Week 4 Wrap Up

Some would call the cold and rainy conditions in Happy Valley yesterday "perfect football weather."  I don't know about all that, especially since it sure managed to keep the crowds away.  But all that really matters is Penn State swam out of Beaver Stadium with another W and improved their record to 3-1.  Saturday's game marked the end of the non-conference schedule and the Nittany Lions will enjoy a much deserved bye week before they begin Big Ten play against Indiana on Oct 5th.

The game itself was about as pretty as the dark cloudy skies.  Thankfully for the mistake-prone Lions, Kent State was in town and fulfilled their duty as warm-up opponent du jour rather nicely.  After a number of stalled drives, Bill Belton finally scored with only 9 seconds left in the 1st quarter and Penn State never looked back cruising to a 34-0 victory over the hapless Golden Flashes.

Even Coach O'Brien admitted after the game that he called too many pass plays, especially given the heavy rain that fell throughout the afternoon.  All those pass plays contributed to a surprisingly poor offensive performance, especially by Christian Hackenberg who went a mere 13/35 for 176 yds and severely damaged his 71% completion percentage compiled in the first 3 weeks.  Even stud receiver Allen Robinson had trouble catching the wet football, grabbing only 3 catches for 43 yds.  When they were called upon, however, the running backs continued to show their improvement from week 1 as Akeel Lynch got 14 carries for a personal best 123 yds, and Zach Zwinak scored 3 touchdowns for the second week in a row, this time in a winning effort.

The defense, as predicted, took out their frustrations on Kent State's sputtering offense (missing star RB Dri Archer due to injury) as Deion Barnes got his first sack of the season and safety Ryan Keiser emerged from a secondary that was embarrassed in week 3 by getting both a sack and an interception.  The shut out was the first since... oh look at that, Kent State in week 3 of the 2010 season.  Although, it should be pointed out that Eastern Michigan did not score an offensive point 2 weeks ago; they're lone 7 points came off a fumble returned for a touchdown.  Maybe this defense isn't as bad as we thought?

So overall, a solid performance for PSU in sloppy conditions.  The few small injuries that remain should be healed up over the bye week and best of all, the team takes a 3-1 record into conference play instead of the 2-2 record they had at this time last year.

Now to humbly review my prediction:

To be fair, I had no idea about the rain, and my prediction may have been significantly more accurate had the sun been shining.  But either way, I got within 4 points of Penn State's score, which isn't bad.  I did give Kent State waaaay too much credit on offense, spotting them 13 points instead of the 0 they earned.  As for individuals: Hackenberg didn't get anywhere close to 300 yds (rain), nor did Robinson approach 100 yds (rain), and the two only connected for 1 TD instead of 2 (probably rain).  Zwinak went for 1 more TD than I anticipated and it was Lynch who actually surpassed 100 yds, mostly in garbage time.  Belton scored a TD and nearly doubled my 50 yd prediction with 90 yds on 13 carries.  Barnes recorded his first sack of the season, but the secondary only managed 1 interception, not 2.  So yeah, not my best effort.  I'll be sure to check the weather report next time.

Check back tomorrow for awards!