Look, I love our staff and our players. I am thrilled with where we are now versus where I thought we might be 5 years ago. I watch our team and feel like we have so much talent at certain positions, and then I wonder why we don't have it across the board. Is it recruiting? Is it coaching or player development at certain positions? Is it our strength and conditioning? What causes some of the issues we have, and the frustration of seeing weaknesses, or lack of options, at certain positions with a plethora at others????
Loving and watching a lot of college football, I know we do have our weaknesses. But so does just about every other team out there. At times we look like a top 4 team, and then other times we look like we could lose to MSU. I realize that same thing could be said for just about every other school out there. How do some teams look unbeatable some weeks, and then look very beatable others? Is it because these are kids/young men, and they fluctuate from week to week? Is it the difficulty of playing on the road, and traveling, to foreign and usually hostile stadiums, etc.???
To me, the really crazy part about this season is the fact that, even with our deficiencies, I really believe we should be 11-0 and ranked in the top 2 teams of the country going into the last few weeks of the season. How???? I don't know??? Is it parity in college football? Is it a down year across the country? Is it a down year in the Big 10? Is it that we are just so strong in certain positions that they overshadow our weaknesses?
BUTTTTT, the one thing that I can't let go of is not understanding why the PSU coaching staff has not used Tommy Stevens more???? We can't change the personnel on the OL. We can't change the DB's and their faults. We can't make our LB's bigger or stronger, or faster from game to game. What we can do, is put our players in the best possible position, and try to counter what teams are doing against us. We can't control who they are keying on, or how much pressure they are bringing, but we can control creating better opportunities for our offense to be successful. AND, I am not saying Stevens should be on the field instead of McSorley. I don't know if we have had any plays where Stevens, Barkely and McSorley have been on the field together, that we haven't gotten positive plays (or at least opportunities). Tommy brings a who new concern for the defense to account for, whether it be his arm, his legs, or just as a decoy, to take the pressure off of Saquon and Trace. WHY didn't we use this against MSU and OSU? It is not a gimmick when you have athletes like Tommy and Trace that are true threats with their arms, legs, and hands? There is no way, IMHO, that we lose the game against OSU if we have Stevens in the game when they were just destroying our running game. We couldn't move the chains, eat the clock, or take any pressure off of our OL. Same thing against MSU. And I am not saying we should have had them on the field ALL of the Time together, but to change the pace - especially when our OL was getting obliterated - I just never understood our lack of using that package as a consistent part of our offense.
Again, I really don't know that we are better than a 9-2 team right now. But we could be. And of all of the decisions, personnel, play-calling, etc., the one that will always baffle me the most from this season is why we didn't use Stevens more in tight situations, as well as in games where we were up big?
Loving and watching a lot of college football, I know we do have our weaknesses. But so does just about every other team out there. At times we look like a top 4 team, and then other times we look like we could lose to MSU. I realize that same thing could be said for just about every other school out there. How do some teams look unbeatable some weeks, and then look very beatable others? Is it because these are kids/young men, and they fluctuate from week to week? Is it the difficulty of playing on the road, and traveling, to foreign and usually hostile stadiums, etc.???
To me, the really crazy part about this season is the fact that, even with our deficiencies, I really believe we should be 11-0 and ranked in the top 2 teams of the country going into the last few weeks of the season. How???? I don't know??? Is it parity in college football? Is it a down year across the country? Is it a down year in the Big 10? Is it that we are just so strong in certain positions that they overshadow our weaknesses?
BUTTTTT, the one thing that I can't let go of is not understanding why the PSU coaching staff has not used Tommy Stevens more???? We can't change the personnel on the OL. We can't change the DB's and their faults. We can't make our LB's bigger or stronger, or faster from game to game. What we can do, is put our players in the best possible position, and try to counter what teams are doing against us. We can't control who they are keying on, or how much pressure they are bringing, but we can control creating better opportunities for our offense to be successful. AND, I am not saying Stevens should be on the field instead of McSorley. I don't know if we have had any plays where Stevens, Barkely and McSorley have been on the field together, that we haven't gotten positive plays (or at least opportunities). Tommy brings a who new concern for the defense to account for, whether it be his arm, his legs, or just as a decoy, to take the pressure off of Saquon and Trace. WHY didn't we use this against MSU and OSU? It is not a gimmick when you have athletes like Tommy and Trace that are true threats with their arms, legs, and hands? There is no way, IMHO, that we lose the game against OSU if we have Stevens in the game when they were just destroying our running game. We couldn't move the chains, eat the clock, or take any pressure off of our OL. Same thing against MSU. And I am not saying we should have had them on the field ALL of the Time together, but to change the pace - especially when our OL was getting obliterated - I just never understood our lack of using that package as a consistent part of our offense.
Again, I really don't know that we are better than a 9-2 team right now. But we could be. And of all of the decisions, personnel, play-calling, etc., the one that will always baffle me the most from this season is why we didn't use Stevens more in tight situations, as well as in games where we were up big?
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