Some good and some not as good after week 2...

[BisbeeMike]

Good: Only one penalty today and that was the late hit by Brown. While that was a horrible mistake, that cost us 3 points, it was the ONLY penalty today. Outstanding job by the entire team today and so far into the season. Staying away from penalties MATTERS and is what winning teams do.

Good: Only one sack today. For the season, only one sack in two games on Trace. O line is giving better overall pass pro so far. On pace to better the total of last year, which I believe was 27 sacks.

Not so good: Tackling. Pointing out individuals is pointless because I saw nearly everyone either miss one today, or get pushed and dragged after contact. This MUST be cleaned up and soon because even before Michigan and Ohio State, Wadley and Jackson are coming, and those are road games.

Not so good: Not enough touches for Barkley, particularly in the first half. While the team is getting off to better starts, we're not maximizing Saquon. Not a knock on the play calling, or anything else, but we need to find a way to get him more touches.

Good: Pass rush. Improved over last year. I think we have 5 total sacks so far in two games, and we did a great job this time against Pitt.

GREAT: Forcing turnovers. That's 4 forced turnovers by the defense so far this year, after two games, and while that doesn't seem like a ton, that's an upgrade over last year.

Not so good: Downfield passing. I'll say it, even though it won't be popular: We miss Blacknall and we need to get him back into form, and we need to do it THIS WEEK against Georgia State. The big downfield threat that we is proven, is Blacknall, and it's time to let him out of the doghouse. Curtis was in there last year until game 4, but I think we are going to need to let Saeed out of the doghouse right now. Get him involved because we are missing what he brings to this unit. He was WIDE OPEN on two occasions deep today, and Trace had one of his worst days today as a starter, and never saw him. Trace will play better against Georgia State and clean things up, but we need that deep guy to take the top off the defense, and asking Juwan to be that guy in his third game of his career, is asking too much. BRING. BACK. BLACKNALL.

Good: Special Teams. The BEST in the Franklin era.

We're in a good place, but it needs to be better. Back to work.

 

[BBrown]

Good: Only one penalty today and that was the late hit by Brown. While that was a horrible mistake, that cost us 3 points, it was the ONLY penalty today. Outstanding job by the entire team today and so far into the season. Staying away from penalties MATTERS and is what winning teams do.

Good: Only one sack today. For the season, only one sack in two games on Trace. O line is giving better overall pass pro so far. On pace to better the total of last year, which I believe was 27 sacks.

Not so good: Tackling. Pointing out individuals is pointless because I saw nearly everyone either miss one today, or get pushed and dragged after contact. This MUST be cleaned up and soon because even before Michigan and Ohio State, Wadley and Jackson are coming, and those are road games.

Not so good: Not enough touches for Barkley, particularly in the first half. While the team is getting off to better starts, we're not maximizing Saquon. Not a knock on the play calling, or anything else, but we need to find a way to get him more touches.

Good: Pass rush. Improved over last year. I think we have 5 total sacks so far in two games, and we did a great job this time against Pitt.

GREAT: Forcing turnovers. That's 4 forced turnovers by the defense so far this year, after two games, and while that doesn't seem like a ton, that's an upgrade over last year.

Not so good: Downfield passing. I'll say it, even though it won't be popular: We miss Blacknall and we need to get him back into form, and we need to do it THIS WEEK against Georgia State. The big downfield threat that we is proven, is Blacknall, and it's time to let him out of the doghouse. Curtis was in there last year until game 4, but I think we are going to need to let Saeed out of the doghouse right now. Get him involved because we are missing what he brings to this unit. He was WIDE OPEN on two occasions deep today, and Trace had one of his worst days today as a starter, and never saw him. Trace will play better against Georgia State and clean things up, but we need that deep guy to take the top off the defense, and asking Juwan to be that guy in his third game of his career, is asking too much. BRING. BACK. BLACKNALL.

Good: Special Teams. The BEST in the Franklin era.

