Ill, IA, and MD
- Thread starter bdgan
- Start date
PSU schedule is terribly soft this year. Nobody ranked other than the two gorillas. I’ll be shocked if Illinois or Iowa score more than 10 points vs. PSU.
All 3 look as expected. Iowa might look better than expected. Them beating ISU wasn't a lock. They're easy matchups. We play our B to C game it's a win.
#1 Georgia didn't score in the 1st quarter against Ball St, then piled it on.
#3 Alabama lost by double digits to #11 Texas.
#9 Tennessee struggled into the 3rd Q with Austin Peay
#14 LSU who lost last week to FSU, was up only 14-10 against Grambling after the 1st Q before piling it on
#20 Ole Miss didn't separate from Tulane until later in the 4th quarter
#23 Texas A&M lost by 15 to Miami
Vanderbilt lost to Wake Forest
Kentucky barely escaped Eastern Kentucky
Missouri barely beat Middle Tenn
Florida lost last week to Utah
Miss St needed overtime to beat Arizona
Furman was beating S.Car (who lost to UNC who almost lost to App St this week) well into the 2nd quarter.
Auburn barely beat Cal
Looking at the entire SEC, they mostly struggled this past week. Of course, so did half of the Big 10.
Death, taxes, and PSU’s schedule being called too soft…the only constants in life. I heard at the beginning of the season we would be 8-4 because our schedule was so much tougher than last year and then Two weeks into the season before we’ve played a single conference opponent, it’s too soft. Can we at least tweak the annual posting playbook?
Precisely. But that won’t stop certain talking heads and fans from talking about SEC dominance.
Who said we were going 8-4? 10 was the floor barring us choking.
Anyone that said 8-4 was delusional or joking. Read BWIs floor/ceiling projections. This goes back to you simply thinking the weak schedule we have is good because we play them. You don't even know the tiebreaker rules.
Oh, you’re so smart. You’re my hero.
The board is much better with that guy on ignore. I have no idea what he is arguing to you but I can tell you it is a waste of your time.
I’ve spent too much time arguing with him and had enough. You can’t have a discussion with a narcissist.
Ill lost a lot of talent off that defense, They basically had a secondary of NFL players last year and they're all gone. So -- playing at Champaign is always tough, anybody who watched The Drive game in 1994 knows how tough. But at least so far this isn't the Illinois defense they had last year.
Iowa is basically on track for Iowa. They're like a Paterno offense in that it takes them a few weeks to unfurl their passing game. They are going to be tough defensively.
I think Penn State has one big fat ugly vulnerability right now and it's the front 7 defending the run between the tackles. And that is not a great vulnerability to have going into Illinois and Iowa.
It gives those teams a shot at long sustained drivers that keep the PSU offense off the field. You get a close game and then all of a sudden it's decided by special teams or turnovers or random chance.
If I were Illinois and Iowa I would run the ball right at Penn State with misdirection and not stop until PSU finds a way to stop it. Of course Diaz is a smart guy and is already working on countermeasures to cover whatever weakness PSU has in the middle. Some of PSU's problem has been overpursuit and that can be fixed with less jumpiness/better discipline.
Maryland I worry about less because they still don't have the kind of O-line program that mid-tier Big Ten teams have. PSU has just dominated them up front. If Maryland has a better OL this year they could be trouble because they do have skill position talent.
Not concerned about Iowa or Illinois. We will outscore them.
I am concerned most about Michigan. Their strength is our largest vulnerability. I see them wearing our defense down by pounding the middle and getting some big plays as we are forced to bring up safeties in run support. I don't think Diaz can scheme this rather simple physical problem.
We actually have a much better chance of winning in Columbus this year.
In the end I think it will be another year like last year in terms of the post-season. I hope to be wrong, because the talent is there to contend everywhere else on this team, especially the offense. It's nice to finally think of a PSU team where the offense, especially at quarterback, is its strength. 1994 is nearly 3 decades old.
That 94 Illinois defense was loaded (three All-American LBs, Hardy, Rice, and Howard) as well and was a very good team. It didn’t help that our offense couldn’t get out of its own way (at least one kijana fumble in our own territory) until we were down by three touchdowns.
I doubt that Diaz is working on countermeasures except to reinforce gap responsibility.
Diaz's strategy is to create explosive plays. That means blitzes from DBs and LBs and DEs focused more on getting to the QB than they are about stopping the run. That's always been his strategy and I don't expect him to change.
The old bend but don't break strategy is long gone.
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