Nothing to Hoot About

On a sun-splashed Saturday in Happy Valley, the Nittany Lions continued their dominance over the Temple Owls, winning 31-6. The Lion defense kept the Owls from scoring a touchdown—Temple has not reached the endzone against Penn State in the last four games. No team has scored a TD in the first half this year.

But the story is still the inconsistent offense. The good news: the running game looked better. Royster crossed the century mark for the first time this season (138 yds on 19 carries) despite fighting off the flu. The team logged 186 yards but on 36 carries for a 5.2 average. The Lions rushed for only 31 yards in the second half, continuing the trend of only playing one half of the game.

Was the line any better? The pass protection for Clark was worse and he suffered a shoulder stinger. Could it be that Temple didn’t sell out to stop the run as Syracuse and Akron had done previously?

It is certainly possible that Temple is not as bad as their loss to Nova would indicate. They have a decent defensive line, anchored by Andre Neblett who is on the watchlist for the Bronko Nagurski Award. They also ranked high in the nation in pass sacks, albeit after one game.

But after three supposedly cupcake games, fans are starting to get nervous about this team. I think a large part of it is the lack of intensity and focus simply because they are cupcakes. I don’t care how great a coach you are, or how good your senior leadership is, everyone knows who they are playing and that they are supposed to win.

At this point last season, the Lions had decimated Coastal Carolina 66-10, Oregon State 45-14, Syracuse 55-13 and Temple 45-3. The Beavers were certainly no cupcake team. And one might argue that Syracuse is better than last year, perhaps even Temple is, although I personally can’t overlook the loss to Villanova. Akron is certainly arguably better than Coastal Carolina and there is no 2009 counterpart to Oregon State. In the final analysis, things might be a wash.

Even the fans were suffering sugar overload as the stadium—and tailgates—seemed even emptier than the previous two games, despite an “official” attendance of 105,514. I don’t even think there were 100,000 bodies in the stadium unless you also count the bees.
In addition to Clark’s stinger, Sean Lee suffered an injury to his leg/knee as well.
We fell prey to an on-sides kick and what was most disappointing was not that Temple recovered, but that the Penn State player seemed to make no effort, completely caught of guard.
Could it be were looking ahead to Iowa? That is certainly possible, but that wouldn’t explain the lack of focus and ennui against Akron and Syracuse. There simply has not been a lot of emotion shown in the last few games. Maybe the ultimate blame lies on whoever scheduled these teams in the first place.

Aside all that, though, is another specter that haunts this team . . . special teams. We still seem quite vulnerable to kick-off returns, giving the Owls pretty good field position on most drives, while unable to generate any decent return on our own. Part of the problem is a kicker that can’t consistently boom the ball into the endzone. But a large part of both problems seems to be blocking.

On kick-offs, our guys don’t seem to be able to shed blocks (something the O-line seems to share; perhaps it is contagious?) and on returns, we don’t seem to be able to get an initial blocking. For that matter, our receivers don’t seem to make key blocks downfield on plays either. What is the problem here? Blocking is a basic fundamental of football. How can the entire team be unable to do this? Are the coaches not spending enough time on this aspect of the game? It sure would help to have a special teams coach, but we have been praying for that for decades.

With the Hawkeyes coming to Beaver Stadium next week, for a White House game in primetime, there will be no excuses. The student section should be full. The stadium will be loud. The opponent destroyed the dream of a perfect season last year—the players should be focused and ready. We will see what this team is made of next Saturday night. I really feel the potential is there for a breakout game, like Minnesota in 2005. But I have seen nothing on the field or in the stats to support that. It is only a feeling. Maybe I’ve had too many cupcakes.

