I love the kid. A warrior. He certainly has won us a few games through the years. I hate saying this but he has hurt us a lot this year. Many of us have complained about receivers not getting separation thus concluding this being one of the reason for our inept offense . Is this really the case? I believe Trace is not seeing the field very well and for some reason has not had confidence. I have seen many receivers running wide open this year but the ball was not thrown to them. C'mon, are you telling me our receivers can't get open every single game. Why do less talented teams pass more successfully on our opponents than we do? I hate saying this, the problem could be Trace.
Trace maybe the problem
- Thread starter jbenedict
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Trace is a shell of himself since the end of Ohio State game. He gave it all, took big hits, he is injured, 50%. Rest him 1-2 games for his own good so he is ready for Senior Day minimally.
I'd put it somewhat differently...if his accuracy matched his mobility, he'd be virtually unstoppable. For whatever reason, that accuracy seems to have worsened this season. That, coupled with the WR drops, has led to an inept passing game which, in turn, has let opposing D's focus on stopping his run game. Maybe a seasoned OC could have mitigated the problem to some extent. Rahne clearly hasn't.
Trace drops too many balls and missed the blocks on the stunts by the UM DL. If he caught those balls and blocked better, PSU at least puts up a fight. Good call on blaming him.
Unless we could bug the coaches' meeting room and the players' lockerrom, we'll never know what's going on.
Something happened after the Ohio St game. That game has gotten into their heads. They should have scored 40 that night. It's been downhill ever since, regardless of the Iowa result.
Hope they can pull themselves together. I'm not real optimistic.
I agree with the comment about the OL but Trace hasn't been accurate and a lot of what people are saying are "drops" are inaccurate passes that we were spoiled by Hamilton making the catch
As i posted before, the last call of the Ohio State game clipped Trace’s ManHood. Before that called you was the man, after that call he’s just another player.
This. They let that game derail the season. There isn’t really much left to pull together at this point. Third place in the division?
Dropping the 3 games to OSU/MSU/M kind of takes the steam out of the season, unfortunately.
I don't want to say something stupid like: "I don't care what happens now blah, blah, blah...". I just hope they can play a well-executed game before the season's over. If we see that, then the fans will know that the leadership is in place and the coaches have rallied the squad. I think that's more important than anything else right now.
There's lots of problem but he's definitely a part of it. At least in the last few weeks. Maybe it's all because of injury. Maybe he's overrated by our fans. Maybe Saquon, Gesicki & Hamilton made him appear better than he actually is. Maybe it's all of that. Maybe it's none of that. But he's not effective right now regardless of how anyone wants to spin it.
It isn't spin. Until we fix our OL problems , we will continue to have problems. We have the players to have a good OL.
Trace is a senior QB. If he has NFL aspirations, why is he running the ball so much? Don’t we have 5-star running backs somewhere on the roster? Design plays where the RBs run and we control time of possession. Didn’t we have the #2 passing offense prior to the OSU game? What happened?!?!
Goes to show that playing a weak OOC schedule tells you nothing about your team. Why people attach any meaning to statistics that includes those games eludes me. Feel good data maybe, I guess.
We have above average players and below average schemes. Result in league play: 500.
Trace is not the only problem, he is part of the problem... As much as many do not like to admit, football is a "TEAM" sport. You do not win soley off of one player, and yes, some players have more value, but not the end all be all... it takes a village to raise a child so to say...
I'm just hoping they pull together a nice string of games to get the momentum up going into the off-season.
They will be more consistent and more experienced next season.
I'm just hoping they pull together a nice string of games to get the momentum up going into the off-season.
They will be more consistent and more experienced next season.
Love trace but it is plain ridiculous to think he is not a big part of the problem. Probably hurt but he has not played well aince the last play of the ohio st game
Liked your post but in all honesty I think some of these recent fumbles with Sanders are on Trace.
We now know his knee is hurt worse than we thought.
I also think he has a hand injury that might have initially happened on the TD against Indy.
And now we are hearing of a possible shoulder injury.
Bottom line there is something definitely wrong. I can probably use 2 fingers to count the times I've seen Trace miss a pass
like that to Thompkins.
I guess you didn't see those passes going over our WRs heads. You must have been a beer or pee break. Drops were minimal against UM. If his 1st or second WR options are not open he gets happy feet looking to escape the pocket. He been doing that since OSU. Better team have the speed to track him down.
Everything starts at the line of scrimmage. The OL isn't good enough to establish a running game which would in turn keep the defense off the field. The defense isn't good enough to stop an opposing running game and they get worn out as the game goes on because of the above.
Sure, we have had drops and missed tackles by the LB's and DB's, but if we could run the ball with any confidence, we would be sitting at 1 loss right now.
Sure, we have had drops and missed tackles by the LB's and DB's, but if we could run the ball with any confidence, we would be sitting at 1 loss right now.
Yeah....he's the problem....year 3 and you're still trying. LOL
I've seen him miss passes like that too as has every other QB that has played the game. If he isn't healthy I'm all for Stevens playing but pinning this loss on him is downright dumb. The OL missed so many GD blocks it wasn't even funny....just flat out whiffed. The DT's get shoved around and for the 3rd straight time Windsor manages a big penalty is a bad spot. I don't recall a DT ever doing that 3 games in a row. There are issues with this team, youth and some of the senior guys need to be #2's at this point. PSU wins the next 3, gets their head straight and makes a run next year in a more run heavy PSU offense with Tommy.
For starters, Rahne's the QB coach as well as OC. So...whatever has caused Trace to regress Rahne isn't able to fix. Then there's the game planning (or lack thereof) which puts a helluva load on Trace at a time when he's having a rough go, results in countless three-and-outs which puts back-breaking pressure on the D, etc., etc. These are the kinds of situations where an OC/QB coach earns his keep. Rahne hasn't done it...at all.
