Wouldn't give up on Cain. If you watch the Outback replay, you'll see the old Noah begin to emerge. The kid had a major foot injury which made him leery of planting that foot, IMO. If you're going to be a fall-forward RB, ya gotta be able to plant.
Why Clifford is so important.....
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Good points. IMO, the bottom line re Clifford is pretty simple: a)his deficiencies aren't going away in his fifth season, and b)opposing DC's have figured out that pressure accentuates them. Hard to see much light at the end of that tunnel.
He (CV) should have played more in the bowl game and that is my major concern with Franklin and MY. I just don't see anyone else getting a chance to get quality time and reps unless Clifford is hurt.
He did look much better in the bowl game which brings me to my next question...why did we abandon the run when it was working as well as it had all season? Oh thats right it wasn't a snowy bilzzard..(ok that last part was sarcasm)
Not sure how you come to this conclusion. Another year with Mike Yurcich, one of the guys who coached up Justin Fields at OSU, and Clifford should be able to polish his game. I've seen QB's improve a ton during their last season at PSU (Tony Sacca, Matt McGloin, Todd Blackledge back in the day) when they have the right coaches.
Clifford can win games for us just by being a leader... keep in mind, he's had four different offensive coordinators since coming to HV and had no run game to fall back on the last two seasons.
All this love for Clifford is laughable. Can he win us some games? Yes. Is he able to win us big games in the clutch? No. Simple as that. Not sure what he brings us that Villeaux cannot do with another year under his belt or Allar or even Pribula. I know Allar is untested as a true Freshman but you don't get to be the #1 QB in the nation for no reason. He also faced good HS competition.
It would have been refreshing to have an off season with 3 young QBs all hungry to win a starter role. Now they are all playing for the #1 backup role barring some unforeseen turn of events. This will inhibit their development.
Back to Clifford, he has bad offensive lines and that has not helped but a really good QB can elevate above that. Maybe not completely to a point of leading a team to a NC but certainly would do better than Clifford. His accuracy, decision making and pocket presence is nowhere near where we need it to be after so many years in the program. Not sure what people expect out of him at this point. It is what it is. IF we get a great offensive line with a powerhouse running game then he would perform well but so would CV, Allar and Pribula.
At the end of 2022 we will lose at least one of the three between Allar, CV and Pribula. I know the coaches know this. We may very well lose two guys as no one wants to be a backup to a guy the same age or certainly younger than they are.
Finally, Pribula is the wildcard in all this. PA kid grew up loving PSU. There was talk of a position change not sure about that and I know just conjecture at this stage. I am anxious to see him compete and hope he gets a fair shot
It's easier for fans to just throw all the blame on the QB. Aside from not having a competent run game and playing through injuries as you mentioned, he was working with his 3rd OC in 3 years this past season.
I have high expectations for Allar, but I think it's hilarious fans want to watch an 18-year-old start off his career by going to Purdue, Auburn, and Michigan and also playing Ohio state all within his first 6 collegiate games. For every time that someone tells me that PSU won't be "elite" unit it has an elite QB, I'll likely be reminding them that Stetson Bennet was a National Champion after Monday night.
Crazy story. 5'11 Walk-on at UGA, transfers to community college, transfers back to UGA after Fields leaves only to see highly touted JT Daniels transfer in. Good for him. Having a elite DL and OL matters more than anything. You need a QB that is protected and accurate - not elite cannon arm or all world speed. All those times we lost to OSU after leading in 4th - could not run ball on their DL and could not generate pressure with their OL. End of story.
Well said.
Football has been full of 5* QBs going nowhere because they didn't have the supporting pieces they needed. Granted, I think Allar will have solid WRs and a stud RB, but the OL is the obvious missing piece. I suspect he'll be a great QB regardless, but we're aiming for championships here.....and we're not getting over the hump without far better line play.
Was it because he was working with his 3rd OC that he overthrows a wide open TE for a TD or can't see a guy wide open for a score and instead throws into coverage for a pick in the endzone to seal our fate. Just a couple highlights from the Outback Bowl that we had a good shot winning with a competent QB.
