The Penn State Football Show

I don't know what it is about people and slashing tires, but tonight I decided that since my baseball game was in Cambridge that I would ride my bike to it. After the victory we went to a bar to have a few drinks. As I make my way out to my bike to ride the 3.5 miles home, I discover that a tire was flat. Then I discovered that both tires were flat. One had an evident key/knife hole, the other....I saw no evidence of a stabbing. Why did you do that? I ended up having to walk my bike home. Took over an hour. Dick move. What does this have to do with Penn State football?

Alabama essentially came into town and stabbed Penn State's tires. They had no choice but to walk their bike home. Accept defeat, alter their gameplan and just pack it in and hoof it. Everyone is freaking out though....why? So you had to walk home, it's still good exercise. You still made it, and your legs are stronger even though you didn't get home the way you planned. Bolden went up against the best defense he has ever seen. The best defense anyone on that team has ever seen....and he didn't do all that bad. He had some very nice throws that were dropped, and made a few bone-head plays, but that's to be expected. In all honesty, Alabama's defensive backs are absolutely the best I have ever seen on a college football team. People complain about his always throwing to his first read, but that's not true. Many of the times it is, but those are the playaction passes where it's a certainty that Moye is single covered. Do you think that Szczerba was the hot read on that third down conversion that he fumbled away? I thought Bolden showed a lot of poise and made his decisions very quickly, which is a HUGE improvement from last year. Last year he did not have a single effective run, and he scrambled well against 'Bama.

You guys are all talking about how he's gotten worse....but that's completely false! Remember last year's Illinois game where Bolden got pressured and just threw the ball into an oncoming defender's hands? Not only did Bolden not get sacked a single time against Alabama, but he also displayed good touch, a cannon of an arm, and better overall leadership abilities. You have to admit that all of this controversy must be weighing on both quarterbacks and it can't be easy to establish any kind of rhythm out there. Supposedly this week, we will see more of the "hot" guy staying in. Let's hope that after this game, a starter can be established.

On to the Temple game. This is an intriguing game, and I expect Temple to win the MAC and possibly end the regular season ranked or at least receiving votes in the polls. Having said that, Penn State is probably pissed. This team has too much talent to just limp away with their tail between their legs. The defense is very very good, and Temple, who relies on their running game, will have tough sledding. Creating turnovers has always been tough for Penn State, and that's largely because they don't take many risks. I was actually happy to see Sukay go for that pick. Why not try and make the big play? I do agree with all of you that Devon Smith needs to take a seat. He's just a gimmick and whenever Curtis Drake is healthy, he should supplant him. I was pleased with what I saw out of Shawney Kersey and Allen Robinson. Both young guys showed some decent hands and should push the veterans to step up or the young bucks might take some of their playing time.

I will actually get to see all of this Temple game, so I am excited about that. I also need to fix my bike, but I'll leave that for another day. Let's go state.

Please excuse my absence so far this year. I really have no excuse. The Alabama loss is still sticking with me, particularly after reading Pete's post. I actually went back through and read everyone's notes on the Alabama game last year and it was all the same complaints. Predictable play calling, giving up field position, and having no stones to throw the ball. One particular point of contention was Penn State kicking a field goal from inside the 10 to put the game at 27-3 as opposed to going for it, then had the audacity to try and onside kick. Sound familiar?

I think the team is pissed about the way they played last week but they know that losing to the #3 team in week 2 doesn't mean the season is over. I say PSU wins big. 34-6

Well I just went back and watched my recording of the game, and it actually wasn't as bad as I had thought after initially watching it live. Here are a few of the observations I made:

The defense played very well. They held their own and were not overmatched at all like they were against Bama last year. They just didn't make the key plays they needed. Mike Hull had a chance for a pick and didn't come up with it in the end zone. Also, on a key third and long conversion on Bama's first TD drive, Nick Sukay went for the pick and missed, when he really should have just swatted the ball away and forced a punt. You have to know the down and distance on that play and know not to go for the pick. I've never been a fan of Sukay. He's always a step too late to the play. But the defense didn't have any sacks or force any turnovers, and that's what was missing from their effort. The defense was tired and looked terrible on Bama's last TD drive. There wasn't any effort by them on that drive and it was embarassing. But the game was already out of hand by that point.

There were a lot of big-time defensive linemen on the field on Saturday, but none were better than Devon Still. The dude is a beast and was a force all game long. He has a bright future in the NFL.