BY THE NUMBERS:

From GoPSUsports:

	TEM	PSU
FIRST DOWNS...................	12	21
Rushing.....................	5	13
Passing.....................	6	6
Penalty.....................	1	2
NET YARDS RUSHING.............	46	186
Rushing Attempts............	29	36
Average Per Rush............	1.6	5.2
Rushing Touchdowns..........	0	2
Yards Gained Rushing........	86	213
Yards Lost Rushing..........	40	27
NET YARDS PASSING.............	205	173
Completions-Attempts-Int....	15-34-0	17-29-1
Average Per Attempt.........	6	6
Average Per Completion......	13.7	10.2
Passing Touchdowns..........	0	2
TOTAL OFFENSE YARDS...........	251	359
Total offense plays.........	63	65
Average Gain Per Play.......	4	5.5
Fumbles: Number-Lost..........	1-1	1-0
Penalties: Number-Yards.......	8-65	6-55
PUNTS-YARDS...................	6-217	4-191
Average Yards Per Punt......	36.2	47.8
Net Yards Per Punt..........	35.8	39.2
Inside 20...................	1	2
50+ Yards...................	0	2
Touchbacks..................	0	1
Fair catch..................	3	1
KICKOFFS-YARDS................	2-120	6-383
Average Yards Per Kickoff...	60	63.8
Net Yards Per Kickoff.......	46	39.8
Touchbacks..................	0	1
Punt returns: Number-Yards-TD.	2-14-0	2-2-0
Average Per Return..........	7	1
Kickoff returns: Number-Yds-TD	5-124-0	2-28-0
Average Per Return..........	24.8	14
Interceptions: Number-Yds-TD..	1-0-0	0-0-0
Fumble Returns: Number-Yds-TD.	0-0-0	0-0-0
Miscellaneous Yards...........	0	0
Possession Time...............	29:01	30:58
1st Quarter.................	9:15	5:45
2nd Quarter.................	5:55	9:04
3rd Quarter.................	6:06	8:54
4th Quarter.................	7:45	7:15
Third-Down Conversions........	5 of 17	7 of 13
Fourth-Down Conversions.......	1 of 3	0 of 0
Red-Zone Scores-Chances.......	2-3	5-5
Sacks By: Number-Yards........	2-6	4-18
PAT Kicks.....................	0-0	4-4
Field Goals...................	2-2	1-1

INTANGIBLES:

Penn State lost the coin toss for the third straight game. Temple deferred.

The Drum Major remains perfect on the season.

Paterno racks up win #386, two or more ahead of Bowden depending on the asterisks.

THE BIG (TEN) PICTURE:

Ohio State took care of business, beating Toledo 38-0. Indian defeated Akron 38-21. Iowa held off Zona, winning 27-23. Wisconsin beat Wofford 44-14 and THEM beat Western Michigan 45-17.

But all was not well in the conference. Notre Dame edged Sparty 33-30, but MSU blew a chance to tie/win on a late INT in the red zone. Minnesota hung tough with Cal, but lost by two late scores, 35-21. Northern Illinois beat the Boilers 28-21 and ‘Cuse edged Northwestern 37-34.

Next week conference play begins, while Purdue takes on the Irish.

SHEDDING TEARS:

1. Southern Cal—thanks once again for playing. See you in the Rose Bowl.
2. Nebraska—lost to VaTech with 11 secs on the clock
3. BYU—a promising season ends abruptly. Good Bye BCS. Hello Pumpkin.
4. Georgia Tech—loss to Miami kicks them out of the rankings
5. Utah—nations longest winning streak snapped by the ducks

LOOKING AHEAD:

Iowa comes to Beaver Stadium, September 26 @ 8:00 PM.

Whoa Nellie! This is a biggun. White Out. Prime Time. Night game in the Beav. Zombie Nation. Revenge for last year. It just doesn’t get any better than this.

Will we be prepared? Will we unveil the HD offense that we have been waiting for? Will we play four quarters of football?

GO STATE! BEAT HAWKS!

Things You Shouldn't Do Tomorrow

Adapted from Speedbump:

Thanks to Dave Coverly for allowing me to reprint his work. With his permission, I changed the shirt to a Penn State shirt.

