This game showed what a gulf there can be between the two and just how far this PSU team has still to go to span it. The results of three consecutive home weekends versus three progressively stronger opponents (FCS - mid major - Power 5), all supposedly inferior to PSU, make that fact absolutely undeniable.
During the Week 2 post-game PC, James Franklin made much ado about the need to be able to make adjustments to what the opponent was doing "on the fly", as opposed to waiting until halftime. PSU had "lost" the first half of that game, 7 - 10, to a decent mid-major team, then stormed back to "win" the second half 38 - 3. Yesterday, down an identical 7-10 at the half, this time to a Power-5-also-ran, whatever adjustments were made at halftime allowed the team to "win" the second half 10 - 0 and thus eke out a 17 - 10 victory, but no more than that. Is a Power-5-also-ran that much tougher than a good mid-major opponent, as PSU's results over the past two weeks would seem to suggest? Or are other factors, e.g. talent, experience or coaching, bearing on weekly results as well?
Everyone will have his own opinion but, from where I sit, barring significant week-to-week improvement, particularly on the offensive side of the LOS, 2019 could be a very looong B1G season.
During the Week 2 post-game PC, James Franklin made much ado about the need to be able to make adjustments to what the opponent was doing "on the fly", as opposed to waiting until halftime. PSU had "lost" the first half of that game, 7 - 10, to a decent mid-major team, then stormed back to "win" the second half 38 - 3. Yesterday, down an identical 7-10 at the half, this time to a Power-5-also-ran, whatever adjustments were made at halftime allowed the team to "win" the second half 10 - 0 and thus eke out a 17 - 10 victory, but no more than that. Is a Power-5-also-ran that much tougher than a good mid-major opponent, as PSU's results over the past two weeks would seem to suggest? Or are other factors, e.g. talent, experience or coaching, bearing on weekly results as well?
Everyone will have his own opinion but, from where I sit, barring significant week-to-week improvement, particularly on the offensive side of the LOS, 2019 could be a very looong B1G season.
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