I started out reviewing the game because I wanted to figure out what Penn State was doing, in a very general sense, on offense. I quickly scrapped that as I became increasingly amazed by what I was seeing along the offensive line. I've read all sorts of things about how timid the group was, about how others were terrible besides Palmer. It's been said that Nelson was even worse than Palmer and that Mahon was terrible and that it's obvious that they've made no improvement at all since last year. I don't agree with any of that.
Palmer isn't good, that's no secret. But the rest of the group, upon review, was much better than it's being given credit for. Outside of the last play of the game, Nelson wasn't obviously beat at all. The interior guys weren't clearly beat, at all (Dowrey was beat when he subbed in for Mahon, Dowrey and Palmer should never play at the same time ever). I submit that Mahon/Mangiro/Gaia/Nelson will all grade out okay.
Here's the thing. Last year I reviewed a few games, and what I saw on the offensive line was appalling. It was unbelievable. There would be plays when literally four guys got beat right away. That actually happened. Individual linemen were getting beat multiple times a series and countless times over the course of a game. Communication was nonexistent. There was zero chemistry and not much talent. This is not what I saw on Saturday at all. The interior line played like a typical average college interior line. Their chemistry and communication was light years better than what I saw last year (we'll explain the sack numbers in a bit). They had the unenviable task of playing against a defense that appeared to know what plays we were running and put lots of people in the box and typically brought up a safety as well. They weren't great, but to say the four guys besides Palmer are just as bad as they were last year, at least based on the Temple game, is inaccurate.
Ten sacks is terrible, don't get me wrong. But if you actually see how they happened you can't blame the non Palmer starters. Five of the sacks came in the 4th quarter when everything fell apart. Of those five sacks Palmer was beat twice, Dowrey once, then the last two at the very end on a crap end of game sack and then the one where Nelson gets beat. Of the five in the first half/third quarter, three came from delayed linebacker blitzes up the middle (two on third and long) where I would not blame the offensive line. The other two were another Palmer miss and a screwy play where a linebacker came on an outside blitz (hard to tell if Nelson should have slid over or if Hack needed to dump it once that blitzer came, also Palmer was beat again on this play).
So the interior guys were not blatantly beaten once for any of the sacks and Nelson got beat for the last play of the game. And in general they blocked the guys they were assigned to block in the run game. Look, they're not great and I'm not even trying to say they played particularly well. They're not an overly talented group. But we're comparing this to last year. And I'm telling you that last year was a whole different situation. Now maybe they'll look terrible against a better defensive line. That's entirely possible. But they weren't terrible on Saturday. So if we're trying to explain why our offense sucks then I suggest we look at people not named Mahon/Mangiro/Gaia/Nelson, because they were decent enough on Saturday.
Palmer isn't good, that's no secret. But the rest of the group, upon review, was much better than it's being given credit for. Outside of the last play of the game, Nelson wasn't obviously beat at all. The interior guys weren't clearly beat, at all (Dowrey was beat when he subbed in for Mahon, Dowrey and Palmer should never play at the same time ever). I submit that Mahon/Mangiro/Gaia/Nelson will all grade out okay.
Here's the thing. Last year I reviewed a few games, and what I saw on the offensive line was appalling. It was unbelievable. There would be plays when literally four guys got beat right away. That actually happened. Individual linemen were getting beat multiple times a series and countless times over the course of a game. Communication was nonexistent. There was zero chemistry and not much talent. This is not what I saw on Saturday at all. The interior line played like a typical average college interior line. Their chemistry and communication was light years better than what I saw last year (we'll explain the sack numbers in a bit). They had the unenviable task of playing against a defense that appeared to know what plays we were running and put lots of people in the box and typically brought up a safety as well. They weren't great, but to say the four guys besides Palmer are just as bad as they were last year, at least based on the Temple game, is inaccurate.
Ten sacks is terrible, don't get me wrong. But if you actually see how they happened you can't blame the non Palmer starters. Five of the sacks came in the 4th quarter when everything fell apart. Of those five sacks Palmer was beat twice, Dowrey once, then the last two at the very end on a crap end of game sack and then the one where Nelson gets beat. Of the five in the first half/third quarter, three came from delayed linebacker blitzes up the middle (two on third and long) where I would not blame the offensive line. The other two were another Palmer miss and a screwy play where a linebacker came on an outside blitz (hard to tell if Nelson should have slid over or if Hack needed to dump it once that blitzer came, also Palmer was beat again on this play).
So the interior guys were not blatantly beaten once for any of the sacks and Nelson got beat for the last play of the game. And in general they blocked the guys they were assigned to block in the run game. Look, they're not great and I'm not even trying to say they played particularly well. They're not an overly talented group. But we're comparing this to last year. And I'm telling you that last year was a whole different situation. Now maybe they'll look terrible against a better defensive line. That's entirely possible. But they weren't terrible on Saturday. So if we're trying to explain why our offense sucks then I suggest we look at people not named Mahon/Mangiro/Gaia/Nelson, because they were decent enough on Saturday.