We're in a good place, but it needs to be better. Back to work.

Pretty much agree with everything.
Only a couple I disagree with.
The first is Barkley. I think we do need to use him as a decoy a bit more.
pitt and everyone else will be keying on him like nobodies business.

Second. Blacknall played a lot today. But I didn't see him do much if anything. He didn't seem to get open so I don't know what his problem is.
We definitely need a WR to step up.
I thought we went away form Mike G. too much. He was the one guy that looked like he was open all day.

 

[Pocono Lion]

Pretty much agree with everything.
Only a couple I disagree with.
The first is Barkley. I think we do need to use him as a decoy a bit more.
pitt and everyone else will be keying on him like nobodies business.

Second. Blacknall played a lot today. But I didn't see him do much if anything. He didn't seem to get open so I don't know what his problem is.
We definitely need a WR to step up.
I thought we went away form Mike G. too much. He was the one guy that looked like he was open all day.

We had guys open a lot, but Trace was firing it ten feet over their heads. Saquon was having a lot of success with the stuff to the outside. He was getting the edge without too much trouble. Would have liked them to have stuck with that more.

 

[NJPSU]

Good: Only one penalty today and that was the late hit by Brown. While that was a horrible mistake, that cost us 3 points, it was the ONLY penalty today. Outstanding job by the entire team today and so far into the season. Staying away from penalties MATTERS and is what winning teams do.

Good: Only one sack today. For the season, only one sack in two games on Trace. O line is giving better overall pass pro so far. On pace to better the total of last year, which I believe was 27 sacks.

Not so good: Tackling. Pointing out individuals is pointless because I saw nearly everyone either miss one today, or get pushed and dragged after contact. This MUST be cleaned up and soon because even before Michigan and Ohio State, Wadley and Jackson are coming, and those are road games.

Not so good: Not enough touches for Barkley, particularly in the first half. While the team is getting off to better starts, we're not maximizing Saquon. Not a knock on the play calling, or anything else, but we need to find a way to get him more touches.

Good: Pass rush. Improved over last year. I think we have 5 total sacks so far in two games, and we did a great job this time against Pitt.

GREAT: Forcing turnovers. That's 4 forced turnovers by the defense so far this year, after two games, and while that doesn't seem like a ton, that's an upgrade over last year.

Not so good: Downfield passing. I'll say it, even though it won't be popular: We miss Blacknall and we need to get him back into form, and we need to do it THIS WEEK against Georgia State. The big downfield threat that we is proven, is Blacknall, and it's time to let him out of the doghouse. Curtis was in there last year until game 4, but I think we are going to need to let Saeed out of the doghouse right now. Get him involved because we are missing what he brings to this unit. He was WIDE OPEN on two occasions deep today, and Trace had one of his worst days today as a starter, and never saw him. Trace will play better against Georgia State and clean things up, but we need that deep guy to take the top off the defense, and asking Juwan to be that guy in his third game of his career, is asking too much. BRING. BACK. BLACKNALL.

Good: Special Teams. The BEST in the Franklin era.

We're in a good place, but it needs to be better. Back to work.

Blacknall has played quite a bit in both games this year. Either he's not getting open or they simply aren't targeting him but he is playing.

 

[psuro]

Barkley not getting the ball is as much in what McS reads at the line as any thing else. Franklin said during the presser after the game that there are no specific plays for Barkley so it it's a matter of what the defense is showing as to whether Barkley gets the ball.

 

[palmettolion]

Blacknall missed a key block on one play yesterday. Missed is being polite, he didn't even make an attempt. He may be good down field but it appears as if he didn't like the dirty work. Maybe that's why he's getting passed by.

Did Kevin Givens play yesterday? I don't remember seeing him on the field.

 

[psuro]

Blacknall missed a key block on one play yesterday. Missed is being polite, he didn't even make an attempt. He may be good down field but it appears as if he didn't like the dirty work. Maybe that's why he's getting passed by.

