Me and my family pick one game a year to go to in person.....and this was the game. Met up with close to 20 brothers from the 1980s along with their families and friends. Had about 150 at the tailgate in Lot 12. Driving up from Tennessee thought for sure that we would be standing in the rain much of the day on Saturday.....so we had a little bit of rain during the parade on Friday and spots of rain on Saturday, but overall the weather was very pleasant and during the game the weather was perfect.
This game felt like I was back in 1986 with the game.....we beat up Illinois at the line of scrimmage both offensively and defensively and slowly squeezing the life out of Illinois. First half Illinois played well and PSU seemed to show that we could move the ball on Illinois fairly consistently.....one of the issues that we have is that if you are going to run the ball, defend the run then you better be able to kick fgs inside of 45 yards and punt well to play the field position game. You can also not turn the ball over. The two biggest plays were the fumbled snap by Illinois from the 2 yard line and the overturning of the Singleton fumble.
Some of the board is saying that Frankly restricted Andy K. on play calling, I did not have that feeling. The Illinois board was posting that PSU should have just run every play in the 2nd half since they admitted that they could not stop the run. Most on the Illinois board felt that we should run #10 every play, which I do not agree with.......
Players that showed up from the 25 yard line view that I had:
1) Warren - wow what a player. On the 4th and where we ended up short of the sticks.....Warren was wide open. Drew needed 1 more second and it would have been a td. 2) Singleton is awesome and was close to breaking 2-3 50 yard runs where the last guy ankle tackled Nick. 3) Kaytron is the equivalent of body blows.....3 yard run, 5 yard run, 5 yard run, 14 yard run........ 4) O line play was very solid and unbelievably consistent with about 8 players playing with 2 injuries and 3 tackles playing...... Illinois was playing to stop the run and yet we could still run and when we would pass they were often sending 5 or 6 rushers. 5) Vita Vea is a pleasure to watch play OL.....when he runs in motion you can sense the fear from the DE and the CB or LB on the pull side. He is going to blow up somebody he just needs to pick a body and smash. 6) WRs blocked well......but I did not see many open receivers on their 3rd down routes..... 7) Many, many times Drew could have kept the ball and run out the backside for about 10 easy yards, not sure that I want him doing this 10 times a game, but a couple may have slowed down the back side rush.... 8) Carter and Rojas were everywhere on defense......... King played a good game too. 9) DD Sutton is different than what I thought that he would be. He is a solid guy against the rush and he does get some pressure on the QB but when I did focus on him, it did not appear that he had the super quick twich of a Courtney Brown and he got home with strength marching the OT back toward the QB, perhaps this is his job, but our DEs last year won with speed, but were more a negative with running teams. 10) Zane Durant at times killed the Illinois C and G..... when he had no run responsibility and went after the QB he exploded into the back field. 11) Our DBs covered the deep ball well. the only open throws were the 4-6 yard over the middle throws and as the game went on those windows got tighter and tighter as we figured out that they could not beat us deep.
The officials seemed ok, however, the call against Rojas was a complete headscratcher.....it seems like he got a foul for blowing up a guy who was trying to block him....that seems like football to me. Also there was a block in the back in the end of the 3rd or beginning of the 4th that was in the middle of field that was not called. I give the scoreboard operator credit as he showed the clear block in the back about 6 times with the crowd screaming about the lack of call. The block in the back on the interception was absolutely not needed......... in retrospect it helped us as we ran 3 or 4 minutes off of the clock and scored anyway, but wow not a smart play.
The crowd was very loud especially when we were on defense and especially in the 3rd and 4th quarters......... the 4th quarter was big energy once our defense knew pass was coming and we squatted on routes and pressured the QB...... the last 15 plays for Illinois their QB was under incredible pressure and credit to him, was still trying to make plays, but he was lucky that 2 or 3 passes were not intercepted and that he was not hurt. He was a tough guy and he will hurt some other teams with his acuracy and toughness.
