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Penn State Favored by 4.5 at USC

R
I know it is a month before this game and very early in the season. Still, this is clearly our biggest game looming and we should be 5-0 heading to LA so never too early for fans to start the chatter. James can say Kent State, Kent State. Kent State and he should. We can look ahead. The fact is USC has been impressive and we were not on Saturday.

A few thoughts/questions:

-This line really surprises me. I thought it would be like a "pickem" game at this point.

-The Vegas boys must think our performance is an anomaly combo of us totally mailing it in and BGSU playing way over their head/out their butt. We played probably a D game overall and they played an A game. Their QB was playing way over his talent level in my opinion but maybe he is that good. Still this POV is not that far fetched.

-These same Vegas boys seem to not be buying USC just yet. How bad is Utah State? Pitching a shutout is good for a D versus any opponent but maybe Utah State is like bottom 10 in the country bad?? I did not see the game and don't know. Gotta think their offense had some kind of a pulse.

-Since we are on the road it tells me Vegas must think we are touchdown favorites in a neutral site, again very surprising.

-So what if anything do we take from this? For me not much although it does help ground me a bit and help me to resist the temptation of dogging us to the point of thinking we are a mid tier B10 team and this USC team is the second coming of their 2004 team.

-My biggest question is how good is the USC defense? Again, is Utah State pathetic? We will need to put up points and probably at least 24 maybe 28-31 to beat USC. If they have a stout to fairly stout defense and if we are unable to get WRs open then well.... Yikes! But don't want to go down that rabbit hole.
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Obli's Observations, a win is a win is a win

Obliviax
  • I had warned that BG was a good team. They are not as good as we made them look but a good team nonetheless. And with the transfer portal, MAC teams have actually gotten better. Yes, they lose players to bigger programs but they also bring in a LOT of talent from kids who got lost in the shuffle of major programs or kids playing at smaller schools who want to take their shot. MAC puts a lot of kids into the NFL including last years overall #22 pick from Toledo. ND lost, we didn't. Lesson learned. (hopefully)
  • Loeffler is a good coach and former journeyman QB who knows the game. We are going to see that offense for the rest of the season as coaches who we play later this year will watch it and mimic it.
  • Not to be lost in the shuffle but their QB was a big time player who never got his just due. He was SEC freshman of the year at Mizzou and then started for Indiana playing for our very own Tom Allen. He then transferred to BG before the 2023 season. Also note, he is a SIXTH YEAR PLAYER so he's smart and talented. I am not sure why it didn't work out at Mizzou and Indy but he played well in both cases. All of that comes down to the fact that the kid played so far over his head in the first half that his nose bled. He was making every read and dropping dimes. Good on him.
  • And that, above, is OK. Teams get hot. But our defense was confused and the offense didn't play well although Allar carried the team. At one point, Allar had back to back great plays when the first got called back for a bad holding call and the second the open WR dropped the ball. We saw WVU's back get broken, but our offense didn't break BG's back. In fact, let them feel that they could win.
  • PSU had 7 penalties for 76 yards while BG had 3 for 18. I thought that at least two were bad calls (both holding) and one was iffy (offensive PI) while I can't argue with it. There was a lot of holding by BG that was never called and contributed to BGs QB not being sacked. Regardless, way too many penalties.
  • Allar's bad INT almost cost us the game. After playing a great game, that was a bad throw. He said that the coverage fooled him and he still tried to force it and let the WR make a play but badly under threw it. OK, it happens. We had 438 yards while giving up four minutes to BG in time of possession. We didn't finish drives with two FGs and an INT when inside BG territory which is a potential of 15 points.
  • Thankfully, Say-Hay-Dak looked great. His kicks were strong and straight. No doubters.
  • I thought BG's drive with only 3 minutes to play and down by 10 was one of the worst hurry up drives I've ever seen. They were still in the game! Yet, they often ran the ball and three to the middle of the field. They took a long time between plays. The clock kept churning. Not sure what was up with that but very thankful they used up their TOs and didn't seem to have an offense that calls the plays at the LOS.
  • I thought Rojas had a great game and is going to be a star. We came very close to several sacks but just missed. If not for WRs being wide open in the first half, a big hit or turnover may have changed this whole game.
  • Both Singleton (119) and Allen (101) had over a hundred yards rushing. Allar was 13 of 20 for 204 yards, two TDs and an INT. I have to point out that there were two bad drops. One was Allen's drop after the review and the other was the drop over the middle after Allar bought time and fired a bullet that ended a promising drive. The point is that he threw the ball really well. However, he didn't run very much like he did vs. WVU. I am not a fan of Beau coming in when Allar is hot like he was in the first half. It felt like it blew the rhythm a little. There was no need for it. PSU was moving the ball so why? I get it when you need a changeup but it was not needed.
  • Warren, obviously, was the star of the game and why not? Kid is really good.
  • We ran a bubble screen for Flemming to get him into the game. Why are we NOT running bubble screens to anyone other than Warren? That feels like a big hole in our offense and forces the D to spread out more. It allows us to challenge the edge better. Overall, I thought our offensive plan was pretty vanilla. Perhaps we didn't want to show more of our playbook because we were just playing a MAC team.
  • I was much more concerned about of defense but feel better after watching For the Bloggy. Lots of coverage confusion in the defensive backfield which was corrected in the second half. CJF referred to "missed assignments" and gap integrity problems. Since that was fixed in the second half, one has to wonder why it was there in the first place. Again, I wonder if the team phoned this effort in.
  • Kent sucks. They may be the worst team in the MAC. I don't see them giving us a battle at all. We then play ILLINOIS who always is well coached and plays us hard. They also beat a ranked Kansas team but that game is still three weeks away. I think the bye is coming at a great time since we have another bye later in the year. The WVU and BG games give the staff plenty to work with and allows the players to take a breath.
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