Did Kevin Givens play yesterday? I don't remember seeing him on the field.

Yes he played he was with the second unit out there.

 

[christoph]

Pitt was completely loading the box. There wasn't much running room

 

[royboy]

Where was #84 Juwan Johnson? One reception for 4 yards.

 

[SoParkLion]

How did we let them gain 24 first downs? Were we just waiting for them to make mistakes?

Disclaimer: I missed the game (wedding).

 

[PSUBluebird]

Trace probably had his worst day in uniform that resulted in a WIN. He's much better than that plus didn't care for some of the Off schemes but.....just win baby.

 

[pandaczar12]

How did we let them gain 24 first downs? Were we just waiting for them to make mistakes?

Disclaimer: I missed the game (wedding).

CJF was just toying with them.

 

[hagberg]

Franklin was holding back most of the playbook for Georgia State.

 

[VaNtyLion]

Good: Only one penalty today and that was the late hit by Brown. While that was a horrible mistake, that cost us 3 points, it was the ONLY penalty today. Outstanding job by the entire team today and so far into the season. Staying away from penalties MATTERS and is what winning teams do.

Good: Only one sack today. For the season, only one sack in two games on Trace. O line is giving better overall pass pro so far. On pace to better the total of last year, which I believe was 27 sacks.

Not so good: Tackling. Pointing out individuals is pointless because I saw nearly everyone either miss one today, or get pushed and dragged after contact. This MUST be cleaned up and soon because even before Michigan and Ohio State, Wadley and Jackson are coming, and those are road games.

Not so good: Not enough touches for Barkley, particularly in the first half. While the team is getting off to better starts, we're not maximizing Saquon. Not a knock on the play calling, or anything else, but we need to find a way to get him more touches.

Good: Pass rush. Improved over last year. I think we have 5 total sacks so far in two games, and we did a great job this time against Pitt.

GREAT: Forcing turnovers. That's 4 forced turnovers by the defense so far this year, after two games, and while that doesn't seem like a ton, that's an upgrade over last year.

Not so good: Downfield passing. I'll say it, even though it won't be popular: We miss Blacknall and we need to get him back into form, and we need to do it THIS WEEK against Georgia State. The big downfield threat that we is proven, is Blacknall, and it's time to let him out of the doghouse. Curtis was in there last year until game 4, but I think we are going to need to let Saeed out of the doghouse right now. Get him involved because we are missing what he brings to this unit. He was WIDE OPEN on two occasions deep today, and Trace had one of his worst days today as a starter, and never saw him. Trace will play better against Georgia State and clean things up, but we need that deep guy to take the top off the defense, and asking Juwan to be that guy in his third game of his career, is asking too much. BRING. BACK. BLACKNALL.

Good: Special Teams. The BEST in the Franklin era.

We're in a good place, but it needs to be better. Back to work.

Regarding the downfield passing game, I think this is more about Trace having time to set his feet and pass or move the pocket and get set downfield. Today he just didn't have as much time due to the pass rush. Our OL was not nearly as good as it will need to be down the road and should be motivated to improve. I couldn't tell how much separation our WRs may have had but that doesn't really matter if the QB doesn't have time to find them.

 

[mn78psu83]

Blacknall missed a key block on one play yesterday. Missed is being polite, he didn't even make an attempt. He may be good down field but it appears as if he didn't like the dirty work. Maybe that's why he's getting passed by.

Did Kevin Givens play yesterday? I don't remember seeing him on the field.

Yes. Givens played. He had a big bandage on his leg. He had a TFL for a 1/2 yard.

 

[bdgan]

Good: Only one penalty today and that was the late hit by Brown. While that was a horrible mistake, that cost us 3 points, it was the ONLY penalty today. Outstanding job by the entire team today and so far into the season. Staying away from penalties MATTERS and is what winning teams do.

