November 18, 2007

A Greek Tragedy

By Todd Sponsler

It was a tragic end to a tragic season.  In fact, it almost seems fitting.  Throw in the myriad off-field shenanigans, and Penn State fans are breathing a collective sigh of relief:  Thank God This Season is Over.

What about the bowl game?  Oh, yeah, I guess we’ll forget the Alamo, or be part of the Chumps Bowl, but who really cares?  I mean that.  You don’t need a Penn State football game to justify a nice holiday season getaway.  Why limit your vacation options to a team that fights better off the field than on it?

Do I sound like I am pissed?  Words will not even do this justice. 

This is probably the worst collapse in the Paterno era, blowing a 17 point lead.  Paterno can’t set a record for most career victories, but he is still finding ways to set new records.

You don’t think it’s fair I blame this on Paterno?  Why not?  He insists on shoving his son down our collective throats.  His son calls the pass plays.  Review the last few minutes of the game, and then join me with your pitch forks and torches.

With our offensive line controlling the game, blowing open wide holes for our third running back—or fourth string if you still count Austin Scott—we decide to throw FOUR passes from the MSU 24 yard line.  (The passing game to this point had been average at best, and pretty bad realistically.) Hey, the running game is working so let’s start to pass.  Who came up with that gem of a game plan?

Now let me get one thing straight here.  I have watched many PSU games in the last decade where we run the ball for a yard loss, run for a two yard gain, and then run again before punting.  And the whole time I’m screaming for them to throw the ball downfield for a first down.  When the run isn’t working, you have to pass.

But this was not that scenario.  We were moving the ball on the ground.  We were doing it quite well, and had we continued, we might not only have scored, but we would have left no time on the clock for the Spartoons to come back and beat us with our non-existent special teams kick-off coverage.

But there is plenty of blame to go around.  You can look to our senior quarterback who wasn’t sacked or intercepted the whole day (near INT’s not withstanding) but was still unable to perform better than 16-35 for 188 yards.  And when you need him in the clutch, he’s not there.  Never has been.

When I think about to the beginning of the season, and the hopes and the dreams I had for this team, a lot hinged on Morelli building on his Outback Bowl performance.  But let’s face it, that was a fluke, and wasn’t that great in the final analysis.  Had it not been for a fumble recovery returned for a touchdown, Morelli might have been throwing the ball away on fourth down and allowing Tennessee to waltz away with a win.

What happened to our defense?  In particular, what is wrong with our secondary?  It was supposed to be our strength.  Instead, it has been our Achille’s heel the latter half of this season.  In yet another tragic, ironic twist of cruel fate, our offense has finally experienced what it is like to play a flawless game, put points on the board, and still lose.  But it hardly makes up for all the fine games the defense did play well, but the offense failed to show up.

Let’s shift blame to the special teams, which unfortunately has no coach to bear responsibility or accountability.  Is this the worst kick-off coverage team in Penn State history?  Can we chalk some of the problem up to the rule change that moved the kick-off back five yards?  It doesn’t seem to affect other teams so adversely.  Heck, we can’t even pooch kick correctly.  We’d have been better off just booting the damned ball out of bounds, but I’m sure we’d find some way to screw that up as well.

I’d love to see a statistic regarding how many fake punts have been successful against us.  I know Notre Dame pulled it off last season.  MSU almost botched it, but we managed to lose contain and give up 17 yards.  I’d hazard a guess that it was their best running play of the day!

And what was with all the trick plays—Morelli as a wideout and Clark in the shotgun?  They ran the formation three times and gained no yardage—in fact, losing on two of the three attempts.  In all my years, I have yet to see that play work on a consistent basis.  Morelli (or Mills in the past) is not a receiver or blocker, so you’re basically running an offense with only 10 guys.  Add in poor execution and it’s a recipe for disaster.

The fake field goal was a brilliant call and well executed.  It should have nailed the coffin shut.  But something went dramatically wrong after that play.