Not all the blame is on Clifford but he is not performing to expectations. Do we need a better O-Line? Of course! Do we need better LBs besides Jacobs? Hell Yes! This is about the leader of your team, the field general, the guy who will make it happen in the clutch. The bottom line is he is not going to lead us to more wins than CV or Allar could. Do you really think he goes into Auburn and gets us a W? Wins at scUM? Pulls us out a W against OHowIHate? With his track record I say no. Who says Allar could not start and beat Purdue? Who cares that he is a true Frosh, it is all about talent and confidence. Sure experience is good but overrated in this case with Clifford. The JoePa 1970's thinking is on line 1. We have seen this bad movie. This kind of traditional stuck in the mud thinking that an average 6th year guy is best for PSU football is killing us right now. We need innovative, different thinking all over.
I think a lot of folks are going to be shocked to find out that most of the offensive line problems can be fundamentally traced to the quarterback.
Here is why:
1. In 2019 nobody knew who the quarterback was. He had a good, not great, season. The team was carried to double digit wins by the cast.....Parsons, Gross-Matos, Hamler, Dotson, Freiermuth & Journey. That is an elite supporting cast that encompassed at least 4 players who could have arguable claimed to be the best in the entire country at their position in Brown, Parsons, Freier & Matos. That's elite. That's 4 guys that were at a minimum top 5 in the country at their respective position.
2. Teams, especially the like talented ones, figured out the key to stopping Clifford was putting pressure on him. Cliford has some of the lowest ratings in the country, per PFF, when either blitzed or pressured. One of the absolute worst.
3. So what have opposing teams done? They have attacked the Penn State offensive line as the main part of their defensive game plan. The defensive plan is to just straight up put all the pressure on the line, which will breakdown, thus making the QB breakdown who is one of the worst at handling such a situation. This came to a head versus a completely undermanned opponent in the Illini.
4. At no time have defenses feared what the QB would do to them in those situations. Yeah, sometimes they get burnt but most times they didn't, hence the low scoring offense. They want Sean Clifford to run, one because he's not really a threat and two the hits will take a toll. Watch a read option, they don't even care about Clifford at the mesh point.
5. Teams have figured out that Clifford will try to use his athleticism, which is good but doesn't make a good QB, to deal with this pressure. He will not find the open man and will not find the check-down. They know he can't punish them. Pro QB's not named Jackson or Murray (exceptions) do not deal with pressure in this way, they use their head and arm.
6. If Penn State's offensive line has been so bad under Franklin, as many contend, then how come Menet, Bates, McGovern and Fries are playing in the NFL?
The moral of the story is that it will be magical how much the offensive line improves when the offense is led by a player that requires the defense to be multiple and not singularly focused on attacking the offensive line. The Ravens and Steelers blitz the most in all of football at 46% and 41% of the time. I think I heard that Clifford is blitzed about 44% of the time. That is the plan for teams, blitz Clifford. Alabama has one of the lowest blitz rates in the country. Wisconsin has one of the highest blitz rates in the country at 36%. Saw an article about how Bama would not blitz Joe Burrow because they knew he would punish them for it, a few years back.
Here is why:
1. In 2019 nobody knew who the quarterback was. He had a good, not great, season. The team was carried to double digit wins by the cast.....Parsons, Gross-Matos, Hamler, Dotson, Freiermuth & Journey. That is an elite supporting cast that encompassed at least 4 players who could have arguable claimed to be the best in the entire country at their position in Brown, Parsons, Freier & Matos. That's elite. That's 4 guys that were at a minimum top 5 in the country at their respective position.
2. Teams, especially the like talented ones, figured out the key to stopping Clifford was putting pressure on him. Cliford has some of the lowest ratings in the country, per PFF, when either blitzed or pressured. One of the absolute worst.
3. So what have opposing teams done? They have attacked the Penn State offensive line as the main part of their defensive game plan. The defensive plan is to just straight up put all the pressure on the line, which will breakdown, thus making the QB breakdown who is one of the worst at handling such a situation. This came to a head versus a completely undermanned opponent in the Illini.
