Offense & Defense Clean Up

[ryoder1]

I was not as satisfied as I thought I would have been after beating scUM by 7 in the White Out. The obvious reason is we almost blew a 21 point lead and allowed scUM to make their biggest comeback win ever. Thankfully that did NOT happen.

Nevertheless, this game leaves us with nagging concerns about the team.

Why did we stall on offense (a continuing trend)? Is Clifford not able to survey the field well and find other receivers? Crappy play calling? No Cain or would it have mattered with our average as usual O line? ScUM just figured it out on D and we had no counter adjustment? Basically we lose that game if played in AA.

Our D had a decent effort but our secondary got exposed as well as a weak pash rush. What's up with that? Is scUM that godd at pass blocking? For most of the last 35 minutes of the game it felt like scUM was playing downhill with all roads leading to our endzone. Os it just the freakish NFL WR athletes for scUM along with Patterson deciding to play great that hurt us. Gattis knowing us and out coaching Pry and Franklin? Just worried there is now a blueprint to attack us. If Shane Patterson can do that to us in a White Out game then Fields and OSU will murder us in Columbus. Before that is Sparty and are we going to let Lewerke look like Elway or Montana on Saturday and make Dantonio look like freaking Belicheat??

Clifford is solid but not great and without Hamler or Friermuth in the pass game there is very little despite a plethora of other talent. Need to have other options step up. Need Cain to be the lead horse. Need Gross Matos to start playing like a top 20 pick or there will be no top 20 pick for him.

 

[AWS1022]

I was not as satisfied as I thought I would have been after beating scUM by 7 in the White Out. The obvious reason is we almost blew a 21 point lead and allowed scUM to make their biggest comeback win ever. Thankfully that did NOT happen.

Nevertheless, this game leaves us with nagging concerns about the team.

Why did we stall on offense (a continuing trend)? Is Clifford not able to survey the field well and find other receivers? Crappy play calling? No Cain or would it have mattered with our average as usual O line? ScUM just figured it out on D and we had no counter adjustment? Basically we lose that game if played in AA.

Our D had a decent effort but our secondary got exposed as well as a weak pash rush. What's up with that? Is scUM that godd at pass blocking? For most of the last 35 minutes of the game it felt like scUM was playing downhill with all roads leading to our endzone. Os it just the freakish NFL WR athletes for scUM along with Patterson deciding to play great that hurt us. Gattis knowing us and out coaching Pry and Franklin? Just worried there is now a blueprint to attack us. If Shane Patterson can do that to us in a White Out game then Fields and OSU will murder us in Columbus. Before that is Sparty and are we going to let Lewerke look like Elway or Montana on Saturday and make Dantonio look like freaking Belicheat??

Clifford is solid but not great and without Hamler or Friermuth in the pass game there is very little despite a plethora of other talent. Need to have other options step up. Need Cain to be the lead horse. Need Gross Matos to start playing like a top 20 pick or there will be no top 20 pick for him.

How about a message board cleanup?

 

[srg1]

How about a message board cleanup?

It is a glass half empty view but these are legitimate concerns. However they have been expressed in other threads.

 

[Lion8286]

I was not as satisfied as I thought I would have been after beating scUM by 7 in the White Out.

Cancel the rest of the season!! ryoder1 was not sufficiently satisfied with the win.

 

[PSUoh90]

I was not as satisfied as I thought I would have been after beating scUM by 7 in the White Out. The obvious reason is we almost blew a 21 point lead and allowed scUM to make their biggest comeback win ever. Thankfully that did NOT happen.

Nevertheless, this game leaves us with nagging concerns about the team.

Why did we stall on offense (a continuing trend)? Is Clifford not able to survey the field well and find other receivers? Crappy play calling? No Cain or would it have mattered with our average as usual O line? ScUM just figured it out on D and we had no counter adjustment? Basically we lose that game if played in AA.