Other things to avoid doing while watching/listening to the game:

1. Brain Surgery (or any surgery for that matter)

2. Getting a Haircut--or giving one

3. Clipping your nails

4. Power tools of any kind

5. Electric appliances

6. Electricity in general

7. Heavy Machinery

8. Sharp objects

9. Dental Instruments

10. Nuclear Reactors

11. Lima Beans--I recommend avoiding them at ALL times

By The Numbers: Temple

From the NCAA stats page:

NCAA Stats Comparison
Category:	Penn St.	Temple
Rushing	94	67
Passing Offense	14	12
Total Offense	39	28
Scoring Offense	53	78
Rushing Defense	10	23
Turnovers Gained	69	105
Passes Had Intercepted	59	93
Pass Defense	28	107
Net Punting	67	24
Punt Returns	90	84
Kickoff Returns	112	43
Turnover Margin	94	120
Fumbles Recovered	99	64
Passes Intercepted	15	104
Fumbles Lost	93	53
Turnovers Lost	86	86
Passing Efficiency	24	16
Pass Efficiency Defense	52	104
Total Defense	12	74
Scoring Defense	9	83
Fewest Penalties Per Game	2	7
Fewest Yards Penalized Per Game	2	8
Punt Return Yardage Defense	94	5
Kickoff Return Yardage Defense	106	114
Offense Third-down Efficiency	6	13
Offense Fourth-down Efficiency	51	50
Defense Third-down Efficiency	31	50
Defense Fourth-down Efficiency	1	50
Tackles for Loss	11	3
Offense Tackles for Loss	43	2
Pass Sacks	18	2
Pass Sacks Allowed	47	1
Time of Possession	19	96
First Downs	19	34
First Downs Allowed	9	66
Red Zone Efficiency	110	95
Red Zone Efficiency - Defense	2	80
Average NCAA Rank:	045.49	056.19
Weighted Avg. Rank:	040.67	064.42

Keep in mind that Penn State's numbers reflect games against Bowl Subdivision Teams-Akron and Syracuse. Temple has only played FCS Villanova.

So to say that Temple's offense is better statistically than the Lions is misleading. But what really separates these two is the scoring offense--while neither offense is overwhelming, Penn State converts yard to points better.

Temple is actually worse than Penn State in turnover margin. Penn State defensively is better (rush, pass, scoring and total.) Temple is pretty good in sacks--both made and allowed. Neither team is very good at defending kickoffs.

Penn State is also much better in time of possession which is really amazing when you consider how poorly we run the ball.

Overall, I think the stats indicate a closer game than what we will see on the field.

Sagarin has PSU ranked 17th in the nation. Penn State is 5th in both the USA Today and AP poll. Temple is unranked in the polls and is 146th. (Eastern Illinois is 145th.)

I look for Penn State to dominate the game overall, but like the first two games, they may not light up the scoreboard so much. It will be interesting to see if we can get the running game moving against a Temple defense with a decent D-line and whatever changes on the offensive line the staff tries this week.

GO STATE! BEAT OWLS!

This Week's Game Guide

Penn State is about a 29 point favorite over the Owls. Temple has played only one game, losing on a late field goal to Villanova. I expect this week to be more of the same old, same old, although there is a chance the staff might want to practice plays they intend to use against Iowa when they open Big Ten play to a primetime WhiteHouse.

There's two ways of looking at it. Practice is nice--but is practicing against the likes of Temple really going to prepare you for the Hawkeye defense? The flip side is that you show Iowa something on film they can prepare for. I think we stay ultraconservative this week.


Looking around the nation:


Pitt's a 9 point fav over the midshipmen of Navy. Navy played OSU almost to a tie. I'd be a little worried if I were a Pitt fan (a little worried and a lot demented.) Upset in the making? Could be.


Northwestern is a field Goal favorite over Syracuse in the Carrier Dome. The Orange almost pulled the upset over Minny but were never in the game against us. I think NW is somewhere in between and will win. The spread might be close on this one.


Iowa plays Arizona and is a 6 point home fav. Zona has a 19-6 win over Central Michigan (who just beat the Spartans) and a 34-17 win over Northern Arizona. Iowa had to block a FG (twice thanks to a penalty) to preserve a win over Northern Iowa, but then coasted to a 35-3 win over Iowa State. This will not be a cakewalk for the Hawkeyes, who might be caught looking ahead to opening conference play against us.


Utah (my #1 team in the blogpoll) has their first real test of the year @ Oregon. The Ducks are a 6 point favorite. If Utah loses, rest assured they will not be #1 next week. But if they win, by even a point on a questionable call--they will still be king of the poll hill.


