but somehow this one feels different. Hurts more and more bitter.
Saw my fair share of PSU losses last 48 years…..
- Thread starter CoastGuard2018
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Perhaps because Penn State was the better team
That is exactly what I was going to say. We were the better team. Not buy a ton, like SMU and Boise, but better. We snatched defeat from the jaws of victory.
I agree. I have followed PSU faithfully since 1962. I have seen the best and the worst. I have tolerated the 1994 team not given the national championship because some felt bad for poor Tom Osborne. But for the first time in quite some time, I felt we had the better team in a big game. I thought we would win and win by 10 points or more. What a fool. I do not understand that last series of plays. Just run the ball and go to OT. Let's face it, Allar had a bad game. And I question if we should have gotten as far as we did without a homerun WR. Carter and Warren are gone. Next year does not look so bright. Feeling sad, depleted.
It hurts more bc it is ND. They are PA's second team. We have to listen to it more than say, Oregon. They are around us - arrogant and annoying like the big brother who gives a noogie after laying on top of us. My Dad, bro, cousins are ND fans. Only one actually went there. We are always little bro in big games.
We are now. Joe did very well against the Irish and in bowl games. Something is wrong. We have now lost to Ohio State twice, USC, and ND after being up late in the fourth quarter and in three of those games we were up double digits. We are the guy who thinks he's doing really well with the hot girl and he finally gets up the courage to ask her out and she tells him she just wants to be friends. Demoralizing. I keep allowing myself to get sucked into these games and believing only to be crushed again and again.
If we were the best team we would have won. Couldn’t stop ND. 24 points is enough to win a game if your defense is decent.
This stings no doubt but not the worse. For me it was losing to Minnesota at home as the #1 ranked team in 1999... It was the gateway to the dark years and Paterno's initial decline. That team had everything except a QB (Kevin Thompson was very average)... This loss stings because we beat outselves but I still think the future looks bright. in 1999 I had no idea what to think walking out of the stadium that day.
We have to admit the CJF teams lack mental toughness to close out games against teams of equal or more talent.
We were physically superior for the most part, but they played better when it counted.
This. We hope to win, but don't truly expect it.
CJF couldn't even get them up for the second half. Freeman certainly got his squad fired up. One thing seems consistent with Franklin - he doesn't appear to believe in the emotion aspect of the game.
I actually agree on that point. That Minnesota game was an abyss that we could not climb out of.
Allar had a bad first half but a good second half before that bad decision. Running the ball with almost a minute to go and timeouts available to force OT is playing not to lose IMO. If Penn State did that and lost in OT the Franklin haters would be whining about why he wasn’t more aggressive and tried to get in position for a FG try before the end of the game.
the problem, for me, is that the INT was on first down. In that situation, passing lanes are typically open for ten yards all the time. There was no need to force it.
Allar stated that he threw for the WR's feet thinking he could come back to the ball and perhaps make a great catch. But while getting hit, the ball was off target and it was up. To his credit, he took full blame.
As one superstar once said, the closer you get and fail, the worse if feels.
In many ways, this was so Cleveland Brownish. They simply find new ways to break your heart.
If PSU had lost 28-10, you'd not hear so much bitching. But since it came down to one play, it hurts. Was that one play Love's incredible TD run? DDS' great INT? Leonard's two INTs? Greathouse's TD? The cornerback covering Greathouse falling down? Allars iffy pass being dropped by Singleton? A PI call on Warren in the end zone? Many non-calls on holding, hands to the face, and roughing against Carter? The lock of a blatant offsides call on ND?
It all adds up.
It's not mental "toughness." You can be mentally tough on something and be totally wrong.
It's about being smart. With this team you can see all of the signs of stupidity and being disconnected from the game...
I watch what the defense does when they make a tackle for loss. Not only are there the celebratory mannerisms, but worse, you will see them trying to connect with the crowd. Where is your head young man? The game is on the field of play. You are not a performer at a rock concert.
Agree, though I go back to the Minnesota game when Glenn Mason woefully outcoached Joe. Penn State team had LaVar and Courtney Brown, #1 and #2, should have been National Champs except lost rest of games that season.
Can you explain how his lack mental toughness made two DBs slip giving up an easy touchdown. How his lack of mental toughness made Allar throw a bad interception. How it caused Allar to miss a wide open Singleton for an easy walk in TD.
Defense was lousy beginning with somehow not getting on that fumble then letting the 2nd string QB burn you all the way down the field. Asleep to start the second half then up 24-17 and can't get a stop. Really disappointing. I thought they came up very small in the last 31 minutes of the game.
If you look at Allar time as starter-most of int are after a successful play-he does not understand when the heat is on the value of throw it away and live for another play. The pick against Oregon was after a 9 yard run, we had TO's and plenty of time and it was 2nd and a foot.
I agree. But that is probably the most difficult thing to learn for a young QB. Clock management is tough. hell, I am not sure CJF has mastered it and that is from the sideline when he doesn't have ten guys screaming at him and 250 lb linemen chasing him. The other is making your progressions quickly, which he has greatly improved in.
Again, he's only 20 and he's playing against QBs who are 22 (Leonard, Ewers) and 23 (Howard and Gabriel).
Because we could have put this game away several times, and we were the best team remaining in the field, not named Ohio State. ( Yes, I believe we’re better than than Texas)
That second half was surprising. All season long the defense would be incredibly good opening the second half and was often the game winning moment.
This time they came out flat and got handled.
