Friday, November 5, 2010
Like most people, I really didn't see that win over Michigan coming. I knew their defense was weak, but with Bolden out, I figured Penn State would struggle on offense. There was no doubt the Lions would have a hard time containing the Michigan offense, and I figured it would be a blowout in Michigan's favor. Clearly I was wrong.
It will be interesting to see what happens from here. Does that win give the team some much needed confidence and turn the whole season around? Or will the Lions go back to playing like crap and prove it was just a fluke. I really have no inclination of which side to believe because I could see it going either way. But to be honest, if I had to take a guess, I'd say Penn State reverts back to the way they played before the Michigan game and continues to struggle all season.
I was really impressed with McGloin given the situation. He did everything he was asked and led Penn State to scoring drive after scoring drive on their way to a huge win. All of that after only receiving one week's worth of first-team practice reps. It was clear to anyone who watched the game that the playbook was very limited for the game. But it worked brilliantly as Michigan couldn't stop it. How many times did they run the bootleg rollout for a first down to either Bracket over the middle or Zug along the sideline? As Albright kept reminding me though, all of the points may be a bigger indication of how terribile Michigan's defense is than how good Penn State's offense is. Nevertheless, that's two straight games with 30+ points, so the offense has been performing well, and I was very impressed with the offensive line in particular, which is a great sign. The defense still has a long way to go, which is very uncharacteristic. However, Michigan's offense is very tough to defend, so it's not the end of the world.
In regards to the upcoming game, I think as long as Bolden is healthy, you have to go with him. Yes, McGloin played well last week, but Bolden is the guy, and he was playing his best football against Minnesota before he got hurt. I'm eager to see him continue to make progress. I could see this game going either way. I think it will be close and high scoring. I will say Northwestern ends up coming out on top just because I'm still not convinced Penn State is a good football team. However, if they do manage to win this one, I think it's clear they are a team on the rise that could close out the season on a high note with some big upsets.