Our D had a decent effort but our secondary got exposed as well as a weak pash rush. What's up with that? Is scUM that godd at pass blocking? For most of the last 35 minutes of the game it felt like scUM was playing downhill with all roads leading to our endzone. Os it just the freakish NFL WR athletes for scUM along with Patterson deciding to play great that hurt us. Gattis knowing us and out coaching Pry and Franklin? Just worried there is now a blueprint to attack us. If Shane Patterson can do that to us in a White Out game then Fields and OSU will murder us in Columbus. Before that is Sparty and are we going to let Lewerke look like Elway or Montana on Saturday and make Dantonio look like freaking Belicheat??

Clifford is solid but not great and without Hamler or Friermuth in the pass game there is very little despite a plethora of other talent. Need to have other options step up. Need Cain to be the lead horse. Need Gross Matos to start playing like a top 20 pick or there will be no top 20 pick for him.

I hope most will read this because it’s an important point that a lot of fans might not realize. Clifford has around 190 pass attempts this year and 2 have been graded as "interceptable". TWO! That's 1%.

Even if he's missing some throws or not finding the open guy here or there, he isn't giving the opponent a chance to quickly change the game with a turnover and he's making great decisions to throw it away when he has to. Trace, who I love and adore, made a lot of boneheaded throws.

 

[ram2020]

I hope most will read this because it’s an important point that a lot of fans might not realize. Clifford has around 190 pass attempts this year and 2 have been graded as "interceptable". TWO! That's 1%.

Even if he's missing some throws or not finding the open guy here or there, he isn't giving the opponent a chance to quickly change the game with a turnover and he's making great decisions to throw it away when he has to. Trace, who I love and adore, made a lot of boneheaded throws.

Yup, good point. And for all the adoration for Trace, and rightfully so, he was down right dreadful at points last year. I understand he may have been hurt, but just look at that Michigan State game last year. He was a mess. He made some terrible throws and decisions, none worse than running out of bounce on a 3rd down play protecting a lead up 3 points with 1:30 left.

 

[PSUoh90]

Yup, good point. And for all the adoration for Trace, and rightfully so, he was down right dreadful at points last year. I understand he may have been hurt, but just look at that Michigan State game last year. He was a mess. He made some terrible throws and decisions, none worse than running out of bounce on a 3rd down play protecting a lead up 3 points with 1:30 left.

Bingo. Not to mention that Clifford is a first-year starter as a sophomore. His ceiling is far higher than McSorely's. We know the throws he's capable of making, some of his issues will get cleaned up as he gets older and more experienced.

 

[TangSoo]

All of the above. I'll stop short of great, but 16 TDs to 2 INTs is well above "Solid".

 

[PSU20]

I was not as satisfied as I thought I would have been after beating scUM by 7 in the White Out. The obvious reason is we almost blew a 21 point lead and allowed scUM to make their biggest comeback win ever. Thankfully that did NOT happen.

Nevertheless, this game leaves us with nagging concerns about the team.

Why did we stall on offense (a continuing trend)? Is Clifford not able to survey the field well and find other receivers? Crappy play calling? No Cain or would it have mattered with our average as usual O line? ScUM just figured it out on D and we had no counter adjustment? Basically we lose that game if played in AA.

Our D had a decent effort but our secondary got exposed as well as a weak pash rush. What's up with that? Is scUM that godd at pass blocking? For most of the last 35 minutes of the game it felt like scUM was playing downhill with all roads leading to our endzone. Os it just the freakish NFL WR athletes for scUM along with Patterson deciding to play great that hurt us. Gattis knowing us and out coaching Pry and Franklin? Just worried there is now a blueprint to attack us. If Shane Patterson can do that to us in a White Out game then Fields and OSU will murder us in Columbus. Before that is Sparty and are we going to let Lewerke look like Elway or Montana on Saturday and make Dantonio look like freaking Belicheat??

Clifford is solid but not great and without Hamler or Friermuth in the pass game there is very little despite a plethora of other talent. Need to have other options step up. Need Cain to be the lead horse. Need Gross Matos to start playing like a top 20 pick or there will be no top 20 pick for him.

