The Turkey has returned from vacation with a bad back and a case of Covid-19. I’m sitting here watching some weird college football on a bye week Saturday. For one, I am watching LSU get clobbered early by South Carolina. FSU, the self-destructing surprise of the year, is currently losing to Memphis. I can think of nothing better than watching Brian Kelly and FSU lose on the same day. Well, unless Notre Dame also loses. However, Alabama is now looking like Alabama after Wisconsin drew first blood, and the Tide now leads 14-3. So, now, my mind turns to Penn State.
Two weeks ago while on the road, I watched the WVU game, which gave me cause for increased optimism about the season. I suppose I am as stupid as the rest of the self-proclaimed experts who immediately concluded that the Nittany Lions were hot shit this year. A week later, the tune changed, although Sanguinarians are intent on minimizing the mail-it-in performance of the defense against Bowling Green. Fortunately, I did not watch that abomination because I was involved in a meeting that Saturday, but I received regular updates via text messages. Each time I picked up my phone I uttered, “WTF!?!?”
Sanity Break
The boys need a sanity break, so the bye weeks arrived just in time. Bye weeks? In my mind, the game with Kent next week provides a second bye week, but on second thought, I better keep my mouth shut. I hope that the Lions decide to show up and not deliver another “WTF?!?!?!” performance. Poor Kent won only one game last year and the Golden Flashes have already lost their first two this year. Facing Tennessee tonight, they’ll likely be 0-3 going into next week’s tilt. But i would rather the Penn State defense believes that they’re facing that other Ohio team that sports scarlet and gray. (Who is scarlet.)
My reflections during this bye week are trending toward deflation of my expectations for this team unless and until I see some serious commitment to defense. I’ll ask those of you who watched the Bowling Green game to tell me what the hell went on there? I have read game reports, but I would prefer cynically honest observations from my astute readers. Several of the reports expressed great optimism for the offense. Is this another way of saying that the defense sucks?
Still #8?
The AP voters are in denial. They preserved Penn State’s initial #8 over-ranking from the pre-season poll. The Coaches’ Poll put PSU at #7. They’re setting up the Lions for a Brett Bielema upset in the Big Ten opener two weeks from today. If the Illini can dispatch CMU this week and if they dump overrated Nebraska next week, they’ll be pumped up and ready. What could be better than knocking off #8 on their Penn State’s turf? This, of course, is fanciful speculation, requiring significant astral alignment to be brought to fruition, borne of my eroded confidence in Penn State.
“You’re not as bad as you think you are when you lose,…”
“… and you’re not as good as you think you are when you win.” That famous Saint Joseph (Paterno) quote comes to mind when I vacillate between thinking that the team sucks and it doesn’t. Beat WVU on their turf: doesn’t suck. Train Bowling Green for three quarters at home: sucks. So, wherever we left off is the direction my thinking inertia pushes me. That just paints me as a fair-weather fan, but you know better. I’ll follow the Nittany Lions whether they suck or not, which is validated by my history, which certainly includes (cue minor-key cello) THE DARK YEARS.
With two games now played, would any of you like to comment regarding adjusted expectations for the year, or do you believe that we have not yet seen a significantly large sample?
Now, back to coddling my Covid. (Take that whichever way you want).
I’ll be back mid-week with my further thoughts about Kent.
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Big Al says
Hope you recover quickly from Covid and sciatica.
I haven’t changed my opinion regarding the final result for this season (i. e. 9-3 regular season followed by a Citrus/Hall of Fame Bowl loss to the 5th or 6th best $EC team.). Although they could very luck out, finish 10-2 and get curb stomped in the 1st round of the playoffs by the 3rd best SEC team. The offense is better than last year, the defense is significantly worse, and special teams are about the same.
Manny Diaz was Penn State’s biggest loss from last year’s team. His balls to the wall attack and blitz approach was perfect for the type of players Franklin recruits. Tom Allen’s 4-2-5 defense is too complex and requires too much discipline – particularly from the linebackers and “lion.” They’re going to get torched by any offense that has a competent quarterback and two good receivers. Fortunately for them, only two teams on the schedule have that talent – Ohio State and USC.
However, they’re awfully thin at linebacker and defense end and that lack of depth could cost them another game.against a weak opponent with a semi competent quarterback who gets rid of the ball quickly. Illinois, Washington, and Wisconsin (f Van Dyke recovers from his injury) are potential losses. Bowling Green might have been this year’s WTF game. But the annual WTF game usually occurs in mid season or the week following the O$U loss.
The Nittany Turkey says
Thanks for your comments, Al.
So you think our defensive dudes are too stupid to acclimate to the Tom Allen schemata? Anything more cerebral than gorillaball will confound them? Or do you think that the flaw is in the complexity of Allen’s defense, which is beyond the capabilities of most of the players at the college level? (Or just the ones Franklin recruits?)
I’m willing to go with the early WTF game explanation because it gives me some hope for seeing better performances down the road. Until a second WTF game presents itself, I will cling to that hope. However, my bubble will burst mercifully soon if the ultra-complex Allen defense allows any more than a field goal by the Golden Flashes.
I’ll see my doc tomorrow. He seemed happy when I told him that Covid caused me to lose ten pounds. I told him to recommend it to all his gratuitous weight-loss clients.
—TNT