too windy. Autumn leaves drifting by my window.

Da Bottom LIne

Time for the feature you have been waiting for — the Officially Turkey Poop prediction, a real piece of crap extruded from the cloaca of this foul old fowl himself. The gamblers are oblivious to the Penn State injury/backup situation, currently favoring the Nittany Lions by 23½, with an over/under of 45½. That works out to a break-even 34-12 PSU win. In view of the backup QB situation as it is and the dreadful state of the running game, which is replete with injured backs, it is a mystery to me how the spread has widened since it opened at 23.

Illinois will be running the football; Penn State will be running the football. The FFI have had some rushing success this year, and they will take advantage of the loss of P.J. Mustipher at the heart of the PSU defense. I don’t see much scoring, at least until the defenses wear down. All I know is the spread is way too wide. I don’t give a crap if you all think the FFI are the worst team in the conference. We’ll see if the late money takes Illinois and the points. That’s where I’m going. Penn State won’t cover. Penn State 20, Illinois 17. Take the under.

Iowa 23, Penn State 20

This morning, I am hearing and reading lamentations about what might have been, had injuries not plagued the Nittany Lions in their epic battle with the Iowa Hawkeyes. Able to score only three points after QB Sean Clifford departed midway through the second quarter, Penn State went down in defeat to the opportunistic Iowa Hawkeyes, 23-20. We will never know what might have been had Clifford stayed healthy.

Rehashing the stats seems pointless, but I’ll do so anyway, just to demonstrate that the game could have gone either way.

Penn State was able to move the ball well prior to Clifford’s injury. Then all hell broke loose.

This Turkey’s assessment of the Ta’Quan Roberson situation was that the offense’s failure under his stewardship was not entirely his fault. That is a helluva rough situation for a rookie to be thrown into. Clearly, he was unprepared, as was the entire offensive unit. Repeated false start penalties with no adjustments to compensate for crowd noise bit them in the ass. We pride ourselves in our ability to do that to other teams in Beaver Stadium, so it should be no surprise that we would face the same problems in spirited hostile venues. We had no answers for it.

The disparity between Clifford’s numbers and Roberson’s should come as no surprise. Clifford was 15-25 for 146 yards with two interceptions, while Roberson was 7-21 for 34 yards and two more interceptions. Clifford was the leading rusher for Penn State with three carries for 36 yards. Meanwhile, opposing QB Spencer Petras was 17-31 for 195 yards with two TDs and one INT.

Clifford’s initial unnecessary interception turned into three points that wound up being Iowa’s victory margin.

While our boys were outlasted by Iowa, LSU was being dismantled by Will Levis and his 6-0 Kentucky team. Levis threw three touchdown passes and no interceptions in that game. However, with Kentucky’s rushing attack, Levis is not solely responsible for the Wildcats’ success this season. They ran all over LSU for a total of 330 yards on the ground.

Nevertheless, you have to wonder whether Levis could have done better than Roberson — or would have have been equally unprepared to step in had he not taking the transfer portable greyhound to Kentucky?

Penn State’s rushing defense suffered when Mustipher left with an injury in the first quarter. Iowa was able to amass 110 yards on the ground.

Iowa remains undefeated at 6-0, while Penn State goes to 5-1. Iowa might well ascend to #2 in the polls this week, given Alabama’s defeat by Texas A&M. As for the Nittany Lions, they’ll get knocked back to 10 or 12 or so. We’ll see.

Not much else to say except that Iowa didn’t give up when they were down 14-3. They worked their way back slowly, but surely, as is their tradition.

“Of all sad words of tongue or pen, the saddest are these, ‘It might have been.'”

— John Greenleaf Whittier

(I’ll be back midweek with my assessment of the big showdown with 2-5 Illinois).

Photos by K. John

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Our on-the-scene reporter, K. John, reports that despite the rain, the Kinnick Stadium field was not covered.