 

[marshall23]

I was not as satisfied as I thought I would have been after beating scUM by 7 in the White Out. The obvious reason is we almost blew a 21 point lead and allowed scUM to make their biggest comeback win ever. Thankfully that did NOT happen.

Nevertheless, this game leaves us with nagging concerns about the team.

Why did we stall on offense (a continuing trend)? Is Clifford not able to survey the field well and find other receivers? Crappy play calling? No Cain or would it have mattered with our average as usual O line? ScUM just figured it out on D and we had no counter adjustment? Basically we lose that game if played in AA.

Our D had a decent effort but our secondary got exposed as well as a weak pash rush. What's up with that? Is scUM that godd at pass blocking? For most of the last 35 minutes of the game it felt like scUM was playing downhill with all roads leading to our endzone. Os it just the freakish NFL WR athletes for scUM along with Patterson deciding to play great that hurt us. Gattis knowing us and out coaching Pry and Franklin? Just worried there is now a blueprint to attack us. If Shane Patterson can do that to us in a White Out game then Fields and OSU will murder us in Columbus. Before that is Sparty and are we going to let Lewerke look like Elway or Montana on Saturday and make Dantonio look like freaking Belicheat??

Clifford is solid but not great and without Hamler or Friermuth in the pass game there is very little despite a plethora of other talent. Need to have other options step up. Need Cain to be the lead horse. Need Gross Matos to start playing like a top 20 pick or there will be no top 20 pick for him.

Doubt we can win another game. Perhaps Rutgers.

 

[fizzyskittles]

How about a message board cleanup?

7-0, I'm glad we didn't have message boards in 1986. they would have bitched about the final result in the Fiesta bowl.

 

[AWS1022]

7-0, I'm glad we didn't have message boards in 1986. they would have bitched about the final result in the Fiesta bowl.

Yes, because our offense was lousy and didn’t give the fans the blow out they deserve.

 

[PSU20]

I was not as satisfied as I thought I would have been after beating scUM by 7 in the White Out. The obvious reason is we almost blew a 21 point lead and allowed scUM to make their biggest comeback win ever. Thankfully that did NOT happen.

Nevertheless, this game leaves us with nagging concerns about the team.

Why did we stall on offense (a continuing trend)? Is Clifford not able to survey the field well and find other receivers? Crappy play calling? No Cain or would it have mattered with our average as usual O line? ScUM just figured it out on D and we had no counter adjustment? Basically we lose that game if played in AA.

Our D had a decent effort but our secondary got exposed as well as a weak pash rush. What's up with that? Is scUM that godd at pass blocking? For most of the last 35 minutes of the game it felt like scUM was playing downhill with all roads leading to our endzone. Os it just the freakish NFL WR athletes for scUM along with Patterson deciding to play great that hurt us. Gattis knowing us and out coaching Pry and Franklin? Just worried there is now a blueprint to attack us. If Shane Patterson can do that to us in a White Out game then Fields and OSU will murder us in Columbus. Before that is Sparty and are we going to let Lewerke look like Elway or Montana on Saturday and make Dantonio look like freaking Belicheat??

Clifford is solid but not great and without Hamler or Friermuth in the pass game there is very little despite a plethora of other talent. Need to have other options step up. Need Cain to be the lead horse. Need Gross Matos to start playing like a top 20 pick or there will be no top 20 pick for him.

Almost an instant replay of the 2017 OSU Game. Winning for 3 1/2 quarters, defense gets gassed since the offense gets bogged down, and the Buckeyes simply out gunned us. We had a 1st down on the Buckeyes 7 yard line. A TD would have put the game out of reach. Three "RPO's" and we had a 4th down still on the 7 YL. Kicked a lousy FG and lost the game.

 

[fizzyskittles]

Yes, because our offense was lousy and didn’t give the fans the blow out they deserve.

Exactly.

 

[BrucePa]

The OP makes a good point that a lot of fans share. The win over Michigan was "OK enough" if this is a team that aspires to maybe a 10-2 season a remote shot at a New Year's 6 bowl game. If this is a team that aspires to greater heights, then this game exposed some serious flaws that tOSU and maybe MSU and Minnesota will exploit.