The biggest question I have is why in the hell did we have 250 lb middle linebacker line up tight on a wide receiver and attempt to cover him man on man?
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Not when Joe was the Coach…we were Big Brother. 8-5 record, I believe….including a win on their field when the Domers were ranked #1. One of Joe’s best big game victories.
ND is perennially overrated.
They’ll get their comeuppance against O$U…if Day loses to that team, he will be fired.
It's lingering, I agree. As others have said, perhaps because we were the better team and proved it through our domination of most of the first half. I'm sorry, there's no excuse for losing that game last night.
Still, we did make it to the initial Final-4 in the era of the expanded playoff and that's no small thing. That factor helps a little.
Beyond that, there've been losses that were more bitter for me going back to Paterno's day. The inability to get the TD on the Alabama 1-yard line in 1979. The loss to Oklahoma in the national championship game of 1985. The backbreaker against Minnesota that blew up our shot at a Natty in 1999. The loss on the last play of the game against Michigan in 2005 after the refs put extra time on the clock during the decisive Wolverine drive. Post-Paterno, the consecutive 2-point losses to Ohio State in 2017-18 when we blew solid leads in the 4th quarter. The Rose Bowl loss to USC after the 2016 season when we also blew a late lead.
All of those hit me harder than last night. But yes, last night definitely ranks in the top-10 ever for most painful.
ND had a passing attack, maybe not a great one, but something that bailed them out when they needed it. We didn't have a passing attack.
These stats are pretty shocking:
"Jaden Greathouse, who took 85% of his snaps in the slot, torched nickel corners Cam Miller and Zion Tracy to the tune of seven catches for 105 yards and a touchdown. On the season, the sophomore had made just 36 catches for 464 yards and his previous career-high was 71 yards on three catches.
For the game, Miller allowed three catches on four targets for 76 yards and a touchdown and Tracy gave up two completions on two targets for 27 yards."
"King was targetted five times and gave up five catches for 66 yards, along with a pass interference penalty in the end zone that set up a Jeremiyah Love two-yard touchdown run."
The 5 biggest reasons, aside from Drew Allar’s interception, that Penn State lost the Orange Bowl
If you had to distill Penn State’s gut-wrenching 27-24 Orange Bowl College Football Playoff semifinal loss down to just one play, it’s no hard to land on junior
victorybellrings.com
What kind of pass coverage has King attempting to cover a WR, multiple times? DB's made average WR'S and a mediocre passing QB look good. This loss wasn't all about Allar and the WR'S getting shut out.
Interested in seeing what the effect of this loss will have on this team. Will it be like 1979 (for those who are old enough to remember) when the team imploded after the heartbreak of losing the Sugar Bowl for #1 to Alabama, or will it be like 1986, when the team that lost to Oklahoma in the Orange Bowl got a chip on their shoulder and beat Miami for the title the next year?
The Alabama game was tough but I don’t think in that game we had the better team. Paterno said many times over the years we lost that game because of team speed. The Michigan Ohio State and Minnesota games all sucked for sure but it didn’t feel like we just gave it away.
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Or from 93/94 to 94/95 where Kerry Collins went from boy to man.
Lots of games worse than this.
6-4…. Incredibly embarrassing!🤬
Losses to skunk bears and suckeyes with a half dozen referinie calls per game in multiple games each.🤬😡🤬
Last year’s bizarre loss to skunk bears in which they did not throw a single pass the entire second half! 😡🤬😡
Blew the USC Rose Bowl 😡🌹
That’s the burden one must bear if you are a sports fan.🤷🏻♀️
6-4…. Incredibly embarrassing!🤬
Losses to skunk bears and suckeyes with a half dozen referinie calls per game in multiple games each.🤬😡🤬
Last year’s bizarre loss to skunk bears in which they did not throw a single pass the entire second half! 😡🤬😡
Blew the USC Rose Bowl 😡🌹
That’s the burden one must bear if you are a sports fan.🤷🏻♀️
This game, we won at the line of scrimmage on both sides of the line and both our coordinators out coached there coordinators.
We lost this game because we did not have a single wide receiver capable of making even one catch. This is maybe the saddest I have ever been after a loss because of how trivial and unnecessary this loss was, and how easily fixable it was in the off season.
Franklin just doesn't have the coaching skill needed to field a complete team, and even when he has the edge, his glaring deficiency in one area or another, will always continue to cause him to lose these games.
And now we are trapped in a very long and very hard purgatory, not unlike what Georgia, Clemson, Oklahoma, Florida, and yes, Notre Dame( they are not winning this championship) are stuck in also. Keep your coach and remain not quite able to reach the top...but fire him? And risk the death that Florida State, Nebraska, and USC did.
That my friends, is our next 5 years, and there's no way out.
We lost this game because we did not have a single wide receiver capable of making even one catch. This is maybe the saddest I have ever been after a loss because of how trivial and unnecessary this loss was, and how easily fixable it was in the off season.
Franklin just doesn't have the coaching skill needed to field a complete team, and even when he has the edge, his glaring deficiency in one area or another, will always continue to cause him to lose these games.
And now we are trapped in a very long and very hard purgatory, not unlike what Georgia, Clemson, Oklahoma, Florida, and yes, Notre Dame( they are not winning this championship) are stuck in also. Keep your coach and remain not quite able to reach the top...but fire him? And risk the death that Florida State, Nebraska, and USC did.
That my friends, is our next 5 years, and there's no way out.
