The Lion's Den
October 14, 2007
Unlucky Bucky
By Todd Sponsler
Unlucky Bucky
Now that’s what I’m talking about. That’s Penn State football. I haven’t felt this good after a win since we creamed Minnesota in 2005. (Yeah, the Ohio State game that year was pretty special, but I knew we could win that game. The game against the gophers was a coming out party for Michael Robinson and a prelude of great things to come. We can only hope this game is in that same category.) And believe it or not, the 38-7 score barely even reflects the domination of Penn State in this game.
On a bright, crisp autumn day, before a Homecoming crowd of 109, 754 fans, the Lions unleashed the potential that fans have been waiting for all year. They put forth their best effort in a nearly flawless evisceration of the hapless Badgers.
In the preseason, I predicted that Wisconsin would lose to PSU, THEM and OSU—and one other Big Ten team to be named later. It now looks like that is a real possibility. The Badgers are simply not a good football team. P.J. Hill gained only 75 yards against the Lions, but in his defense, the Badgers were taken out of their smash-mouth running game in the first half, as the Badgers fell behind 24-7 at the halfway point.
If someone had told me last Friday that one of the teams would fumble on the first play of the game in their own territory, leading to a TD for the other team en route to a 31 point victory, I would have been tempted to lay some serious bucks on the Badgers winning.
No one that I know of in Nittany Nation, including myself, was prepared for the woodshed beating that the Lions would lay on the previously 5th ranked Badgers, who have now tumbled out of the Top 25 altogether in just two weeks. Penn State snuck back in at 25 in the USA Today Poll.
Morelli actually looked good. As one of his biggest supporters before the season had begun, and one of his biggest critics since the season began, I have to admit that the kid looked good out there. I really like that play were he pump fakes one direction and then throws the other way. It forces him not to stare down his primary receiver, and he gets the defense all moving the wrong direction.
The play calling was decent and the players executed well. That is not to say that there isn’t some room for improvement.
• Derrick Williams fumbled a punt return. It did not lead to points, though.
• We missed a 43-yard field goal. I still am not impressed with Kelly’s FG kicking. I think he’s doing an awesome job on kick-offs, though.
• After electing to go for it on 4th down, we again had to burn a time-out because of confusion on the sideline and getting the play in late. These decisions have to be made faster. I mean, don’t they gameplan ahead of time? Don’t they talk about what they might do in these situations before the game? They should if they don’t. Last week, we changed our minds after the TO and missed the field goal attempt—the time out iced our own kicker. This week, we gave the Badger defense a chance to regroup before the conversion attempt, although it didn’t help them.
• Our normally consistent and Big Ten player of the week punter Jeremy Boone muffed a punt in the fourth quarter. Still didn’t lead to any points for the Badgers against our D, though.
• Quarless dropped another easy pass and rode the bench for most of the rest of the game.
• Justin King allowed a big pass play during Wisconsin’s lone scoring drive, and then missed the tackle. Scirrotto made the play down field. This is starting to be a trend the past few weeks, which I hope will stop soon.
The defense overall continues to be impressive, and Maurice Evans is becoming quite an impact player. Our linebackers were solid as always.
Where has this team been all season? Could it be that only Galen called plays this Saturday? How about that offensive line? Can we get a round of applause for them?
BY THE NUMBERS:
I apologize for the problem with the table below. I don’t know enough about the coding to reproduce it properly.
