Week 3 Wrap Up

It's always hard to do a write up after a tough loss, but that's exactly what I'm going to attempt to do...

In case you weren't paying attention, Penn State lost its first game of the season 31-34 to the Golden Knights of Central Florida.  A lot of people were calling for the upset here, so I guess they saw something I didn't.  You see, when I look at this Penn State team, I see loads of talent on both sides of the ball that should be able to easily manage a team like UCF.  Still, it is a young team, and the ever present elephant in the room is the NCAA sanctions, which have lead to a noticeable lack of depth at nearly every position.  That lack of depth is exactly what forced the coaching staff to turn to "thud tackling" over the summer instead of regular tackling during "full contact" drills.  This was done in an attempt to limit the number of injuries on a thin roster.  Now, defensive coordinator John Butler can try to downplay the effect of thud tackling all he wants, but anyone who saw the grotesque number of missed tackles throughout the game last night knows exactly what Penn State's biggest problem is right now.

The game started off bad and basically never got better.  Central Florida, lead by their veteran signal caller Blake Bortles marched down the field and scored 7 points on their opening drive.  Although Penn State tied it up at 7 shortly thereafter, that was the closest this game got until the very end.  Frankly, the game as a whole was not as close as the score indicates.  Although the offense put up points and yards all night, it simply couldn't keep up with what UCF's offense was doing.  The Lions' defense was manhandled all night long.  Mike Hull (fresh back from injury) was clearly not 100%, Deion Barnes was absolutely nowhere to be found, and the young secondary was picked apart by Bortles' NFL caliber arm.  It wasn't pretty, and unless something magical happens, this was just the first of many times we're going to see a performance like this (remember, we have high powered Ohio State, Indiana, and Nebraska teams still left to play).

I'll write about the good news on offense when I get to my grades later tonight.  Right now, I think I just want to end this wrap up by saying... don't lose hope.  This was 1 game after all, and next week's game against a MAC punching bag should be a great outlet for a Penn State team trying to get back on track.  They follow that up with a bye week and a game against Indiana, the only team in the Big Ten to have never beaten the Nittany Lions.  PSU can still play spoiler by knocking off Ohio State, and even win the last ever Leaders Division title (even though we can't go to the Big Ten Championship Game).  There are goals, there are things to play for.  But it's going to a long weak of reflection after a humbling loss like that :(

Oh, as for my prediction:
Penn State did lose and I wasn't even close on UCF's score.  However, Christian Hackenberg did go over 200 yds, Zach Zwinak did score 2 TDs, Sam Ficken added a career long 47 yarder to set the record at 15 consecutive FGs made (although he later missed a 57 yarder that was wishful thinking to end his streak), and Malcolm Willis did intercept Blake Bortles, ending his 200+ consecutive passes without an interception streak in the second quarter.  So overall, I did pretty darn well thank you very much!