All in all a tremendous weekend catching up with old friends and family. i even brought the new girl friend to the tail gate who was warmly received by my friends and family. Most of the people at the tailgate and some on this board knew my wife who passed 3 years ago. The tailgaters were all so welcoming to her and her son. She also was a PSU Grad so she fit right in to the group..............
This game felt like I was back in 1986 with the game.....we beat up Illinois at the line of scrimmage both offensively and defensively and slowly squeezing the life out of Illinois. First half Illinois played well and PSU seemed to show that we could move the ball on Illinois fairly consistently.....one of the issues that we have is that if you are going to run the ball, defend the run then you better be able to kick fgs inside of 45 yards and punt well to play the field position game. You can also not turn the ball over. The two biggest plays were the fumbled snap by Illinois from the 2 yard line and the overturning of the Singleton fumble.
Some of the board is saying that Frankly restricted Andy K. on play calling, I did not have that feeling. The Illinois board was posting that PSU should have just run every play in the 2nd half since they admitted that they could not stop the run. Most on the Illinois board felt that we should run #10 every play, which I do not agree with.......
Players that showed up from the 25 yard line view that I had:
1) Warren - wow what a player. On the 4th and where we ended up short of the sticks.....Warren was wide open. Drew needed 1 more second and it would have been a td. 2) Singleton is awesome and was close to breaking 2-3 50 yard runs where the last guy ankle tackled Nick. 3) Kaytron is the equivalent of body blows.....3 yard run, 5 yard run, 5 yard run, 14 yard run........ 4) O line play was very solid and unbelievably consistent with about 8 players playing with 2 injuries and 3 tackles playing...... Illinois was playing to stop the run and yet we could still run and when we would pass they were often sending 5 or 6 rushers. 5) Vita Vea is a pleasure to watch play OL.....when he runs in motion you can sense the fear from the DE and the CB or LB on the pull side. He is going to blow up somebody he just needs to pick a body and smash. 6) WRs blocked well......but I did not see many open receivers on their 3rd down routes..... 7) Many, many times Drew could have kept the ball and run out the backside for about 10 easy yards, not sure that I want him doing this 10 times a game, but a couple may have slowed down the back side rush.... 8) Carter and Rojas were everywhere on defense......... King played a good game too. 9) DD Sutton is different than what I thought that he would be. He is a solid guy against the rush and he does get some pressure on the QB but when I did focus on him, it did not appear that he had the super quick twich of a Courtney Brown and he got home with strength marching the OT back toward the QB, perhaps this is his job, but our DEs last year won with speed, but were more a negative with running teams. 10) Zane Durant at times killed the Illinois C and G..... when he had no run responsibility and went after the QB he exploded into the back field. 11) Our DBs covered the deep ball well. the only open throws were the 4-6 yard over the middle throws and as the game went on those windows got tighter and tighter as we figured out that they could not beat us deep.
The officials seemed ok, however, the call against Rojas was a complete headscratcher.....it seems like he got a foul for blowing up a guy who was trying to block him....that seems like football to me. Also there was a block in the back in the end of the 3rd or beginning of the 4th that was in the middle of field that was not called. I give the scoreboard operator credit as he showed the clear block in the back about 6 times with the crowd screaming about the lack of call. The block in the back on the interception was absolutely not needed......... in retrospect it helped us as we ran 3 or 4 minutes off of the clock and scored anyway, but wow not a smart play.
The crowd was very loud especially when we were on defense and especially in the 3rd and 4th quarters......... the 4th quarter was big energy once our defense knew pass was coming and we squatted on routes and pressured the QB...... the last 15 plays for Illinois their QB was under incredible pressure and credit to him, was still trying to make plays, but he was lucky that 2 or 3 passes were not intercepted and that he was not hurt. He was a tough guy and he will hurt some other teams with his acuracy and toughness.
All in all a tremendous weekend catching up with old friends and family. i even brought the new girl friend to the tail gate who was warmly received by my friends and family. Most of the people at the tailgate and some on this board knew my wife who passed 3 years ago. The tailgaters were all so welcoming to her and her son. She also was a PSU Grad so she fit right in to the group..............
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