Week 4 Grades

Ok, so even robots get a little confused sometimes.  Contrary to yesterday's post, I will not be doing awards today.  I will, however, be handing out my weekly grades!  Awards are on deck for tomorrow.  I'm trying to space the posts out a little bit this week since there's no game, and therefore, no Friday predictions post.  Anyway, I've got my red pen out... let's roll out some week 4 grades:

Offense
QB: (C+) Saturday wasn't exactly Christian Hackenberg's best performance.  In fact, it was statistically his worst showing to date.  He completed just 13/35 for 176 yds, that's a mere 37% completion percentage, a far cry from the 71% he came into the game with.  On the plus side, we may have found a replacement for Alex Butterworth at punter! Hackenberg has punted twice for an average of 42.5 yds; meanwhile Butterworth is only averaging 39 yds... seriously.

OL: (A) When your top running back has 2 straight 3 TD games, the O-line is probably doing something right.  The "big uglies" have consistently gotten better as the year progresses, opening up huge holes for the RB trio and slowly dropping their sacks/game.  Hackenberg had all day to throw on Saturday and he'll need it once Big Ten play starts.

RB: (A+) The classic line is, "if you have 2 quarterbacks, you actually have 0."  Well what about if you have 3 running backs?  Zwinak, Belton, and Lynch are holding up the entire team's scoring offense right now.  So far this season they have rushed for a combined 813 yds and 11 TDs (plus 1 rec TD).  Saturday was no different as Lynch ran for 123 yds (his 2nd 100+ game) and Zwinak scored 3 TDs (his 2nd such game).  This is the strongest part of the team right now, hands down.

WR: (B-) I spoke too soon last week when I said the receivers are pretty much guaranteed an "A" every week because of Robinson.  Against Kent State, he only grabbed 3 catches for 43 yds, which still made him the top receiver of the day.  This group does get a pass, however, because of the rain, and the good news is Brandon Felder's 3 catch, 35 yd performance shows he's the clear #2 target right now.  But I'm still waiting to see Geno Lewis, Alex Kenney, and Matt Zanellato step up and make their presence felt.

TE: (A-) Last week I joked that the Nos 2, 3, & 4 receivers were all tight ends.  Things didn't change much this week as the Nos 3, 4, & 5 receivers were all tight ends.  What has intrigued me thus far is James appears to distinguishing himself as the outlet for Hackenberg when plays break down, while Carter and Breneman are more big play threats.  To quote a writer for Onwardstate.com, "it's surreal hearing Dean DeVore say 'Christian Hackenberg's pass complete to Adam Breneman... FIRST DOWN Penn State!'"

Defense
DL: (A) They held Kent State to only 56 rush yds on 24 attempts... uh, yes please.  After getting torched by Storm Johnson (still an awesome name!) last week, it was great to see the front 4 come out strong.  Oh, and Deion Barnes finally came to life and recorded his first sack of the season!  Let's hope that was just the first of many.

LB: (A) ZERO offensive points for the 2nd time this season... nuff said.  Mike Hull didn't play, but let's face it, he didn't need to against Kent State.  He'll heal up over the bye week and this unit should be in prime (see what I did there?) form come Big Ten play.  Linebacker U!!!

DB: (A+) After last week's shellacking at the hands of Blake Bortles, the secondary came out fired up this week.  Senior safety Ryan Keiser emerged with 1 sack, 1 interception, and 3 passes defended.  Between him, Willis, Amos, and Obeng-Agyapong, can we just make our whole secondary safeties?

Special Teams
K: (A+) Ok seriously, where the f*** did this kid come from?!  Mark it down now, Sam Ficken is going to the NFL.  Who would've thought that a year ago?  Ficken broke his personal record for the second week in a row, this time nailing a 54 yarder in the pouring rain.  Even better, that's the longest FG by a Penn State kicker since 1979!!!  GO FICKEN!

P: (C+) See my comments in the QB section above.  Butterworth is good enough for now, but once we get into the inevitable slobberknockers of Big Ten play, the Lions are going to need him to pin people deep.  As of right now, it doesn't look like he's good enough to do that consistently.  Guess we'll have to wait and see...

Overall: (A-) The passing game was a little flat because of the weather, but the running game and defense made up for it big time.  Hmmm, sounds like good ol' fashioned Penn State football to me.  Glad to see that back in Beaver Stadium!  Still, we'll need everyone to take it to the #NextLevel during the off week if the Nittany Lions hope to win what will surely be a shootout against Indiana on Oct 5th.