Notre Dame is an 11 point home favorite against Sparty who tanked against Central Michigan last week. But Sparty is the kind of team that can't play their way out of a paper bag one week and look like the toughest team in the nation the next. Let's hope that's the case this week.


Florida plays Tennessee. If you think PSU playing Akron and Syracuse is bad--you should take a look at the competition Florida has been feasting on: Charleston Southern and Troy. Sagarin ranks Florida 11th with a strength of schedule of 162. (PSU is 17th with a schedule ranked 116th.) But the Vols are coming off a 19-15 loss to UCLA and may not have the firepower to beat the Gators--they're a 28 point dog in this match-up in the Swamp. Gators roll, but I hope Rocky Tops them.


Va Tech takes on Nebraska at home. The Huskers are 2.5 point dogs, but I think they will pull this one out. Beamer Ball, like Tressel Ball, just can't win the big ones.


Speaking of Tressel Ball, the Buckeyes are 21 point favorites over Toledo. This is supposed to be a home game for Toledo, but I think I read where it will be played in Cleveland--so it's basically a homer for the Bucks. Will there be an emotional letdown? Toledo has knocked off PSU and THEM in this decade, and added a struggling Colorado team to their list of BCS conference wins. I think the Buckeyes will win, but it may not be a walk in the park.


BYU plays F$U, who somehow managed to come from behind after three quarters to beat Jacksonville State. The Cougars are 7.5 point favorites at home. GO Cougars.


In case you are wondering, Texas faces off against Texas Tech and is a 17.5 point favorite. Can Tech find that magic again? You just never know.


Minnesota faces a difficult Cal team at home--13.5 point underdogs in their new stadium. I gotta root for the Big Ten on this one, but I don't think they have a prayer since the Cuse took them to OT in week one.


Other close match-ups to watch: Georgia vs. Arkansas, Auburn vs. WVU, Orgeon State vs. Cincinnati, and Akron is a 4 point favorite over Indiana.

Big Ten Tour Hits Penn State

Andrew Cieszynski and his friends are doing a Big Ten Tour this fall, taking in games at each Big Ten stadium. The Akron-PSU game was first on their list.

We promise you, this is NOT an advertisement. Air Tran gave us NO money to say this, but we had an awesome time on the Air Tran flight from Milwaukee to Baltimore.Before taking off the flight attendant, Walt, says over the intercom, "We'd like to welcome the Pac Ten roadies to the flight." We kindly reminded him that this is the Big Ten tour.

The flight attendants offered us a round of drinks on the house, so we had to take them up on the offer. Wes took about 5 minutes to deliberate on his drink of choice, so the flight attendant reminded him to work on his social skills.

The place that impressed us the most was known as the "Cell Block." Penn Staters told us that it was fornerly called the Crow Bar or Johnson Rod or something of that sort. Regardless, they had these huge pitchers of beer, so we thought we'd order two. After finishing both at 64 ounces each, we asked for our check. The server said , "That'll be $4.00." The 4 of us looked at each other and said, "Come again?" She replied "$4.00" Are you kidding me? We can't even find a happy hour 12 ounce beer in Milwaukee for less than $3.50 and you're giving us a 64 oz. beer for $2.00

Later that evening, we were interviewed by B94.5 All Hitz as Drew and Blake spoke on the air.

Without seeing the other 10 stadiums, you have to think that Happy Valley is one of the best tailgating venues. There are miles of open fields, mountains in the background, and lots of space to get your grill, games, and beer out from the bed of your truck.

What we don't like on the Big 10 Tour, assigned parking spaces. One of the friends we made liked wearing navy high socks/tights in 80 degree weather. Someone parked in this poor guy's spot. Strangely enough, when he told security, they did nothing about it...so he took action into his own hands - he left a note on their car. We applaud him for his restraint, because we would have smashed the windows in with a baseball bat. The same guy who parked on "Socks'" spot later returned to the car, backed out of the spot and ran over our cooler. Let's just say there was retaliation.