Trace and Hackenberg have followed a similar, if not exact, track. Start great and taper off to the point people want to see their replacement. Is that coaching? I am willing to believe it is injuries in Trace's case but also appears to be many coaching related issues.
I don't think the DT are "big" enough but Givens was being held like a mf'r on Sat.
And yes a very large elephant is the OL and Limegrover. I was really disappointed in what I saw from them the past 4 games. They may not be blocking each other (ala 2015) but they are flat out whiffing and not knowing who to block. And this is the 4th game (since I started paying attention to the participation chart) that there have been no subs (other than the Wright/Fries carousel). Where are some of these highly rated OL recruits we've had for the past 2 years?.
Giving Trace the benefit of the doubt here due to poor play calling by Rahne not putting him in a place to be successful. During one drive in the 2nd quarter on Saturday it was 3rd & 5. Rahne called a designed QB keeper off the right side of the line - not the best call imo with how our OL was being dominated. Predictably the blocks failed, Miles couldn't blow open a big enough hole and it was another three and out for the offense.
Man this is a tough subject. Trace hasn’t been at his best this season, even at the beginning of the season when we were racking up points against lesser defenses. He has missed numerous passes and hasn’t seen the field like you would expect a 3 year starter. He hasn’t looked confident or like he has been having fun since Ohio state. People are gonna point to the 26 drops and that is a big number but even if you take it down to a average number of drops, he is still well under 60% completion percentage. Not what i would expect. He has had to do it with his legs a lot more and that has really taken a toll on his body. He had to run for nearly 200 yards vs Ohio state alone to keep us in the game. Those runs and hits add up after a while. Trace is a solid college QB but just like Moorhead and Rahne in the bowl game, they all were made to look really good by some of the best offensive players who ever stepped foot on the University Park campus the past couple years. They are gone and the experienced guys who returned to support Trace haven’t lived up to their end of the deal.
I agree about being able to run the ball. I disagree with the OL being the problem. the players on the OL are not the problem.
I just can stand the missed blocks. If I was a DC I would keep stunting the PSU OL to death as they suck at picking it up against any team with a pulse. DT will get better in the upcoming years...the dry spell there and at LB hurt...we are seeing that this year, but help is on the way.
Trace is the least of our problems. JJ, Polk and Thompkins are three upperclassmen that should be catching the ball. I simply know of no coaching needed to tell a Jr or Sr to "catch the ball". I mean, if you are a WR, it is kind of like walking.
Behind these upper classmen, you have Hamler, Sullivan-Brown, Freiermuth, Hillenhammer and Dotson. At RB, behind Sanders, is Slade and Brown. The problem here is that all of these guys are getting their first meaningful minutes. Do they run routes crisply? Are they making their reads? Are they making their "rubs" correctly? Do they come back for the ball? My guess is sometimes they do and sometimes they do not. Inexperienced players are inconsistent. That puts pressure on the QB.
Now, lets remember we outplayed both tOSU and Sparty. Then, with #9 hurt, we got hammered by UM. Its not time to panic. With a little luck, we are a one-loss team.
The problem here, as I see it, are JJ, Thompkins and Polk. BTW, the only one of these WR's that will certainly not be back next year is Thompkins. Remember when Gesicki couldn't catch a cold?
Behind these upper classmen, you have Hamler, Sullivan-Brown, Freiermuth, Hillenhammer and Dotson. At RB, behind Sanders, is Slade and Brown. The problem here is that all of these guys are getting their first meaningful minutes. Do they run routes crisply? Are they making their reads? Are they making their "rubs" correctly? Do they come back for the ball? My guess is sometimes they do and sometimes they do not. Inexperienced players are inconsistent. That puts pressure on the QB.
Now, lets remember we outplayed both tOSU and Sparty. Then, with #9 hurt, we got hammered by UM. Its not time to panic. With a little luck, we are a one-loss team.
The problem here, as I see it, are JJ, Thompkins and Polk. BTW, the only one of these WR's that will certainly not be back next year is Thompkins. Remember when Gesicki couldn't catch a cold?
I've been saying for several years, there are other ways to block these plays so you wouldnt get the whiffs and not knowing who to block. There is no way any of our OL need to be pulling and trying to trap. I could care less about the subs, if they could play they would be playing, but I do know, if we dont change our blocking style you will see more of what hurts us.
People point to the 4th down call vs OSU. The call wasnt the problem, heck Purdue ran the same play 50 yds for a TD, the way we blocked the play was the problem. And why werent prepared for what OSU did keeps we wondering why we werent prepared, they showed that same stunt many times in the past.
Interesting post. I get we [at least some of us] are reluctant to pick on the kids and focus on the adults but it seems a stretch to say in the same post our QB is inaccurate and the wr's are dropping a lot of passes but a good OC could likely fix the problem.
I don't think it was one play call or really psychological in nature. It's just a down year. This team just isn't that good, and it was evident from the 1st game of the season. They're not great on offense, defense or special teams. They don't have the playmakers or speed on O that they had the previous two years. When the offense stalls repeatedly, the defense wears down.
It is what it is. They have enough talent to beat second tier teams but not good teams. Not optimistic going into Saturday. They're going against a team that isn't great but has good athletes up front and plays aggressive bump and run D, and PSU has had no answer for that this year.
Looking back, expectations were high (at least mine were) because we had McSorley and what we thought would be a better O-line, and lots of young talented players. It just wasn't enough and the team just never game together. It really looks like the coaching changes had a lot to do with it since so many of the problems have been with the units with new coaches.
