Week 9 Grades

Obviously I’m a huge Penn State fan, and I would assume most of my readers are as well.  Fandom inevitably carries with it a certain degree of bias, even if I try to at least limit said bias in these posts.  Hence, when I do grades, more often than not I try to give certain units the benefit of the doubt, especially those getting beat up unfairly by the media.  Today’s issue of grades will not be such a case.  That game sucked and my grades will reflect this fact.  Get ready for a rough one, here we go.

Offense

QB: (F) Sorry Christian, but that was just awful!  The first two drives of the game both ended with interceptions and once again our “talented” freshman quarterback couldn't hang onto the ball after being hit as he fumbled it on his way to the ground.  That’s at least the 3^rd time he’s done that this season.  Speaking of that hit, Hackenberg injured his throwing shoulder during it.  Now credit goes to him for trying to play through the pain, but that will only get you so far.  The only good news is that Ferguson looks like a very serviceable back up in case Hackenberg can’t go this week against Illinois.  He actually had more yards than Hackenberg on fewer attempts and even got a TD.  Impressive.?

OL: (D+) I’m never really sure what to give the offensive line.  There’s no real statistics that jump out and indicate whether they did a good job or not, so I just have to go with the eyeball test.  Hackenberg was hurried too much, and we only put 7 points on the board in meaningful play.  They dodge a failing grade simply because the running game did have some success and quite frankly, I like these guys.

RB: (B) Bill Belton was a mere 2 yds shy of becoming the first running back this season to put a 100 spot on the Buckeyes defense.  He looked shockingly good for most of the night.  Akeel Lynch also had some good runs in garbage time.  Zwinak fumbled again, and it looks like he may be done for the year.  Still, along with Allen Robinson, this was one of the few bright spots on a very dark night.

WR: (A-) Speaking of Allen Robinson, he had 12 catches for 173 yds and his lone TD was arguably the best play of game.  Brandon Felder had 4 catches for 42 yds and a TD of his own.  What can I say, they were brilliant yet again, even as everyone was sucking around them.

TE: (F) There are ZERO stats on these guys because they did NOTHING!  I was going to give them an “NA” except that Hackenberg did try to get it to Jesse James a few times; James just chose not to catch the ball.  So I’m choosing to fail them.

Defense

DL: (F) The good news is these guys got possibly more pressure on Braxton Miller than any other opposing QB all season.  The bad news is Braxton Miller loves pressure because it just means more room at the second level for him to run, to the tune of 68 yds on the ground.  Oh, and some guy named Carlos Hyde put 147 more yds on them.  FAIL!

LB: (F) Linebackers are responsible for covering both the pass and the run.  They get tons of credit when the defense does well, so they’ll get just as much credit when the defense bombs.  They allowed 686 yds of total offense and 63 total points in the worst defeat in Penn State football history.  Um, yeah, that would be a FAIL!

DB: (F) Ohio State quarterbacks combined (and I say “combined” because they were on their 3^rd string by game’s end in an effort to stop the bleeding) to go 20/26 for 278 yds and 3 TDs.  Oh, and they didn't throw a single interception.  The secondary blew it again, FAIL!

Special Teams

K: (NA) Seriously, besides a few kickoffs this unit wasn't given a chance to do much all night.  The returners did average 14 yds/return, which isn’t bad, but that was offset when we stupidly let a backup defensive tackle return a kick… seriously.  No use even giving them a grade.

P: (C) Butterworth averaged 37 yds/punt, I guess that’s worthy of a C?  We didn't bother returning Ohio State’s only punt of the night, so no additional data there to help make my decision.

Well, at least that was probably the shortest grades post I've ever done.  I would anticipate an equally short awards post tomorrow.  *sigh* follow me on Twitter @PSUOptimus and try to enjoy the rest of your week.