Good: Only one sack today. For the season, only one sack in two games on Trace. O line is giving better overall pass pro so far. On pace to better the total of last year, which I believe was 27 sacks.

Not so good: Tackling. Pointing out individuals is pointless because I saw nearly everyone either miss one today, or get pushed and dragged after contact. This MUST be cleaned up and soon because even before Michigan and Ohio State, Wadley and Jackson are coming, and those are road games.

Not so good: Not enough touches for Barkley, particularly in the first half. While the team is getting off to better starts, we're not maximizing Saquon. Not a knock on the play calling, or anything else, but we need to find a way to get him more touches.

Good: Pass rush. Improved over last year. I think we have 5 total sacks so far in two games, and we did a great job this time against Pitt.

GREAT: Forcing turnovers. That's 4 forced turnovers by the defense so far this year, after two games, and while that doesn't seem like a ton, that's an upgrade over last year.

Not so good: Downfield passing. I'll say it, even though it won't be popular: We miss Blacknall and we need to get him back into form, and we need to do it THIS WEEK against Georgia State. The big downfield threat that we is proven, is Blacknall, and it's time to let him out of the doghouse. Curtis was in there last year until game 4, but I think we are going to need to let Saeed out of the doghouse right now. Get him involved because we are missing what he brings to this unit. He was WIDE OPEN on two occasions deep today, and Trace had one of his worst days today as a starter, and never saw him. Trace will play better against Georgia State and clean things up, but we need that deep guy to take the top off the defense, and asking Juwan to be that guy in his third game of his career, is asking too much. BRING. BACK. BLACKNALL.

Good: Special Teams. The BEST in the Franklin era.

We're in a good place, but it needs to be better. Back to work.

MVP goes to the kick coverage teams. PITT had poor starting positions all day. They had starts on their own 4, 5, and 7 yard line and never started beyond their own 35.

Interesting stats:

• PSU (Barkley) had 2 KO returns for 50 yards, Pitt (Henderson) had 3 KO returns for 33 yards.
• PSU (Thompkins) has 3 punt returns for 33 yards. Pitt (Henderson) had 3 punt returns for 0 yards)

Honorable mentions to Thompkins for blocking and punt returns and to M. Allen for 12 tackles.


It's discouraging that Youngstown State had 418 yards of offense against Pitt. Penn State only had 312. It's also discouraging that Pitt was the team to end our streak of games scoring over 35 points.

Conclusion:

• We know that PSU has an explosive offense so this must have been a bit of an off day. I agree that we need Blacknall's speed at WR but I think it's mostly McSorley & the OL not yet finding their stride.
• The defense get mixed reviews. 24 1st downs and 342 yards allowed is a lot but they only allowed 14 points. That's not bad considering how much time they spent on the field. They also effectively scored 9 points (INT returned to the 8 yard line + a safety).

I still think we have an excellent offense but maybe not as excellent as I had hoped. I hoped PSU would be able to control the clock with a strong running game behind a much improved OL. 25 negative yards on running plays says that unit still has a way to go. The defense is about as I had expected with improvement needed at OLB and DE.

B1G surprise of the day: Duke 41, Northwestern 17.

 

[royboy]

Regarding the downfield passing game, I think this is more about Trace having time to set his feet and pass or move the pocket and get set downfield. Today he just didn't have as much time due to the pass rush. Our OL was not nearly as good as it will need to be down the road and should be motivated to improve. I couldn't tell how much separation our WRs may have had but that doesn't really matter if the QB doesn't have time to find them.

Yeah, I thought there were a couple times when Chase should have stepped up in the pocket but mostly he was trying to evade the rush. Couldn't tell exactly where the leaks were in his protection (uncharacteristically, Barkley whiffed once in blitz protection). Bates had some trouble with the outside rush, but mostly it seemed like Pitt brought pressure inside. Would be interested in seeing a breakdown of the blocking results.