This is perhaps the biggest point I want to make. And I'm not trying to be mean, or be funny, but the fact of the matter is Devon Smith sucks. I don't care how fast the guy is, he is not a good football player. Similar to Stephon Green. He may be able to run fast in a straight line, but that doesn't translate to much on the football field. He completely lacks the instincts needed to be a football player, and he should NEVER be on the field for an offensive play. First of all, he is already a tough target for a QB to throw to because he's so small. But secondly, he always seems to lose track of where he is in relation to the ball and makes every catch so much harder than it has to be. He seems to lack coordination or something. But he gets turned around and doesn't take the right angle to the ball and misses it, and it ends up not really looking like a drop because it looks like a tough catch, but that's his fault to begin with! He dropped the first pass of the game which was a perfectly thrown ball by Boldin. He ended up diving for it but he didn't really need to. That would have been a huge play and a great start to the game. Then he dropped a perfect throw from McGloin on third down that would have been a first down. Then the coaches came up with a perfect play-cal on a reverse to Smith and he had a lot of room to run and he coudln't even make the first man miss, but not only that, he ended up fumbling the ball. He basically screwed up every single play he was a part of. And I'm not just saying he isn't good because of one bad game against Bama... He's never made any big plays for the team. Ever. You always hear about how fast he is, but he has yet to contribute in any way. If they want to keep him in on kick returns thats one thing, but he should not be a receiver for this team. They need to stop trying force him the ball.

I still don't know how Bama's first TD pass got by both Hodges and Carson without at least getting deflected.

Jack Crawford looks like he's back to full strength.

I think Bolden had a pretty good start and I don't think brining in McGloin on the third series of the game was the right move. In the end, neither QB had a good game. But they didn't play as poorly as I initially thought. There were WAY too many drops by the wide receivers and that didn't help out either QB. Moye dropped at least two, Brown dropped at least two, Smith at least one. You can't do that. I was impressed with how poised Bolden was, he was just way too erratic with his passes. If he can learn to be more consistently accurate with his passes, and learn to go through his progressions and not always force it to the first read, he can be very good. I just don't know who will be the one to teach him these things. I agree with Jason that Bolden appears to be the guy and I don't really see McGloin putting together 4 good quarters against a top defense. But, again, he didn't play as awful as his 1-10 stats would indicate.

Ferra is by far the better punter and has a much stronger leg. Not sure why he wasn't punting from the start, but that cost PSU in the first half.

It definitely looked like PSU came up with the stop on the fake punt and the spot was incorrect. That was a huge momentum swing in the game. Unfortunately, PSU had burned all 3 time outs on the first drive and couldn't challenege. In the end PSU got a few calls though, and I don't think this would have changed the outcome. Still a big shift in the momentum of the game.

I think the loss of Chima Okoli in the first half had a bigger impact on the offensive line than people relize. That forced Pannel to move to tackle, where he hadn't practiced, and the Urshel came in at guard. I think Redd would have continued to have the success he had ont he first drive if Okoli hadn't gotten hurt.

The coaches really must love Adrian Amos. He was in on kick returns when they needed a big play. He looks fast. I thikn he has a bright future.

Joe mentioned this at his press conference today: The team just needs to play with more confidence. It seemed like as soon as things didn't go perfectly, the air came out of their balloons. I know they came into the game with the philosophy that they can't afford to turn the ball over or make any mistakes, but that doesn't mean that when you do turnt he ball over, you have to get all down about it. You need to play through it. The team needs to play with more confidence, but that can only come when they makes some big plays.

Immediately after the game I said I don't see any way PSU will beat Nebraska, OSU or Wisconsin. But after watcihng the game, I'm going to retract that statement. If Bolden can develop, I think this team can win one or more of those games. But that's a big if.

Since Pete touched on many of the areas of concern from the Alabama game, I will simply refute my previous post regarding the Quarterback situation...

As evidenced by Saturday's game, it has become apparent that Matt McGloin is simply not a major college football QB. He has showed signs of greatness at times, but all against middle-of-the-pack teams (i.e. Northwestern, 2010 Michigan, Minnesota, etc.). He has also showed he cannot handle the pressure and does not have the athletic decision making ability necessary when facing top notch college defenses (i.e. Alabama, Florida, Michigan State, Ohio State). He has many desirable qualities for a Penn State QB, but, plain and simple, he is most likely a Division II QB. He will never play 4 solid quarters against a respectable team. I hate to say it and this is the old "hater" cliche but...there is a reason he was not offered a scholarship!

Rob Bolden, on the other hand, is a QB that really seems to be headed in no certain direction. I agree with Pete in that he really has not gotten any better in the last 12-13 months. Clearly, he is athletic, throws the ball well, and evidently doesn't mind running the ball and sizing up a linebacker in the open field. However, he just doesn't seem to be fitting into the offense like anticipated. Is that because of coaching? Is that because he has the proverbial chip on his shoulder? Or is he just not that good? (Remember, Paul Jones was the higher touted recruit in the 2010 class.)

