September 20, 2009

Nothing To Hoot About

By Todd Sponsler

On a sun-splashed Saturday in Happy Valley, the Nittany Lions continued their dominance over the Temple Owls, winning 31-6.  The Lion defense kept the Owls from scoring a touchdown—Temple has not reached the endzone against Penn State in the last four games.  No team has scored a TD in the first half this year.

But the story is still the inconsistent offense.  The good news:  the running game looked better.  Royster crossed the century mark for the first time this season (138 yds on 19 carries) despite fighting off the flu.  The team logged 186 yards but on 36 carries for a 5.2 average.  The Lions rushed for only 31 yards in the second half, continuing the trend of only playing one half of the game.

Was the line any better?  The pass protection for Clark was worse and he suffered a shoulder stinger.  Could it be that Temple didn’t sell out to stop the run as Syracuse and Akron had done previously?

It is certainly possible that Temple is not as bad as their loss to Nova would indicate.  They have a decent defensive line, anchored by Andre Neblett who is on the watchlist for the Bronko Nagurski Award.  They also ranked high in the nation in pass sacks, albeit after one game.

But after three supposedly cupcake games, fans are starting to get nervous about this team.  I think a large part of it is the lack of intensity and focus simply because they are cupcakes.  I don’t care how great a coach you are, or how good your senior leadership is, everyone knows who they are playing and that they are supposed to win. 

At this point last season, the Lions had decimated Coastal Carolina 66-10, Oregon State 45-14, Syracuse 55-13 and Temple 45-3.  The Beavers were certainly no cupcake team.  And one might argue that Syracuse is better than last year, perhaps even Temple is, although I personally can’t overlook the loss to Villanova.  Akron is certainly arguably better than Coastal Carolina and there is no 2009 counterpart to Oregon State.  In the final analysis, things might be a wash.

Even the fans were suffering sugar overload as the stadium—and tailgates—seemed even emptier than the previous two games, despite an “official” attendance of 105,514.  I don’t even think there were 100,000 bodies in the stadium unless you also count the bees.

In addition to Clark’s stinger, Sean Lee suffered an injury to his leg/knee as well.

We fell prey to an on-sides kick and what was most disappointing was not that Temple recovered, but that the Penn State player seemed to make no effort, completely caught of guard.

Could it be were looking ahead to Iowa?  That is certainly possible, but that wouldn’t explain the lack of focus and ennui against Akron and Syracuse.  There simply has not been a lot of emotion shown in the last few games.  Maybe the ultimate blame lies on whoever scheduled these teams in the first place.

Aside all that, though, is another specter that haunts this team . . . special teams.  We still seem quite vulnerable to kick-off returns, giving the Owls pretty good field position on most drives, while unable to generate any decent return on our own.  Part of the problem is a kicker that can’t consistently boom the ball into the endzone.  But a large part of both problems seems to be blocking.

On kick-offs, our guys don’t seem to be able to shed blocks (something the O-line seems to share; perhaps it is contagious?) and on returns, we don’t seem to be able to get an initial blocking.  For that matter, our receivers don’t seem to make key blocks downfield on plays either.  What is the problem here?  Blocking is a basic fundamental of football. How can the entire team be unable to do this? Are the coaches not spending enough time on this aspect of the game?  It sure would help to have a special teams coach, but we have been praying for that for decades. 

With the Hawkeyes coming to Beaver Stadium next week, for a White House game in primetime, there will be no excuses.  The student section should be full.  The stadium will be loud.  The opponent destroyed the dream of a perfect season last year—the players should be focused and ready.  We will see what this team is made of next Saturday night.  I really feel the potential is there for a breakout game, like Minnesota in 2005.  But I have seen nothing on the field or in the stats to support that.  It is only a feeling.  Maybe I’ve had too many cupcakes.