 

[Philly Lion]

Good: Only one penalty today and that was the late hit by Brown. While that was a horrible mistake, that cost us 3 points, it was the ONLY penalty today. Outstanding job by the entire team today and so far into the season. Staying away from penalties MATTERS and is what winning teams do.

Good: Only one sack today. For the season, only one sack in two games on Trace. O line is giving better overall pass pro so far. On pace to better the total of last year, which I believe was 27 sacks.

Not so good: Tackling. Pointing out individuals is pointless because I saw nearly everyone either miss one today, or get pushed and dragged after contact. This MUST be cleaned up and soon because even before Michigan and Ohio State, Wadley and Jackson are coming, and those are road games.

Not so good: Not enough touches for Barkley, particularly in the first half. While the team is getting off to better starts, we're not maximizing Saquon. Not a knock on the play calling, or anything else, but we need to find a way to get him more touches.

Good: Pass rush. Improved over last year. I think we have 5 total sacks so far in two games, and we did a great job this time against Pitt.

GREAT: Forcing turnovers. That's 4 forced turnovers by the defense so far this year, after two games, and while that doesn't seem like a ton, that's an upgrade over last year.

Not so good: Downfield passing. I'll say it, even though it won't be popular: We miss Blacknall and we need to get him back into form, and we need to do it THIS WEEK against Georgia State. The big downfield threat that we is proven, is Blacknall, and it's time to let him out of the doghouse. Curtis was in there last year until game 4, but I think we are going to need to let Saeed out of the doghouse right now. Get him involved because we are missing what he brings to this unit. He was WIDE OPEN on two occasions deep today, and Trace had one of his worst days today as a starter, and never saw him. Trace will play better against Georgia State and clean things up, but we need that deep guy to take the top off the defense, and asking Juwan to be that guy in his third game of his career, is asking too much. BRING. BACK. BLACKNALL.

Good: Special Teams. The BEST in the Franklin era.

We're in a good place, but it needs to be better. Back to work.

This was not the third game in Juwan Johnson's career- he played last year as a redshirt freshman and saw a decent amount of playing time, if not targets.

 

[Lions8286]

How did we let them gain 24 first downs? Were we just waiting for them to make mistakes?

Disclaimer: I missed the game (wedding).

They ran the shuffle pass 100 times and we couldn't manage to stop it.

 

[sss]

Blacknall had 8 catches and 1 TD for the entire regular season last year. People seem to only remember the big10 title game, where he had 6 catches and 2 TDs.

 

[VaNtyLion]

It's discouraging that Youngstown State had 418 yards of offense against Pitt. Penn State only had 312. It's also discouraging that Pitt was the team to end our streak of games scoring over 35 points.

Respectfully, you're overthinking the YSU game....a lot. Their tape vs. YSU, like Villanova last year, was useless for PSU by design. Also, PSU's streak of 35+ pts is largely meaningless, and it's not like 31 offensive pts is a major step backwards. If you're looking at efficiency given the number of snaps, we were actually better than we had been over that streak.

Pitt had a good ball control game to keep PSU off the field. It was their only chance to be competitive and they played their asses off. Sure, we missed some plays on offense but have to give them credit even if their efforts to own TOP was fruitless with a 19 pt loss.

 

[PSUBluebird]

I think Trace had "happy" feet most of game. I know you need to keep your feet moving but he seemed a bit out of poise yesterday.

 

[Blue & White Lion]

Not so good: Tackling. Pointing out individuals is pointless because I saw nearly everyone either miss one today, or get pushed and dragged after contact. This MUST be cleaned up and soon because even before Michigan and Ohio State, Wadley and Jackson are coming, and those are road games.

I wonder if the return of the mistackling is related to the limited tackling during pre-season camp.

 

[AWS1022]

Franklin was holding back most of the playbook for Georgia State.

You posted this TIC, but I'm sure there's something to it (not for Ga State but for OSU and Michigan). Why open up the playbook when you don't need it?