The 2011 season is certainly not lost because a non conference loss to an Alabama team that played a flawless game against Penn State. But, the QB situation is the glaring weakness and a valid reason for concern. So, what is the answer at QB? At this point I really don't know. There is a part of me that thinks that the coaches are just killing time until Paul Jones gets his act together. But if Jones never reaches his potential as a collegiate, i think it is time to let Bolden get some experience and roll with the punches. Remember...he is only a Sophomore. Daryll Clark was washing jock straps as a Soph. and Michael Robinson was still trying to find his role in his second season. Both of whom eventually led the Lions to Big Ten 'ships.

For the future that we wait...

I SPY...WR Drops - I really cannot believe this did not get more attention in post game media analysis. Regardless of who was throwing them, the dropped passes (I will put Sczerba's fumble in this category as well) just cannot happen in a big game. I would have to go back and look at the tape, but I believe 2, maybe 3, of the drops came on 3rd down.

It’s games like the one we saw on Saturday that make me thankful we have this blog. A place I can vent and get all my frustrations out. And trust me, I have plenty.

I don’t know where to begin, so I will just start with the coaching. Penn State’s coaching staff has been a huge liability for years now, and it gets exposed whenever Penn State plays a top ranked opponent. There are a handful of specific areas where they struggle consistently (offensive line, quarterback development, pass defense). But perhaps the biggest one is making in-game adjustments. They simply don’t make any. They have a game plan and they stick to it, regardless of what happens on the field, and they lose games because of it. The most obvious example was the Rose Bowl against USC where Mark Sanchez picked Penn State apart all game long with 10-15 yard passes that Penn State’s defense continued to give them. At no point did they make an adjustment and try to stop it, and USC continued to take advantage of it.

Well the Alabama game was another example of a lack of in-game adjustments when one needed to be made. It’s obvious the coaches came in to this game with a very conservative offensive game-plan. They were expecting/hoping that the defense could hold Alabama and perhaps even force a few turnovers that could lead to points. In turn, they wouldn’t need a whole lot of points out of the offense. So the offensive game-plan stressed not turning the ball over rather than scoring points.

In other words, they were hoping that the game would play out exactly like the Ohio State game in 2005 did, where PSU won 17-10 by shutting down OSU’s offense, and coming up with a key interception that led to an easy 7 points. In that game, once the Lions took a 7 point lead, they were perfectly content with three-and-outs on offense for the rest of the game, just punting it away to OSU and allowing the defense to hold them and win the game. And in the end, that’s exactly what happened. PSU barely moved the football at all on offense for the rest of the game, repeatedly punted to OSU, and the defense did not allow another score, leading PSU to a huge 17-10 upset victory. This is a game many Penn State fans view as a huge victory in the history of the program.

The more I think about it though, the more I think this win was somewhat detrimental to the program, and here is why: Ever since that game, Penn State has approached EVERY big game against a top defense with that same exact game-plan. And it has not worked since. At some point the coaching staff needs to realize that they need to open up the offense, and actually aggressively attempt to score points on offense in order to win these games. Although it worked once in 2005 against Ohio State, this philosophy is not going to work every time.

But anyway, back to the original point I was making about in-game adjustments. Look, the game-plan was a conservative one. And that’s fine. In fact, given this match-up, with two strong defensive teams, and the fact that Alabama had a young, inexperienced quarterback playing in a hostile environment, I would actually go as far as saying it was absolutely the right game-plan to enter the game with. But, with that being said, once you get down by 14 points, you need to abandon the offensive game-plan, and start trying to score points. And they did not do this. Why stick to the runs up the middle that are not getting you anywhere? Alabama was lining up 8 men in the box all day long daring Penn State to throw it, and they still wouldn’t/couldn’t. And that’s unacceptable. Just take some deep shots to Moye! The guy is 6’5”. He has a better chance of coming down with a jump ball on a 40 yard pass than Penn State does of actually putting methodically driving down the field for 40 yards.

Think about this: When was the last time Penn State completed a pass to a wide receiver OVER THE MIDDLE OF THE FIELD? Actually, when was the last time they even attempted a pass over the middle of the field? The simply don’t even try it any more because they are so afraid of throwing interceptions. First off, the fact that they still don’t have confidence in their quarterbacks to make these throws is pathetic (more on this later), but second of all, when you get down big and need to score points in order to win the game, you have to start opening up and taking these chances. If you just sit back and do the same stuff that hasn’t been working, how do you expect to come back and win the game? I’ve said this before, if I was a defensive coordinator for another team, I’m certain I could shut out Penn State every time, because I know exactly what is coming, what I need to defend, and what I don’t have to even worry about defending because they are too scared to even try it. (Similarly if I’m an OC at another school, I would put up 50 on PSU every time by pretty much doing what USC did in the Rose Bowl… Assuming I have Mark Sanchez on my team.)