 

[fizzyskittles]

The OP makes a good point that a lot of fans share. The win over Michigan was "OK enough" if this is a team that aspires to maybe a 10-2 season a remote shot at a New Year's 6 bowl game. If this is a team that aspires to greater heights, then this game exposed some serious flaws that tOSU and maybe MSU and Minnesota will exploit.

Most people here were thinking 9-3, 10-2 kind of season. Right now we are right on track for that type of year with a possible 11-1 or 12-0 year.
Every single year I saw PSU go undefeated or 11-1, they had close wins. It's rather common. People need to relax.

 

[grad83psu]

The OP makes a good point that a lot of fans share. The win over Michigan was "OK enough" if this is a team that aspires to maybe a 10-2 season a remote shot at a New Year's 6 bowl game. If this is a team that aspires to greater heights, then this game exposed some serious flaws that tOSU and maybe MSU and Minnesota will exploit.

And BrucePa will wish and whine and hope for failure by PSU every day until it either happens or doesn't ............................. and then he will change his argument and find some other thing to hate PSU about!

 

[canuckhal]

Quote from Clifford: "We are undefeated, but we are nowhere near our best yet. I certainly am not. There's still a lot of work to do." - Ryan McGee

 

[ryoder1]

The OP makes a good point that a lot of fans share. The win over Michigan was "OK enough" if this is a team that aspires to maybe a 10-2 season a remote shot at a New Year's 6 bowl game. If this is a team that aspires to greater heights, then this game exposed some serious flaws that tOSU and maybe MSU and Minnesota will exploit.

The W covered up our warts. I hope we shore them up against MSU but they are there like it or not.

The issue is not as much a close game as the way the game unfolded by us practically folding in the clutch.

I do love how Clifford does not turn the ball over.

By the way did Bell drop the ball as a result of a hit by Wade? I am wishing this but I think it had nothing to do with Wade and just a pure drop by Bell.

 

[RickinDayton]

I hope most will read this because it’s an important point that a lot of fans might not realize. Clifford has around 190 pass attempts this year and 2 have been graded as "interceptable". TWO! That's 1%.

Even if he's missing some throws or not finding the open guy here or there, he isn't giving the opponent a chance to quickly change the game with a turnover and he's making great decisions to throw it away when he has to. Trace, who I love and adore, made a lot of boneheaded throws.

Thanks for bringing that to light. I do appreciate that he is very careful with the ball. Looking forward to him improving his ability to go through his progressions, if he can't then we will struggle @ MSU and get hammered @OSU. OSU has the secondary to shut Hamler down.

 

[BrucePa]

And BrucePa will wish and whine and hope for failure by PSU every day until it either happens or doesn't ............................. and then he will change his argument and find some other thing to hate PSU about!

Who among all of us here holds a 80-1 ticket from Caesar's Palace for Penn State to win the national title this year?

Yes, I have my money on their chances. I don't hate, I just wish for the kind of dominance I see from other programs. After all, didn't CJF himself say he was taking this program to "elite" status?

 

[fizzyskittles]

Who among all of us here holds a 80-1 ticket from Caesar's Palace for Penn State to win the national title this year?

Yes, I have my money on their chances. I don't hate, I just wish for the kind of dominance I see from other programs. After all, didn't CJF himself say he was taking this program to "elite" status?

I don't recall him saying we are there yet. We're close, probably top ten ish. Other than osu, Oklahoma, and Bama, Clemson there aren't many teams in that club.

 

[AWS1022]

The W covered up our warts. I hope we shore them up against MSU but they are there like it or not.

The issue is not as much a close game as the way the game unfolded by us practically folding in the clutch.

I do love how Clifford does not turn the ball over.

By the way did Bell drop the ball as a result of a hit by Wade? I am wishing this but I think it had nothing to do with Wade and just a pure drop by Bell.

Man, I wish MSU had warts, but apparently they’re perfect.

 

[ryoder1]

Thanks for bringing that to light. I do appreciate that he is very careful with the ball. Looking forward to him improving his ability to go through his progressions, if he can't then we will struggle @ MSU and get hammered @OSU. OSU has the secondary to shut Hamler down.