Team Totals WIS PSU
FIRST DOWNS 17 27
Rushing 5 15
Passing 12 11
NET YARDS RUSHING 87 221
Rushing Attempts 34 47
Average Per Rush 2.6 4.7
Rushing Touchdowns 1 4
Yards Gained Rushing 129 233
Yards Lost Rushing 42 12
NET YARDS PASSING 244 216
Completions-Attempts-Int 17-34-2 16-29-0
Average Per Attempt 7.2 7.4
Average Per Completion 14.4 13.5
Passing Touchdowns 0 1
TOTAL OFFENSE YARDS 331 437
Total offense plays 68 76
Average Gain Per Play 4.9 5.8
Fumbles: Number-Lost 2-1 1-1
Penalties: Number-Yards 8-61 1-10
Interceptions: Number-Yds-TD 0-0-0 2-3-0
Fumble Returns: Number-Yds-TD 0-0-0 1-5-0
Possession Time 28:46 31:14
Third-Down Conversions 6 of 16 4 of 13
Fourth-Down Conversions 0 of 2 2 of 2
Wisconsin only had 5 rushing touchdowns on the day. It is almost amazing that they had nearly five yards per play on average, given that they scored only 7 points. Of course, a lot of that had to do with field position and an offense that didn’t go three and out most of the time.
When you look at the BCS rankings—the Buckeyes are #1 with South Florida at #2. Who would have thought that two months ago? My heart aches thinking about what might have been had we played this offensive game plan against THEM and not missed so many opportunities against the Illini.
For of all sad words of tongue and pen, the saddest are these, what might have been. — John Greenleaf Whittier
INTANGIBLES:
Penn State won the coin toss and deferred.
The drum major stuck both flips.
Former Blue Sapphire Bobbi Jo Solomon got engaged in the south end zone after the half-time festivities.
Joe Paterno notches win #368 and is back within 3 of Bobby Bowden, whose Seminoles lost to Wake Forest for the second year in a row.
PSU has won 37 of 42 homecoming games under Paterno.
Penn State has now won 19 of the last 20 games at Beaver Stadium. I really wish there was some way, short of scheduling Coastal Carolina four times, to play all our games at home.
THE BIG (TEN) PICTURE:
• Penn State dismantled Wisconsin 38-7.
• The Buckeyes crushed Kent State 48-3.
• THEM beat Purdue 48-21.
• Iowa defeated Illinois 10-6. I am still shaking my head about that Illinois game.
• The Wildcats edged Minnesota 49-48 in double OT in the Big Ten basement bowl.
• MSU beat the Hoosiers 52-27.
Guess the two teams at the top of the Big Ten. Don’t strain your brain too hard. One of them (THEM) actually cracked the Top 25 again, despite losing to a 1AA team. Go figure. As best as I can calculate, PSu has really no viable chance at the Big Ten title. Illinois and THEM would both need THREE losses. The Buckeyes would need two, including a loss to us, which I think is possible. However, after watching the Top ranked teams fall the past few weeks, and seeing South Florida as #2 in the BCS, well, by golly, anything is still possible.
SHEDDING TEARS:
1. LSU—almost happened a week ago. Did happen. Crap happens.
2. Cal—big chance to go to #1. Didn’t happen. Sometimes, crap doesn’t happen.
3. Missouri—falls out of the ranks of the unbeaten
4. Connecticut—perfect season destroyed by a 17-16 loss to Virginia.
5. Cincinnati—perfect season destroyed by a loss to Louisville.
Current Unbeaten Teams and their BCS rank:
1. Ohio St.
2. South Fla.
3. Boston College
8. Arizona St.
13. Kansas
18. Hawaii
LOOKING AHEAD:
Penn State heads to Indiana for a show-down with the Hoosiers. Indiana has had a better year than I expected, given the tragic loss of their previous coach. But the wins are against the likes of Indiana State, Akron, Western Michigan, and Minnesota, with the lone quality win over Iowa 38-20. They lost to Illinois 27-14.
However, our resume is not impressive to date either. And, we are notoriously bad and ultraconservative on the road.
On paper, the Lions should win this game handily. But then again, on paper, USC should have trounced Stanford. You can’t trust paper!
© 2007 Todd SponslerWho were those guys in Penn State Jerseys on Saturday and what did they do with the real team?!?! They looked like a bunch of All Americans!!!! Morelli looked poised, decisive aggresive. Even his incompletions were smart , I thought anyway. I am wondering if its just Beaver stadium, what do you think Todd? Well if it is then Ohio State is in trouble. I wont be convinced of anything until we win on the road. Indiana would be a nice start. WE ARE...........
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