How in the hell can you not have a single turnover, force three turnovers from your opponent, win the time of possession, lead by 17 points in the third quarter, and still lose?  It’s not a mystery—it’s just a tragedy.

BY THE NUMBERS:

The key stat in this game is the completion percentages.  Morelli was 16 of 37 (43%) while MSU went an incredible 17 of 22 (77%)!  Granted, we picked Hoyer off twice, but he came back and atoned for his mistakes, something our quarterback has NEVER done.  This pass disparity led to the Spartans gaining a 280-188 yard advantage in the air.  Total yardage was 355 to 425 in favor of the Green and White.

The remainder of the stats were fairly even.  PSU had 20 first downs to 21 for Sparty.  PSU won time of possession 31 to 28 minutes.

MSU averaged 60 yards per kick-off return, while PSU averaged a decent 55.  So neither team was very good at this aspect of the game.

Interestingly, MSU was 3 of 10 on third down while PSU went 6 of 17.  We obviously didn’t force as many third down plays.

INTANGIBLES:

MSU won the toss and elected to receive.  Bold move.

Attendance was 72,251 at Spartan Stadium.

The Bobby-Joe Sullivan Show:

Bowden won.  Joe lost.  I don’t think there is much hope that the lead will ever shift again.  The count is 373 to 371.  A reader chastised me for not including the whole records, suggesting I didn’t want people to know that Joe has coached 7 more games for two fewer wins.  Of course, that person conveniently didn’t ask why I don’t asterisk Bowden’s total, given that 31 of Bowden’s wins are from his coaching days at Howard College, now known as Samford. 

THE BIG (TEN) PICTURE:

The Buckeyes won the conference with a 14-3 victory over THEM.

• OSU over THEM 14-3
• Wisconsin over Minnesota 41-34
• Illinois beat NW 41-22
• Indiana boiled over Purdue 27-24
• Western Michigan upset Iowa 28-19
• The Spartoons beat us 35-31

SHEDDING TEARS:

1.  Oregon—quacked out of the national title game by ‘Zona
2.  Oklahoma—knocked out of the picture by Texas Tech
3.  Duke—it’s actually an embarrassment to lose to the Irish this season

LOOKING AHEAD:

At this point, PSU is looking at either the Champs Sports Bar Bowl or the Alamo Bowl.  Neither one is something most fans aspire to.

Will Joe Paterno’s history of success in bowl games offset the lack of leadership and consistency?  A lot will depend on the opponent we end up playing.

I would personally like to think that a bowl win could be a springboard to a great season next year.  Royster has proven himself to be a good back, and the brief glimpse of Carter in this game was encouraging.  The lines have come together well and will essentially be back, although I doubt Baker will return.  We lose Connor—perhaps the only real loss from this class—but Sean Lee is establishing himself and we have depth at the linebacker position, Bowman’s extracurricular activities notwithstanding.

But I fear I am falling into the same old trap.  How does any of these positives amount to anything when the coaching staff will be the same.  Our quarterback will be inexperienced.  Our secondary will be the same, barring Justin King leaving early.  Our schedule is not any easier.  We still must travel to Columbus—where we haven’t won since we entered the Big Ten.  Heck, we can’t even score double digits most of the time in the Shoe.  Throw in road trips to Purdue, Iowa, and Wisconsin and our annual choke job against THEM, and we’ll likely have four more conference losses.

Am I being overly pessimistic?  I wish I were, but I fear I am not.  Our only hope is that Daryl Clark or Pat Devlin is the next Michael Robinson and that they can overcome the coaching hijinx that handcuff our players on the field.  It is becoming more apparent to me that Penn State is the place that stars come to fall.  I don’t know any other program that recruits so well, yet cannot develop the talent on the field consistently.

I hope this feeling passes—I hate feeling this way.

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Past Articles

• Aggies Alamo-de
• A Greek Tragedy
• Owl Be Darned
• The Little Engine That Pur-didn’t
• White Out Can’t Cover This Mistake
• On The Road Again
• Unlucky Bucky
• Hawkeyes Pierced
• Making Me ILL
• Hart-Broken