Pros and Cons of a wild game

[NittanyChris]

PROS:
1. Tyler Warren - not a ton to say here, just a historic performance that won the Mackey Award today. Sensational!
2. Drew Allar - Grew up today. Leadership off the charts, bringing the team back from 14 down, converting huge 4th downs and showing massive stones. Not concerned at all about the INTs.
3. Kotelnicki - while he can get a little too cutesy at times, the difference between this dynamic offensive and Yurcich’s impotence in big games is staggering.
4. Barker - ice in his veins from a RS Freshman. We have a kicker!
5. Young CBs - both Tracy and Washington were very impressive. Props to Coach Smith.
6. Halftime adjustments - Apart from one drive D was once again awesome 2nd half.
7. Franklin stopping the planting of the flag by our guys on the field. Culture, class, win with honor. Well done, Coach!
8 Fleming - had a bad drop but TWO huge catches on 4th down. Nice.
9. Jaylen Reed - Kid is a pro. So solid.
10. Zane Durant - Disruptive. A force.
11. Overall resilience and guts. Incredibly impressive to come back like that, down 14 on the road.

CONS:
1. Slow start - gotta figure this out on D. Enough said.
2. Elsdon - kid has been a whipping boy, but it’s earned. Whenever he plays, he’s exploited. He’s not an FBS LB and he shouldn’t see the field AT ALL. Let the young guys get experience, Robinson, Speca in his place.
3. Tony Rojas - Love the kid and his upside is huge, but he was really bad yesterday. Missed tackles, bad pursuit angles. Bad. He’ll get better.
4. Donkoh injury. We need him. Hope the bye week helps him get healthy.
5. J-Thomas - expected huge things this year but he’s been oddly absent. No big plays. Weird.
6. Game probably took 6 months off my life on the back end. Worth it!

WE ARE!!!

 

[PSU210]

PROS:
1. Tyler Warren - not a ton to say here, just a historic performance that won the Mackey Award today. Sensational!
2. Drew Allar - Grew up today. Leadership off the charts, bringing the team back from 14 down, converting huge 4th downs and showing massive stones. Not concerned at all about the INTs.
3. Kotelnicki - while he can get a little too cutesy at times, the difference between this dynamic offensive and Yurcich’s impotence in big games is staggering.
4. Barker - ice in his veins from a RS Freshman. We have a kicker!
5. Young CBs - both Tracy and Washington were very impressive. Props to Coach Smith.
6. Halftime adjustments - Apart from one drive D was once again awesome 2nd half.
7. Franklin stopping the planting of the flag by our guys on the field. Culture, class, win with honor. Well done, Coach!
8 Fleming - had a bad drop but TWO huge catches on 4th down. Nice.
9. Jaylen Reed - Kid is a pro. So solid.
10. Zane Durant - Disruptive. A force.
11. Overall resilience and guts. Incredibly impressive to come back like that, down 14 on the road.

CONS:
1. Slow start - gotta figure this out on D. Enough said.
2. Elsdon - kid has been a whipping boy, but it’s earned. Whenever he plays, he’s exploited. He’s not an FBS LB and he shouldn’t see the field AT ALL. Let the young guys get experience, Robinson, Speca in his place.
3. Tony Rojas - Love the kid and his upside is huge, but he was really bad yesterday. Missed tackles, bad pursuit angles. Bad. He’ll get better.
4. Donkoh injury. We need him. Hope the bye week helps him get healthy.
5. J-Thomas - expected huge things this year but he’s been oddly absent. No big plays. Weird.
6. Game probably took 6 months off my life on the back end. Worth it!

WE ARE!!!

Pretty much in agreement with all, nice post. Tony Rojas was the biggest disappointment for me, just a bad game. Chalk it up to a good learning experience, gotta remember he is still very young.
Loved the call on the next to last play of the game. Small, subtle play; however, very smart. Read options that Drew kept to get the ball between the uprights. While he obviously rarely keeps it, getting in the middle was huge.

 

[JWB389]

3. Kotelnicki - while he can get a little too cutesy at times, the difference between this dynamic offensive and Yurcich’s impotence in big games is staggering.

I don’t necessarily dislike the cutesy plays; but, they have to execute. I don’t mean score a TD or explosive play. I mean know your freakin’ alignment and don’t false start. That is maddening when they like up in some crazy formation and can’t get the Snap off.

 

[Obliviax]

Pretty much in agreement with all, nice post. Tony Rojas was the biggest disappointment for me, just a bad game. Chalk it up to a good learning experience, gotta remember he is still very young.
Loved the call on the next to last play of the game. Small, subtle play; however, very smart. Read options that Drew kept to get the ball between the uprights. While he obviously rarely keeps it, getting in the middle was huge.

I think we were shocked by USCs overall talent. Lbs took some bad angles. Second half much better but still not great

 

[PSU Soupy]

Our LBs are seem to lack football instinct. Our Mike LB picks the wrong hole 80% of the time. Our D Line gets upfield and when they make the tackle that is great, if we do not make the tackle in the backfield or right at the line of Scrimmage it is a 10 + yard gain. I think that the defense was counting on KJ to be the erasure on these type of plays keeping the gain to 3 yards instead of 10 yards....... Watch how many plays our line beats the Oline with penetration yet do not make the tackle.....