So as you can guess, the game itself was not very eventful. The Akron Zips seemed like a Junior Varsity team & it was tough to stay focused on the game. As you'll see from some of the videos below however, PSu has some notable things to see and hear during the game. The one you can't miss is the roaring lion sound after most PSU plays. You'll hear "roar-roar-roar" and it gets the crowd pretty fired up. Then there's the unforgettable "We Are...Penn State" chant. The Zombie Nation song is fun to sing along with, but it probably doesn't beat singing Sweet Caroline. We all did comment that the timing of the Sweet Caroline was a bit odd however, as the crowd only got to sing along to the chorus once before it was gametime one again.

Our Saturday evening then led us to the Gingerbread Man & then to Phryst Pub where we took part in "Table Wars." This was clearly one of the most unique/most fun ideas we've ever seen at a bar. The below video is a little dark, but you might get an idea of how it works. Regardless, they sell great beer and offer a good time. Check it out. The nightlife then concluded at the Lion's Den where a few of the players and ex-players made appearances.

The down side of their trip? The front office.

We had originally planned on attending the Baltimore Orioles game that evening, but thought we would jump on this offer and cancelled our tickets to the Orioles game and asked Drew's brother to take off work Friday to drive us up to State College a day early.A response was sent to Jeff on that same day. No response was received over the next two weeks and a follow-up was sent to Jeff on August 27th asking for some further details on "football eve."After no response was received, another follow up email sent on August 30th. At this time, we began to think that Jeff may have come down with polio so we tried other members of the Penn State staff including Greg Myford, Guido D'Elia, Jeff Fisher, & Dave Baker. Apparently they couldn't find the reply button either.

On August 2nd I once more emailed Jeff and company as well as left them voicemails.

Finally I gave up. I understand, we're all busy with our careers. For Penn's sake, the members of this tour often work 70 hour work weeks, but it's clear that they were now blowing us off.So I made one last attempt and emailed Athletic Director Tim Curley and Associate Athletic Director Fran Ganter. I wrote them the message below and gave up on Penn State.

And the best tailgate? Blue Hair.

Tearing Apart Tressel

Chris Brown of Dr. Saturday writes about the "grisly demise of Tressel Ball."

There's no sugar-coating this: Jim Tressel and his staff were outcoached against Southern Cal and Pete Carroll, . Again. Particularly on offense, Ohio State's gameplan against the Trojans was utter rubbish, and it failed to meet the number one requirement of every gameplan: put your players in position to succeed.

When I watched the game live, I was struck by what I considered poor playcalling and mediocre execution. But after watching the game again in detail, going over replays and studying all the players, I'm convinced the situation in Columbus is nearly hopeless. For all the talk of Tressel's buttoned-down, conservative approach, and how his teams don't make mistakes, the most basic and fundamental errors permeated throughout Ohio State's offensive plan like cancer in its late stages, and the only conclusion I could draw from this game is that Tressel -- whatever he may be as a motivator, a recruiter, a teacher of technique or as a disciplinarian -- is not up to the challenge of leading his team past others that equal his in talent.

Yet the saddest part about the Buckeyes' 18-15 loss to the Trojans is that, for the first time in the last few tries against similar opponents, the Buckeyes were not outplayed. That's what made Saturday night's performance almost disgusting: OSU's players played a hard, fast and determined game; the crowd in Columbus seemed nothing short of unreal; and the pomp and majesty of playing there more than drowned out USC's exotic traveling road show, known to transform opposing stadiums into home venues. No, this loss falls squarely on the coaching staff. And the fissures run deep.

First and most obviously, OSU never once called the zone-read play. Never mind that last year it was the Buckeyes' only effective play against USC, averaging more than 6.8 yards per attempt; Saturday, the Buckeyes averaged a gangrenous 2.7 yards per carry, a number that infected the rest of the the simple-minded affair that the Buckeyes called a playbook, especially considering that the number is inflated by Pryor's third-and-long runs against umbrella coverage. Ohio State tailback Boom Herron averaged a mere 2.4 yards, and his longest gain was eight yards.

I want to take a step back here and look at this last paragraph. Substitute Penn State for OSU, and Penn State's rushing attack for Ohio State's and there are some eerie similarities. Worse, our performance was against teams that would never be confused with USC. Hold that thought.