Exactly. We will get hammered by OSU playing the way we did the last 35 minutes. Especially in a hostile environment. BUT, we can improve and pull off the upset You never know!

 

[ryoder1]

Man, I wish MSU had warts, but apparently they’re perfect.

MSU has warts too! Hopefully we expose them and beat Dantonio, they have it coming for sure!

 

[AWS1022]

Who among all of us here holds a 80-1 ticket from Caesar's Palace for Penn State to win the national title this year?

Yes, I have my money on their chances. I don't hate, I just wish for the kind of dominance I see from other programs. After all, didn't CJF himself say he was taking this program to "elite" status?

Dominance from what other programs? Clemson? Oh wait, UNC. Wisconsin dominated Michigan...oh wait, Illinois. Ohio State? Let me know when they play someone. Basically you want PSU to be Bama and we’re not that nor will we ever be.

 

[Ughhh]

Yes, because our offense was lousy and didn’t give the fans the blow out they deserve.

What should we discuss? "That was great" "Yeah it was!!" "How great was it?" "Really great!" "Very great!"

Thrilled as hell with the past two wins but nothing wrong with talking about what need to be cleaned up to win another one on Saturday

 

[PSU87]

The OP makes a good point that a lot of fans share. The win over Michigan was "OK enough" if this is a team that aspires to maybe a 10-2 season a remote shot at a New Year's 6 bowl game. If this is a team that aspires to greater heights, then this game exposed some serious flaws that tOSU and maybe MSU and Minnesota will exploit.

Michigan is better than MSU and Minnesota. But we can't beat MSU and Minnesota because we didn't beat Michigan badly enough?

 

[fizzyskittles]

What should we discuss? "That was great" "Yeah it was!!" "How great was it?" "Really great!" "Very great!"

Thrilled as hell with the past two wins but nothing wrong with talking about what need to be cleaned up to win another one on Saturday

Because it's sounds whiny.

 

[ryoder1]

What should we discuss? "That was great" "Yeah it was!!" "How great was it?" "Really great!" "Very great!"

Thrilled as hell with the past two wins but nothing wrong with talking about what need to be cleaned up to win another one on Saturday

Amen Brotha!

 

[mn78psu83]

Michigan is better than MSU and Minnesota. But we can't beat MSU and Minnesota because we didn't beat Michigan badly enough?

 

[sluggo72]

Almost an instant replay of the 2017 OSU Game. Winning for 3 1/2 quarters, defense gets gassed since the offense gets bogged down, and the Buckeyes simply out gunned us. We had a 1st down on the Buckeyes 7 yard line. A TD would have put the game out of reach. Three "RPO's" and we had a 4th down still on the 7 YL. Kicked a lousy FG and lost the game.

You forget about the other chances we had to close that game. That’s why I think RR >JMo, RR has been closing out games JMO couldn’t

 

[16inchessoft]

@ryoder1
You sound like someone who lost some scratch on the game at penn state -7.5, Dude they one the game verse a top 15 team so chill!

 

[16inchessoft]

Won

 

[MacNit07]

The W covered up our warts. I hope we shore them up against MSU but they are there like it or not.

The issue is not as much a close game as the way the game unfolded by us practically folding in the clutch.

I do love how Clifford does not turn the ball over.

By the way did Bell drop the ball as a result of a hit by Wade? I am wishing this but I think it had nothing to do with Wade and just a pure drop by Bell.

Wade definitely played a role. Still a catchable ball , but not a gimme - thanks to hustle by Wade.

 

[AWS1022]

What should we discuss? "That was great" "Yeah it was!!" "How great was it?" "Really great!" "Very great!"

Thrilled as hell with the past two wins but nothing wrong with talking about what need to be cleaned up to win another one on Saturday

There’s a difference between discussing what can be improved and bitching like we lost a game to a team with a losing record....80% of the posts the day after sounded just like we got our ass beat.

