The Penn State Football Show

First off, they did it. Penn State finally beat Michigan. It was everything I could have dreamed of and more. The fact that they struggled in the first half only made it better – and I think it also was the best thing that could have happened for this team.

Everything was going wrong for Penn State early, and the players could have easily said “Oh man, here we go again,” and packed it in, but they didn’t. They came out and played a tremendous second half. Now, if Penn State gets down again, or has another slow start, they will not be fazed since they have been through it before. This will go along way.

The best thing Penn State did in this game was make adjustments. Michigan had two great scoring drives early on Penn State, but the Lions adjusted and shut down the Wolverines for the rest of the game. The best part was that the adjustments were not limited to schemes, but they actually made personnel changes – great ones.

I don’t know why it has taken so long, but the coaches were finally able to get the best tandem of linebackers on the field together: Bowman, Gbadu, and Mauti. After Michigan put up 17 points early, Sales and Hull (who was struggling) were taken out and replaced with these two younger, faster linebackers. The results were spectacular, as Michigan struggled to even pick up a single first down.

It was interesting to see that Gbadu was in the middle and Mauti was outside, as I would have expected it to be the other way around. Either way, both looked impressive. Mauti made some great plays while he was in, and he looks very promising. He missed a tackle on the first play of the second half that should have gone for a loss, but for the most part played well. Gbadu got taken out of a play that resulted in a big run for Michigan, and Hull was then brought back in. Other than that though, these changes worked brilliantly and were long overdue. In my opinion, this trio of linebackers needs to start against Ohio State and receive most of the playing time throughout the game. If Penn State tries to revert back to Sales and Hull, it could mean trouble, especially against Chris Wells and a strong offensive line.

I don’t have too much more to say about the Michigan game. The players did most of the speaking on the field. I will point out that Penn State once again ran an inside run on third and one to Stephfon Green and he was stopped short again. I do not understand this play-call at all. If you are going to do that play, run one of the bigger backs, not Green.

Also, Penn State ran a lot of quarterback sneaks, and while most of them got the job done, they have not been very pretty. I don’t know who teaches the quarterbacks how to run a sneak, but Morelli was the worst quarterback sneaker I have ever seen, and Clark doesn’t look too comfortable either.

Finally, does anyone else agree that it seems like Kevin Kelly makes all of his field goals when there is no pressure on the situation, but is very inconsistent when Penn State needs him the most? I know he had a solid game in the end (and is now the Big Ten’s all-time leading scorer), but he missed a very makeable field goal when Penn State was down ten and really needed those three points. All of the field goals he made were when Penn State was either winning or not far behind with plenty of time remaining.

Last two thoughts: Aaron Maybin is unstoppable and Evan Royster has been Penn State’s most valuable player thus far. More to come on the OSU game shortly.