An old football coach once said your biggest measure of improvement.....
- Thread starter BUCKSCOUNTYLION
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PSU was really good last week, Today the better talent was on display. Let us discuss after Auburn.
Hard to judge given what I regarded as deliberate conservative play calling. Run game on balance improved IMO. Glad to see Franklin let the back up QB throw for a TD.
I don't think you can use that statement based on the caliber of opponent in those two games this year.
Tough to tell. We got a blowout win over a team that was supposed to be respectable. But Clifford was still late with some throws. The red zone offense wasn't great and we still aren't doing much with our TEs.
Lee looked good running the football and Luketta's one handed pitch 6 was sweet. Stout only missed 1 FG. Some more guys got to play.
I'll take a 1 point win over Auburn next week but I won't feel great about our season prospects unless we win by at least 10 points.
Clifford still missed easy throws and allows himself to be sacked too often. I think we get to 10 wins and will he limited by the qb play.
But all anyone talked about was how Ball State was the defending champs, won their bowl game, had everyone back, and this would be a tough test for PSU. Then PSU rolls them and it gets treated as just a win over a bad team.
Maybe the receivers weren’t getting open….Wiscy sold out to stop the run, Ball State didn’t.
Well Ball State's QB had 52 career TD passes and could do almost nothing against our secondary so that might bode well for B1G play.
Because a 10-point win is going to make a giant difference for the rest of the season? #eyeroll
Agree with what has been said elsewhere on this thread with Clifford making some poor decisions in the passing game, trying to force it to the middle of the field rather than seeing that the back out on the swing is all by himself. I counted at least 3 times today where either Cain or Lee were lonely out in the flat and Cliff didn't give him a look, which led to either a scramble or a throwaway. Gotta take what the defense gives you, especially if they have more talent and speed than Ball State showed today. That said, he was better in his running production and tucked it when stuff wasn't there. 0 turnovers in the first two games is a lot more of what we want. When you have a defense as good as this one has shown in the first 2 games, you want to give them long fields and when the offense has been subpar, they haven't put the defense behind the 8-ball.
I don't think we know a lot about this team yet. The secondary looks very good. Luketta and Ebikete look good. Cain, Lee, & Dotson look good too. But Clifford looks average and I don't know if we can run the ball effectively against high ranked opponents.
I have no idea how good Wisconsin is but if we can beat a 25th ranked team like a top 10 team should it will give me a high level of confidence for the rest of the season. Not so much if we lose or struggle. Sorry if that makes your eyes roll.
I see a team that gets its energy and spirit from the D...love the way the secondary is flying around and setting the tone...nice change for sure. The secondary will have to carry the D until someone or multiple guys in the front 7 can be game changers. Still not enough pressure from the front 4...if AK isn't getting in the backfield, nobody seems to on a fairly consistent basis. Our running game looks fine...but not a ton of breakaway speed to get into the 3rd level...it's like after 7 or 8 yds...we get taken down. It's still too difficult to determine what the future is for this team...next week certainly will be a litmus test vs a team full of 'dudes,' especially on both lines.
Clifford most likely didn’t take the easy check downs as he was probably trying to improve his pocket presence and vision downfield as we will need that in bigger games. I am sure of it considering we were playing a lower level of competition.
Not saying he has the best accuracy though, missed a few easy ones.
Not saying he has the best accuracy though, missed a few easy ones.
I don’t believe this theory is always true, the first game to the second game improvement. The 2016 team didn’t improve until after the Minnesota game. Last year’s team didn’t show improvement until after they started 0-5
I wasn't at the game, so I couldn't tell you if Clifford made bad decisions or not. I do know that the decisions he made worked out pretty well. He was 21-29 for 230 with 1 TD and once again, no picks. I don't remember a pass where the defender could have made a play on the ball.
I like what I see in Clifford so far. I'm more worried about the running game at this point.
I like what I see in Clifford so far. I'm more worried about the running game at this point.
I think he’s being judged by some based on a QB they want as opposed to the type of QB he is. He’s not going to go out and rack up 400 yards and 5 TD’s. You’d think PSU never had a game manager type QB before.
2 words: John Shaffer. He had a 45.2% completion rate and 10 interceptions in ‘85 and took an undefeated and #1 Penn State team to play for a National Championship in the 1986 Orange Bowl. And won it the next year!
Sure, the game has changed, but he was a solid QB who didn’t lose games for us. If Clifford can be that kind of QB, we’ll be fine.
Sure, the game has changed, but he was a solid QB who didn’t lose games for us. If Clifford can be that kind of QB, we’ll be fine.