USC literally lined no one up over the slot receivers, and yet not once did Tressel instruct Pryor to immediately take the snap and throw the bubble screen. For most teams this is an automatic check or sight-adjustment, and it is by no means difficult (every high school runs it). Unless you force the defense to care that you are spreading the field, then all you're doing is hurting yourself; Tressel would have been better keeping an extra fullback in the game.

Thus the rushing results were obvious. In the diagram above, USC has only one safety back and eight guys in the box, compared to seven blockers for OSU, not counting Pryor. Tressel called an inside handoff that was stuffed -- USC had more guys than OSU could block.

Of course, in our first two games, Clark has been able to move the ball through the air, which Pryor could not achieve consistently. Granted, our opposition was considerably softer than what the Buckeyes faced and all that blah, blah, blah.

But the upshot is that Tressel got outschemed, outplanned, and outmaneuvered. He has a lot of talent on his roster, and used barely any of it.

Indeed, one of the problems with a plan that relies on fitting square pegs into round holes is that it makes the players look really bad -- the line doesn't look like it can block, the quarterback is always running for his life, and the running backs never have a hole.

And Paterno's enemies have said the same thing about his program after dismal losses to football's elite and they are now pointing to the dismal running game (and offensive line) as evidence of an impending loss waiting to happen. I'm only pointing these similarites out because it's sometimes easier to be objective when observing another comparable situation.

With respect to Penn State football and Joe Paterno, you can pretty much throw objectivity out the window for most Penn State fans. Some of us (myself included) can't seem to look beyond the stat sheets and win columns.

Interestingly enough, Paterno was never mentioned in this article, although Hayes and Schembechler were.

We're witnessing the evolution of offensive football. Anyone who says you have to establish the run before you can do anything is fooling themselves. They’re living in the deep dark past. It’s just not the way the game’s played now. ...

We're never going to see that Woody Hayes-, Bo Schembechler- style of football again, that run-first mentality. The game has totally changed in a matter of eight to 10 years, and especially in the last three or four.

And herein may be the salvation for this year's Nittany Lion team--you don't have to establish the run to be successful. Better yet, PSU has compensated in the first two games by a passing attack that was not spreading the defense. As I said in my Syracuse recap, we have not seen the HD offense yet, but rather a very bland passing attack that exploited weaker competition without giving future opponents anything worthwhile to watch on tape. Seriously--what is Kirk Ferentz going to learn from these past two games?

In the comments section, there is an interesting inference made:

Makes you wonder where the rest of the Big Ten is since Tressel (right or wrong) has the reputation for outcoaching all of them.

Indeed.

With the exception of the Morelli years, the games with Ohio State in the Tressel era have been low-scoring affairs, often turning on key defensive plays. That strategy has worked well for Paterno for many years . . . when he has better talent than the other team OR when the talent level is more equal but the opposing coach shares the same philosophy. It generally fails though when the talent level is close or better than PSU and the opposing coach is aggressive. It largely failed against Cooper's teams. If Tressel had been coaching THEM for the past decade or so, I doubt you would have seen 9 straight losses by Paterno. But Carr, although not aggressive by any stroke of the imagination, was not Tressel and Carr often played to win. Both Tressel and Paterno play not to lose.

It will be interesting to see how the Buckeyes respond to this loss.

Recruiting Update: Zwinak

From Recruiting Insider Josh Barr:

Just got an email from Linganore Coach Rick Conner, who reports fullback Zach Zwinak, considered by some to be the nation's top player at his position, has committed to play for Penn State.

And from the Gazette (MD):

Zwinak noted that he didn't really have a goal for the game in terms of yardage, but he had no trouble crossing the 100-yard mark in the first half, finishing the evening with 209 yards on 10 carries, including another touchdown run of 60 yards.

"It all starts on the [offensive] line," Zwinak said.

He noted that the coaching staff's ability to call the right play at the right time has been a major boon. But perhaps more importantly for Zwinak, he no longer has to worry about what school he'll be playing for in 2010. After Friday night's game, he made a call to Penn State to verbally commit.

"It's a great school, great people, great football," Zwinak said. "It's a relief. I can just focus on my team and the season."

Welcome Aboard! And thanks for coming to Pennnnn Staaaate!