The Penn State Football Show

First games are inherently exciting whether they are against a national powerhouse, or in Penn State's case the Zips. A lot of questions were answered in this one (or may have been answered) in particular the wide receivers. Although they did not have a perfect game, it was pretty close. Their height advantage was utilized in the redzone and their speed was on display. This group of wideouts could be something special. I read the other day that Chaz Powell (who is absolutely jacked by the way) ran a 4.27 40 yard dash in practice. He certainly showed major improvements over last year where his hands were pretty shaky. Not enough could be said of Moye's performace as he hauled in 6 catches for 138 yards. He's going to be a stud. Brackett was really the only downside of the afternoon, but he is the least of my concerns. Devon Smith made an appearance and though he did not make much of an impact, the fact that he was returning kicks and used with the first team offense indicates enough.

The secondary looked pretty decent, but a lot of that credit might fall on the shoulders of the defensive line who, not surprisingly, raised hell in Akron's backfield. I really don't think we will have a good measuring stick for the defensive backs until the Big Ten season starts.

The offensive line was a concern going in and it remains that way. Their pass block was fine, but they were going against Akron. The run blocking was pretty miserable, and without the fake punt run by Andrew Dailey (fantastic call by Larry Johnson), the Lions would have been at 99 yards rushing on 29 carries. Horrible. Yes Akron loaded the box, but the running backs should be able to get more than 3 yards a clip. Syracuse will give Penn State some more standard defensive looks, so the running game should improve.

All in all, a 31-0 halftime lead is encouraging, but not scoring in the second half is not a good sign. It's not that they weren't capable, but the fire just didn't seem to be there. The coaches will be all over them for their sloppy second half and hopefully they can put together a full game against Syracuse that looked like the first 30 minutes with Akron. There are still some questions, but two more cupcakes should iron out the kinks, and it looks like the Big Ten is in even worse shape than most thought with Iowa and Ohio State just barely escaping with victories. It will be interesting to see this OSU-USC game...