Last year it seemed like we got similar penetration, but made more tackles behind the line without the big gainers or big holes in the defense. We seem to clean it up in the second half of games, but the issues seem to always be the same issues.....over pursuing, safeties playing 30 yards deep. When we creep our secondary closer to the line of scrimmage the holes are not there and teams are not beating us deep.

good week for a bye. Then get ready for what will be a tough one in Mad Town.

 

[PSU210]

Pretty much in agreement with all, nice post. Tony Rojas was the biggest disappointment for me, just a bad game. Chalk it up to a good learning experience, gotta remember he is still very young.
Loved the call on the next to last play of the game. Small, subtle play; however, very smart. Read options that Drew kept to get the ball between the uprights. While he obviously rarely keeps it, getting in the middle was huge.

Another little subtle aspect to really admire...on BOTH 4th down conversations notice the RB pick up blitz. Gave Drew time. On the one, the RB check A gap, saw it was secure and looked outside as he is supposed to do and picked up Blitz. Do the little things and the big things take care of themselves! Well done by RB's

 

[Obliviax]

Our LBs are seem to lack football instinct. Our Mike LB picks the wrong hole 80% of the time. Our D Line gets upfield and when they make the tackle that is great, if we do not make the tackle in the backfield or right at the line of Scrimmage it is a 10 + yard gain. I think that the defense was counting on KJ to be the erasure on these type of plays keeping the gain to 3 yards instead of 10 yards....... Watch how many plays our line beats the Oline with penetration yet do not make the tackle.....

Last year it seemed like we got similar penetration, but made more tackles behind the line without the big gainers or big holes in the defense. We seem to clean it up in the second half of games, but the issues seem to always be the same issues.....over pursuing, safeties playing 30 yards deep. When we creep our secondary closer to the line of scrimmage the holes are not there and teams are not beating us deep.

good week for a bye. Then get ready for what will be a tough one in Mad Town.

Agreed. But first I thought that our defense really struggled with USC‘s overall team, talent and speed. We haven’t played anybody in their category yet this year and they have. Once we adjusted in the second half we played much better although we still gave up too much yardage. I also thought that Lincoln Riley did a really good job of protecting their weaknesses which were their offensive tackles. USC’s excellent running game allowed them to pass protect the quarterback much better because we have the first stop the run before we could rush the passer

 

[87 Penn St8]

Agreed. But first I thought that our defense really struggled with USC‘s overall team, talent and speed. We haven’t played anybody in their category yet this year and they have. Once we adjusted in the second half we played much better although we still gave up too much yardage. I also thought that Lincoln Riley did a really good job of protecting their weaknesses which were their offensive tackles. USC’s excellent running game allowed them to pass protect the quarterback much better because we have the first stop the run before we could rush the passer

It seems like teams will continue to get the ball out relatively quickly against us because it works and opens up run.

Bowling Green and even UCLA had success. USC was at a whole nother talent level.

Well earned W- but we were so close to the way it has been so many times. Had no beers yesterday during game so the fact that I was screaming like a madman at the TV to punt on the first 4th down conversion had our house guests concerned....

But hey- it worked- and we may have (finally) turned a corner!

 

[SR108]

I think we were shocked by USCs overall talent. Lbs took some bad angles. Second half much better but still not great

The tailback was very good and they ran the ball more than they did in prior games. A lot of counter action to neutralize our speed. They also had a great screen pass game plan to take advantage of our aggressive pass rush. Killed us with screens the first half.

 

[SR108]

It seems like teams will continue to get the ball out relatively quickly against us because it works and opens up run.

Bowling Green and even UCLA had success. USC was at a whole nother talent level.

Well earned W- but we were so close to the way it has been so many times. Had no beers yesterday during game so the fact that I was screaming like a madman at the TV to punt on the first 4th down conversion had our house guests concerned....

But hey- it worked- and we may have (finally) turned a corner!

Drew was money on that last regulation drive and Fleming was clutch.

 

[lazydave841]

It seems like teams will continue to get the ball out relatively quickly against us because it works and opens up run.

Because our pass rush is too good. The time isn't there to let much else develop. Carter is drawing double teams and DDS is solid. Chop is a better pass rusher than DDS, but DDS plays the run tougher.

Our DTs, outside of Durant, are just average. LBs struggled to fill their gaps and flow to the outside.

I think our scheme is what it is. I think Diaz had better talent overall in '23 and '22 compared to this year's defense, even if it's not by much. Manny's scheme tended to overwhelm the less talented opponents, but some don't remember Purdue looking great to open '22 nor Indiana eating us up in '23.

 

[87 Penn St8]

Drew was money on that last regulation drive and Fleming was clutch.

Agreed- but potentially giving up possession on our side of the 50 w 4+ mins down 7 to a team with a top kicker was the sort of typical Big Game choice that had it gone as it usually has would make us all insane.

I'm thinking all the way back to the loss vs Devin Gartner 98 Michigan where we pulled a similar stunt and paid. There are many others....

I think the announcers said something like "I guess this is what you call Analytics..." before the snap while one kept saying we were just going to try and draw an offsides.

Credit to all- it worked. And we get to be the ones to "Fight On!"

 

[LongJakk]

On D it seemed like we were totally focused on USC WRs and didn't account for the RB. Totally agree about Elsdon, you knew USC would score in that 2nd half drive with him in the game. I told my wife that at the beginning on if the drive. Also, agree that Rojas had his worst game. Hell need to clean that up for Wisconsin.