BY THE NUMBERS:

From GoPSUSports:

	TEM	PSU
FIRST DOWNS...................	12	21
Rushing.....................	5	13
Passing.....................	6	6
Penalty.....................	1	2
NET YARDS RUSHING.............	46	186
Rushing Attempts............	29	36
Average Per Rush............	1.6	5.2
Rushing Touchdowns..........	0	2
Yards Gained Rushing........	86	213
Yards Lost Rushing..........	40	27
NET YARDS PASSING.............	205	173
Completions-Attempts-Int....	15-34-0	17-29-1
Average Per Attempt.........	6	6
Average Per Completion......	13.7	10.2
Passing Touchdowns..........	0	2
TOTAL OFFENSE YARDS...........	251	359
Total offense plays.........	63	65
Average Gain Per Play.......	4	5.5
Fumbles: Number-Lost..........	1-1	1-0
Penalties: Number-Yards.......	8-65	6-55
PUNTS-YARDS...................	6-217	4-191
Average Yards Per Punt......	36.2	47.8
Net Yards Per Punt..........	35.8	39.2
Inside 20...................	1	2
50+ Yards...................	0	2
Touchbacks..................	0	1
Fair catch..................	3	1
KICKOFFS-YARDS................	2-120	6-383
Average Yards Per Kickoff…	60	63.8
Net Yards Per Kickoff.......	46	39.8
Touchbacks..................	0	1
Punt returns: Number-Yards-TD.	2-14-0	2-2-0
Average Per Return..........	7	1
Kickoff returns: Number-Yds-TD	5-124-0	2-28-0
Average Per Return..........	24.8	14
Interceptions: Number-Yds-TD..	1-0-0	0-0-0
Fumble Returns: Number-Yds-TD.	0-0-0	0-0-0
Miscellaneous Yards...........	0	0
Possession Time...............	29:01	30:58
1st Quarter.................	9:15	5:45
2nd Quarter.................	5:55	9:04
3rd Quarter.................	6:06	8:54
4th Quarter.................	7:45	7:15
Third-Down Conversions........	5 of 17	7 of 13
Fourth-Down Conversions.......	1 of 3	0 of 0
Red-Zone Scores-Chances.......	2-3	5-5
Sacks By: Number-Yards........	2-6	4-18
PAT Kicks.....................	0-0	4-4
Field Goals...................	2-2	1-1

INTANGIBLES:

Penn State lost the coin toss for the third straight game.  Temple deferred.

The Drum Major remains perfect on the season.

Paterno racks up win #386, two or more ahead of Bowden depending on the asterisks.

THE BIG (TEN) PICTURE:

Ohio State took care of business, beating Toledo 38-0.  Indian defeated Akron 38-21.  Iowa held off Zona, winning 27-23.  Wisconsin beat Wofford 44-14 and THEM beat Western Michigan 45-17.

But all was not well in the conference.  Notre Dame edged Sparty 33-30, but MSU blew a chance to tie/win on a late INT in the red zone.  Minnesota hung tough with Cal, but lost by two late scores, 35-21.  Northern Illinois beat the Boilers 28-21 and ‘Cuse edged Northwestern 37-34.

Next week conference play begins, while Purdue takes on the Irish.

SHEDDING TEARS:

1.  Southern Cal—thanks once again for playing.  See you in the Rose Bowl.
2.  Nebraska—lost to VaTech with 11 secs on the clock
3.  BYU—a promising season ends abruptly.  Good Bye BCS.  Hello Pumpkin.
4.  Georgia Tech—loss to Miami kicks them out of the rankings
5.  Utah—nations longest winning streak snapped by the ducks

LOOKING AHEAD:
Iowa comes to Beaver Stadium, September 26 @ 8:00 PM.
Whoa Nellie!  This is a biggun.  White Out.  Prime Time.  Night game in the Beav.  Zombie Nation.  Revenge for last year.  It just doesn’t get any better than this.
Will we be prepared?  Will we unveil the HD offense that we have been waiting for?  Will we play four quarters of football?

© 2009 Todd Sponsler

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Past Articles

• No Party for Sparty
• The Imperfect Storm
• The Scarlet’s Better
• Purple Wane
• The Beatagain Wolverines
• Minnesota Flats
• “Critical” Game
• ILL-prepared?  NOT!
• Wet Out
• Nothing To Hoot About