4. At no time have defenses feared what the QB would do to them in those situations. Yeah, sometimes they get burnt but most times they didn't, hence the low scoring offense. They want Sean Clifford to run, one because he's not really a threat and two the hits will take a toll. Watch a read option, they don't even care about Clifford at the mesh point.
5. Teams have figured out that Clifford will try to use his athleticism, which is good but doesn't make a good QB, to deal with this pressure. He will not find the open man and will not find the check-down. They know he can't punish them. Pro QB's not named Jackson or Murray (exceptions) do not deal with pressure in this way, they use their head and arm.
6. If Penn State's offensive line has been so bad under Franklin, as many contend, then how come Menet, Bates, McGovern and Fries are playing in the NFL?
The moral of the story is that it will be magical how much the offensive line improves when the offense is led by a player that requires the defense to be multiple and not singularly focused on attacking the offensive line. The Ravens and Steelers blitz the most in all of football at 46% and 41% of the time. I think I heard that Clifford is blitzed about 44% of the time. That is the plan for teams, blitz Clifford. Alabama has one of the lowest blitz rates in the country. Wisconsin has one of the highest blitz rates in the country at 36%. Saw an article about how Bama would not blitz Joe Burrow because they knew he would punish them for it, a few years back.
Hard to predict the future as far as who starts, who stays and who leaves. What I do know is that I don't think Clifford is a good enough QB to win big games or a conference championship in 2022. I'd rather take my chances with one of the young guys. Maybe he'll be better than Cliff, but if not, at least you're giving him experience for 2023.
I’m telling ya. Cliff coming back is going to be the best thing that has ever happened to this kid.
Clifford’s problems can be summed up quite succinctly: he makes too damn many mistakes. Period, end of story. He doesn’t throw to wide open receivers, he overthrows wide open receivers, he throws into coverage and gets intercepted, he runs into sacks, and he chokes trying to engineer come-backs (int in the end zone of the Outback bowl that could have made it a one score game is the latest example). In short - he is Anthony Morrelli without a good running game. Inaccurate, mind-boggling bad decisions, chokes in big spots.
Will any of those flaws be improved with another spring/summer practice? The past 2 seasons performance strongly suggests not.
Will any of those flaws be improved with another spring/summer practice? The past 2 seasons performance strongly suggests not.
No way in hell.
Very flawed thinking but you are intitled to your opinion; no matter how incorrect IMO.
Clifford could NEVER be a starting QB at Georgia, Alabama, Ohio St. Texas A&M to name a few.
He'd be lucky to be a ball-boy IMO.
He couldn't even beat out the starting QB at the University of Cincinnati!!!
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Clifford’s problems can be summed up quite succinctly: he makes too damn many mistakeS
BINGO!!!!
For those who have been watching Tom Brady's Man in the Arena, which is terrific, I might add.........
Tom says in episode 3 that the primary job of the quarterback is to "NOT LOSE THE GAME". He straight up says this is the job #1. But what does Tom Brady know? If you need your QB to win every game for you, you're probably not that good of a team.
I think a lot of people think the job of the QB is to win the game, when in reality it is only to handle and distribute the ball every play. The other players make all the plays, for the most part. The quarterback cannot make mistakes, you can have all the athletic talent in the world but if you regularly make mistakes, or questionable decisions it won't matter and nobody will view you as good. If you think the weight of the world is on your shoulders and you need to save the game with every play, you are probably playing the wrong position.
I've said for years that one of Clifford's biggest problems is he never knows when to abort and get to the next play. You can't win the game on a 2nd and 4 with 11 minutes and 13 seconds to play in the second quarter. The game doesn't work that way.
Another thing that has become quite clear viewing this series is that the game is about players, not coaches. Teams are as good as the players they have, not the coaches on the sideline. I know everyone wants to blame coaches when things aren't going well but it has more to do with the players not performing, not executing, not being clutch and the chemistry between them than it is about what somebody on the sideline told them to do. At one point Brady goes on to say that during the Pat's 21 game win streak the coaches couldn't even coach because the players were just performing at such a high level nothing else mattered and that Belicheck was actually ready for a loss so he had an excuse to do a little bit of coaching. All plays work when executed properly.
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