 

[CJFisJoePaII]

I was not as satisfied as I thought I would have been after beating scUM by 7 in the White Out. The obvious reason is we almost blew a 21 point lead and allowed scUM to make their biggest comeback win ever. Thankfully that did NOT happen.

Nevertheless, this game leaves us with nagging concerns about the team.

Why did we stall on offense (a continuing trend)? Is Clifford not able to survey the field well and find other receivers? Crappy play calling? No Cain or would it have mattered with our average as usual O line? ScUM just figured it out on D and we had no counter adjustment? Basically we lose that game if played in AA.

Our D had a decent effort but our secondary got exposed as well as a weak pash rush. What's up with that? Is scUM that godd at pass blocking? For most of the last 35 minutes of the game it felt like scUM was playing downhill with all roads leading to our endzone. Os it just the freakish NFL WR athletes for scUM along with Patterson deciding to play great that hurt us. Gattis knowing us and out coaching Pry and Franklin? Just worried there is now a blueprint to attack us. If Shane Patterson can do that to us in a White Out game then Fields and OSU will murder us in Columbus. Before that is Sparty and are we going to let Lewerke look like Elway or Montana on Saturday and make Dantonio look like freaking Belicheat??

Clifford is solid but not great and without Hamler or Friermuth in the pass game there is very little despite a plethora of other talent. Need to have other options step up. Need Cain to be the lead horse. Need Gross Matos to start playing like a top 20 pick or there will be no top 20 pick for him.

Yawn...so pathetic.

 

[SLion]

Two days removed and looking at this rationally, perhaps UM is not a bad team. Sure they lost to Wisconsin bad but Badgers strengths are not our strengths, meaning dominant OL. We could not run ball and relied on big play which UM figured out a little too late. Lucky our D had just enough gas and Wolvs got unlucky. So be it. Look at IL which played Wolvs tight into 4th. Badgers did not take Illini seriously and Badgers QB play is annual sh&tshow. We have much more dynamic offense and now UW's CFBP talk is toast. Each team presents a unique match up. UM has very solid, mobile QB and talent all over field. We won and we move on. There is only team that matches (probably surpasses) our talent and we know who that is. We play with some consistency on O and possible to be undefeated heading to Columbus. Play like we did against UMD, well then sky is limit. We passed two huge tests for a very young offensive team.

 

[CJFisJoePaII]

There’s a difference between discussing what can be improved and bitching like we lost a game to a team with a losing record....80% of the posts the day after sounded just like we got our ass beat.

No doubt - these are the same dipsticks that told us how incredibly awesome Wisconsin was relative to us prior to last week... "National Invitational worthy" unlike us... blah, blah, blah. PSU has now beaten 3 different P5 teams with 5-2 tecords... Wisconsin goes out and loses to an Illinois team that came into the Wisconsin game 2-4! Now all you twits want to do is be critical of PSU's win despite the fact that they are 1 of only 7 P5 teams in the nation with an unblemished record. How about explaining to us how you were so off-the-charts utterly wrong about Wisonsin, or the fact that we were going to have 2 losses at this point according to you loudmouth, always wrong, self-proclaimed "experts". LMFAO at you "us & we" poser-fan losers.

 

[PSUSignore]

I hope most will read this because it’s an important point that a lot of fans might not realize. Clifford has around 190 pass attempts this year and 2 have been graded as "interceptable". TWO! That's 1%.

Even if he's missing some throws or not finding the open guy here or there, he isn't giving the opponent a chance to quickly change the game with a turnover and he's making great decisions to throw it away when he has to. Trace, who I love and adore, made a lot of boneheaded throws.

Clifford has thrown 2 real INTs. Are you saying that of all his passes only 2 were "interceptable" and both also were intercepted, a 100% interception rate of "interceptable" throws? I'm just trying to understand the stat because it's not one I've heard before. I do love how Clifford has taken care of the football but I'm really curious to see more of this statistic and how it compares to other players, especially vs. other previous 1st year starters at QB. 2 interceptions out of 184 attempts is already quite good for a first year starter. 2 "interceptable" throws sounds like it could be a historically high level of performance.