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September 03, 2007
Gearing up for the Irish
By Mark Steinruck
Penn State’s lopsided victory over Florida International was a nice way to prepare for Notre Dame this week. A dominate win, if not a blowout, was completely expected against a cupcake Division I-AA team. Games like this are meant to shake out the first game jitters to prepare for the bigger games down the road. How could they not win? (Oh right, sorry Michigan!) To be fair, FIU was 0-12 in 2006 which is a little different than playing the the defending Div I-AA national champion. (Okay, somehow it still sounds bad.)
All of the columns and message boards (including ours), have expressed their discontent over the slow start of the running game in the first half against FIU. If you’re new, welcome to Penn State football. Year in, and year out, this is what we see in the first two quarters of almost every season. It’s almost as predictable and JoePa saying that he’s nervous about a game that they should win with only the third-string playing with their legs tied together.
What makes this year different from other recent years is that fans also what to see a convincing win with lots of scoring over an opponent that should be dominated. Penn State definitely made our wish come true with eight touchdowns and a field goal. The icing on the cake was the shutout compliments of a stingy defense that picked up where they left off last year. That’s saying a lot with all of the players that were rotated into the defensive line. The defense was so good, in fact, that Sean Lee was selected as the Big Ten defensive player of the week.
“It was a difficult game for us to prepare for because we had no idea what to expect,” said Tom Bradley. “We exposed them to a lot of different things and had to play so generic during the game. We didn’t do a lot of things on defense because there was no way we could get them ready for all of the things they might do. It was a hard game to prepare for; we looked at LSU tape, Miami Dolphins tape, just a lot of scenarios. We only looked at them one day, personnel-wise, but still not knowing where their personnel would play. We watched them in pre-game to get a little of an idea where their personnel would be.”
Generic play, eh? That can only mean good things for what we’ll see coming out of the Bradley Arsenal of Defensive Warfare in the coming weeks. That should make you giddy like a school girl...or something.
One of the big questions going into the season was readiness of the freshly patched together offensive line. During the summer we all said, “The talent is there, but can they gel a a unit?” The FIU defense may not be the best group to answer that question, but the new big men on the front lines certainly came out looking to prove a point. “I think we gave Anthony all day,” said Center A.Q. Shipley.
The goal in opening the game was to get Morelli in a rhythm before turning to the ground game. The receivers had their fair share of drops, Morelli has his share of poor throws, but eventually everything started to come together. This just further goes to illustrate the point that a game like FIU helps tremendously to work out the kinks that are difficult to shake when playing your teammates.
The special teams showed signs of greatness that have been missing over the past few seasons. Navorro Bowman blocked a punt and Jared Odrick blocked a field goal. The Golden Panthers Lionell Singleton, highly touted as one of the best return men in FIU’s history, was routinely pounded by Penn State’s coverage unit.
Notre Dame
Last year Penn State walked into South Bend and was dismantled at the hands of Braddy Quinn and the Notre Dame offense. For most Penn State fans (and it should be all if it’s not), the Fighting Irish are as hated as Bobby Bowden’s weird southern draw. So it should come as no surprise that revenge and payback are on the minds of players and fans alike.
The game will be played before a nationally televised audience at 6pm on ESPN. It’s been rumored that the ESPN Gameday crew may land in Happy Valley for the rivalry, but there’s no official word as of yet.
For weeks, Penn State has been calling for the game to be a complete white out with everyone in the stadium dressing in white. Even with emotions running high, it seems almost unfathomable that Penn State won’t come away with a win after the debacle that Georgia Tech handed to Notre Dame last week.
The Irish looked like a merry-go-round on steroids under center as they rotated in Demetrius Jones, Evan Sharpley, and Jimmy Clausen at quarterback. Their offense was anemic with 121 yards of total offense minus the -9 yards rushing inflicted by a good Georgia Tech defense. They turned the ball over three times and each quarterback was sacked numerous times behind an offensive line that offered them no time to even begin directing an offensive charge.
With only the Georgia Tech game to put under the microscope, it looks like the losses of last year have had a profound impact on this Notre Dame team’s ability to bounce back this year. The play of the offensive line may not be strong enough to give even the likes of Brady Quinn enough time to direct the offense. In a post game press conference, Charlie Weis said that they wanted to establish the run to take some of the pressure off of what is largely an inexperienced team.
The Penn State offensive line will encounter more of a test against Notre Dame, but opening just a few holes could be the recipe for success. Georgia Tech ran the ball down the throats of the Irish, finishing the day with 260 yards on the ground. They passed for only 121 yards, but that was primarily because they didn’t need to do any more than that. Don’t be surprised if Penn State’s early gameplan tries to open up the running game before the pass unlike against FIU where they were trying to get Morelli in a rhythm. Learning from the lessons of Georgia Tech, it would be in their best interest to wear down this young Notre Dame team by running it directly at them with Scott, Kinlaw, and Royster. The power and speed of this triple threat can be nothing but good.
Georgia Tech went into the game against Notre Dame determined to prove a point that they were better than most people thought. They were able to prove that point and a whole lot more. It doesn’t benefit Notre Dame that they now face an opponent in the Nittany Lions who has been looking forward to proving their own point since they left South Bend last year. Charlie Weis has a lot of work to do and a lot more problems than a single week of adjustments can fix.
The Penn State players need to maintain an air of humility about the locker room as their level of competition is only going to get better, with the possible exception of Buffalo. If they can keep a good head on their shoulders and play solid football for four quarters on Saturday, this game should be over by the third quarter.
It’s is undeniable that the power and speed of this triple threat can be nothing but good. adult diapers cap ayam
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