The Penn State Football Show

As Penn State games go, this was one where Penn State had absolutely nothing to gain. Coming off a huge emotional loss, in the grand scheme of things this game was irrelevant. They were expected to win and anything less than a lopsided victory would be significantly insignificant. Even a marginal 31-20 victory would leave the fan base questioning how good this team really is...all valid concerns. That being said, Indiana is not as bad as their record indicates or as bad as people might have suspected them to be. They are a team who has been a victim of some unfortunate circumstances and a number of bad bounces throughout the season. Their 4-7 record could very easily be 7-4. Unlike some of the Indiana teams of the past, they have been very competitive and have been in most of their games for all 60 minutes. I don’t know how Ben Chappell does not get any hype or credit for his play. From what I have seen, this kid might be the best passing QB in the Big Ten yet all we hear about is Clark-Pryor-Forcier. Glen Mason hinted at this notion throughout the broadcast. I think Indiana’s lack of a running game forces them to throw a lot, giving Chappell big numbers, but regardless, he throws the ball well and makes plays.

I am not a big believer in the idea of a "hangover" from a previous emotional win/loss and I don't really think Penn State came out "flat" in this game, but rather they simply played about 20 minutes of extremely bad football. They truly were just going through the motions. After the fourth turnover in the first half, I was shaking my head and thinking, 'how bad is this going to get?' It really couldn't get much worse. I figured the fumblitis would eventually wear off and once we settled down and the offense got things rolling, Indiana's defense was not going to stop us. At this point in the season, there isn't a whole lot you can take from a game like this so I will only mention a few specifics...

• It was good to see Daryll Clark FINALLY move his feet in the pocket, eluding some of the Indiana rushes, buying some time and even tucking and running for some yardage. I still don't know why he hasn't been coached to do this more often when things break down downfield. I think team's are starting to buy into the idea that Clark is NOT a running threat anymore and begin dropping some of the LB's into pass coverage (Ohio State did this later in the game). Hopefully DC17 can fool us all and employ more of this for the last two games.
• CURTIS DRAKE!!! This kid can play and Joe speaks highly of him. Made the early departure of Chaz Powell, who has been somewhat of a disappointment thus far, seem irrelevant. He really turned the corner on that end-around! The future for the WR's is bright...hopefully we can find a QB to get the ball to them.
• Not really sure what the point of running Newsome for one QB-read play in the first half. Are we going to see more of this? I understand you want to get him ready for next season, but at this point, he doesn't do anything that Clark cant do. Lets live and die with DC17.
• Very unfortunate news regarding Brandon Beachum (torn ACL). I was on the BB3 bandwagon like everyone else. But, thinking in optimistic hypotheticals...Royster comes back in 2010 and Beachum redshirts, giving him two full years as the feature back. From a fan standpoint, maybe its not all that bad.

I think one of the aspects we lose sight of with this team is the fact that, up to this point, they have beaten every team that they should have beaten. Gerry DiNardo talks about this all the time as one of the keys to success. True, they did not play well in the only two big games of the season, but many Penn State teams of the past have lost some games to inferior teams that they were expected to beat (’99 Minnesota, ’07 Illinois, ’07 Michigan State, ’08 Iowa just to name a few). As it turns out, Iowa and Ohio State are good teams and the losses, although disappointing, were not unexpected major upsets. So lets give credit to this PSU team for taking care of business against the teams who were less talented...one more to go.

Let's get pumped for the battle for the Land-Grant Trophy!