random thoughts over the weekend:
- Trace played the best game I've seen him play. Kid was other worldly. He seems much stronger, both in terms of running and throwing. His long balls are still short (doesn't seem to get the ball much further than 40 yards in the air) but his 20 yard passes have zip and accuracy. He was, clearly, the MVP. He reminded me when watching Desert Storm unfold and we first saw the video of the laser/radar guided missiles being delivered. Many of his passes were delivered within six inches of where he wanted them.
- Heard the announcer call Hippenhamer's name on a play. Thought that was funny.
- Anybody know anything about the discipline on Miller and one other. At one point, it was just to not start, but seemed he didn't play the entire first half.
- Noticed 4 and 14 jawing at Barkley on his first run up the middle (gained about 8 yards). But also noticed a lot of good sportsmanship in the second half. I got a kick out of the kids imitating Barkley's windmill. But have to say, is that smart? I mean, teams take great care not to give bulletin board material for a month then do something like that? Doesn't make sense to me, what is to be gained?
- W is really well coached. Few mistakes and they make good adjustments at the half. They went to a quick passing game in the second half. Defensively, they played more to limit the big play (although we still got one).
- We got burned by two trick plays. Andrea Bouchelli's pass (I thought he was blind, regardless, he played a nice game). And the hook and ladder. Their coach is kind of famous for trick plays so was a little disappointed in that but they were both executed to perfection. Looks like we tried one but it wasn't open deep so McS ran and picked up a couple of yards.
- Lots of things went against us. The first INT was a great catch and due to Gesicki falling and/or mistiming his jump. At his height, if he kept his feet, that may have been a TD. The errant pitch was McS' only big mistake of the night. But it wasn't blocked correctly. Regardless, you just eat that. The INT off of the DE's head was just unfortunate. In the meantime, we almost lost two more (fumbled shovel pass and a muffed punt: #3 didn't have his best game). Speaking of punt returns, had to laugh that Vea had a tackle and our #21 didn't seem to want any part of blocking him or else #3 has a LONG gain.
- Refs called a decent game but two key calls went against us: no roughing on Trace but roughing on their QB. The call on their QB was OK, but could have gone either way.
- One of those games were I never thought we were in trouble. we really outplayed W by a wide margin but the turnovers kept us from putting it away.
- Speaking of putting it away, we had something like 10:20 in TOP in the fourth quarter (to W's 4:40). Great drive to control the ball which is what we DID NOT do against USC last year (or tOSU this year). Missed FG sucked though. Feel bad for 95. If out RG doesn't jump offsides, I'd have gone for it on fourth and one.
- We played Barkley a lot more than we were expecting, I think.
- I was very impressed with Rahne's play calling. 9 guys caught balls, in the first half alone. How do you defend that when you have to account for 26? We also played very aggressively on that last drive with several third down passes. I feel like the shovel pass was positioned to keep their DE's from crashing the mesh point. Hard to say how effective it was. We didn't make that many yards on them but who knows how much that saved us on zone/reads. Line appeared to have their best game but I suspect this had something to do with it. I also thought he was pretty creative, given we had a healthy lead most of the game. He tried to get 2 involved but W was having none of it. So he used 2 as a decoy several times.
- Read that Hamilton hates that route but scored twice on it. The first time on the right in a flag pattern to the outside shoulder. The second, and I thought the color guy did a nice job of walking through it, he scores on the same play on the other side but the defender takes away the outside shoulder so Trace throws it to the inside shoulder. Awesome.
- Is 24 the best we have to return kickoffs? Why aren't guys lining up on the five instead of the goal line? Why plan to catch the ball five yards deep in the endzone? Having said that, he's had the worst luck of short kickoffs checking up on him. Somebody said that he's inexperienced but he returned KOs the entire 2016 season and the last two games of this last season.
- Only bonehead play on Defense was giving up the long run. Seems our S were spread out and 47 missed an easy tackle. Can't give that long score up at that point but I guess we were defending the long pass. We had lots of problems with the wildcat all night (two TD's).
- Anyone who doesn't think there will be a dropoff at running back is kidding themselves. 24 will be a good one, but he won't be as good as 26 (who is?). Having said that, great to see 24 involved on the sidelines, happy and engaged. He's had games were he was mopey.
- In the runup to the bowl, we had two kids dismissed from the team and two kids being held from starting. Scary. But we have had awesome senior leadership (senior from experience, not being seniors in the cases of 26 and 9). We will miss 40 and 2. A great class from BO'B and CJF's first year. If the next few classes are as good......
- If I was a W fan, I'd have been upset at the announcers. They seemed like PSU homers. "PSU is the best team in the B1G", "have a claim to the championship series", "NFL caliber accuracy", etc. Great to get that kind of publicity. They also did a nice job on replays and discussing themes. They also did a nice job of replays after commercials. Often, in the age of DVR's, they don't always replay plays especially when they get in the way of a sideline report or when the PbP guy has to read some kind of network announcement.
- Nice for Barkley to not announce but he had made the decision a long time ago. He had already arranged to be at the Rose Bowl and I am sure the ESPN dudes knew it.
- A very fun game to watch as a PSU fan. Close enough to hold your interest but never close enough to think you'd lose it.