Here is what pisses me off the most about the coaching staff. They would rather lose by a respectable amount and not even try for the win, than get blown out. And I don’t understand why. A loss is a loss, whether you lose by 60 or whether you lose by 1 in quadruple overtime. So when it’s fourth and six on the opponents 45 with over 12 minutes to play and you are down by 14, YOU GO FOR IT. YOU DO NOT PUNT. Why would you punt? What is that saying? To me, it’s saying, even though the scoreboard and the clock suggest this game is still within reach, the coaches don’t have any confidence in the team and don’t believe they can legitimately win the game. So since they have already determined they are going to lose the game, why not at least make the loss as respectable as possible rather than getting blown out. And that’s about the most insulting thing a coach can say to a team. Just pathetic. And this isn’t the first time Penn State has done this. They do it all the time, and it’s infuriating.


Now, on to the QB situation…Is there a major college football program out there that is worse than Penn State at developing quarterbacks? I really don’t think so. The last QB to go pro from Penn State is Kerry Collins. That’s pretty bad.

The conservative offensive game plan obviously says that the coaches do not rust the quarterbacks enough to let them air it out. But there is no reason for the QB’s to be such a liability at this point. They each have had multiple starts and enough playing time that the coaches should not have these concerns. But this is the crap that seems to happen all the time at Penn State. But other schools don’t seem to have this problem.

Think about how rare it is to see a Penn State quarterback make a play on his own. When I say make a play, I mean, scramble around, avoid a sack, buy some time to allow a receiver to break open, and complete a pass to him. It seems like no matter who is playing QB for Northwestern or Wisconsin, they always find guys that can make plays like this. Penn State hasn’t really had one since Zach Mills. (Those of you scratching your heads at this go back and watch film of Mills in his freshman and sophomore years, he was great.)

Right now, the way Bolden is playing, he throws the ball to the first option every single time, regardless of whether he is covered or not. He isn’t even going through any progressions. I seem to recall the first touchdown pass of his career, in the opening game last year, he looked off the first man and then found I think it was Brackett over the middle as the second option for a nice touchdown. I’m not sure he’s thrown to the second read since that pass. In other words, he may have actually regressed since last year. And that wouldn’t be the first time. It happened with Mills, it happened with Derrick Williams, it happened with Maurice Evans, it happened with Jimmy Kennedy, Justin King: Too many Penn State players actually get worse later in their careers instead of getting better. Not a good reflection on the coaching.

But it happens most often with quarterbacks. Penn State quarterbacks are just not where they need to be. And you have to put the blame on Jay Paterno. After all, he is the quarterbacks coach. If he’s doing such a lousy job coaching our quarterbacks that our offensive game-plan is to try to not turn the ball over and avoid any potentially dangerous throws, then I think Penn State needs a new quarterbacks coach. I really think Bolden could be a very successful quarterback if he had better coaching.

Oh, here’s another great example of Penn State coaches not getting the most out of the talent that they have: Derek “Cameron” Wake. Out of all of the Penn State alumni in the NFL right now, this guy might very well be the best. I think he finished 2nd or 3rd (right in front of Tamba) in the NFL in sacks last year. He is a very feared pass rusher within the league.

This guy SUCKED at Penn State. But his athletic ability was undeniable. I think he actually still holds the record for highest vertical leap in NFL combine history. But the coaches insisted on making him a linebacker where he was out of position and never had a feel for the position. He was always lost and didn’t have the instincts needed to play linebacker. The coaches never made this realization, left him there, and by his senior year, Dan Connor was starting over him as a freshman.

In the end Wake, was never drafted, and had to prove himself in the CFL, where he finally found the right position, led the league in sacks, and won the defensive player of the year award, before signing with the Dolphins and tearing up the NFL. I’m pretty sure Wake would have been a defensive end, and would have been a top draft pick, had he gone to pretty much any other DI college.

I will try to end on a positive note: Sean Lee had a monster game on Sunday night, and Penn State has more key contributors on NFL rosters now than they have had in a very long time. Posluszny, Bowman, Lee, Connor, Gould, Wake, Hali, Butler, Quarless, Collins, Adams, King, even Jordan Norwood! For a while there was a pretty bad drought of significant Penn Staters making an impact in the NFL. Hopefully that is over for good now.