Week 7 Grades

We continue with Ohio State week, albeit a little behind schedule.  I apologize but some personal matters needed attending to on Sunday so if you haven’t noticed by now, this week’s posts will all be a day late (but hopefully not a buck short).  Before I get going, if you were one of the lucky ones who were actually in Beaver Stadium during Saturday’s game, first of all, are your ears ok?  Second, why don’t you take a moment to do your best Where’s Waldo impression and find yourself in this amazing hi-def photo.  You can even tag yourself if you’re so inclined!  Alright, now let’s roll out some grades!

Offense

QB: (C) Christian Hackenberg has now thrown an interception in every game this season except UMass, and no I'm not counting the "interception" in the 1st quarter of Saturday's game.  We get it by now, the line is bad.  Consequently, Hack has developed terrible habits of throwing short, throwing into double and triple coverage, and just plain not throwing when he's under pressure.  Elite QBs don't do these things, even with a bad O-line in front of them.  It's no secret that Hackenberg came to Penn State to study under Bill O'Brien and potentially use O'Brien's NFL connections to gain extra favor with scouts.  However, BO'B is gone.  Learn the new offense, execute like the playmaker you are, and move on!

OL: (D+) Everyone knows these guys are terrible.  Thanks in large part to their efforts (or lack thereof), the entire offense has hit record depths of ineptitude.  Still, trust me when I say this, they are improving... slightly.  Ohio State's front 7 was supposed to be the best they faced all year, and yet Hackenberg seemed to have as much time if not more than usual.  There are still moments that are just head scratchers, though.  On a 3^rd and inches, Bill Belton noticed a log jam in the middle and cut to the outside.  The only problem was RT Andrew Nelson completely missed his block, allowing Joey Bosa to tackle Belton for a loss.  4^th down, punt.  Good news, it looks like Miles Dieffenbach will be back for the Maryland game this week.  Bad news, Donovan Smith most likely won't be.

RB: (F) You can effectively say that the Penn State rushing attack is now the worst in the nation.  There are, of course, a number of ways to measure a team's running game based on a whole host of statistics.  Unfortunately, our running backs are dead last, or close to last, in basically all of the ones that actually matter.  As if things couldn't get any worse, senior Zach Zwinak is officially out for the rest of the year.  Akeel Lynch appears to be the best bet for the future, however, he remains in a back up role for now.

WR: (A-) Where did Geno Lewis go?  Against Ohio State, the junior only had 1 catch for 11 yds after being sidelined for most of the Michigan game due to "consistency" issues.  He almost had a second grab except he took a huge shot that looked like possible targeting.  After getting up clearly dizzy he seemed hesitant the rest of the game.  Luckily Hackenberg's favorite target, Daesean Hamilton, had his best game yet.  He caught a Penn State record 14 passes in a single game, good for 126 yds, and earned Big Ten Freshman of the Week honors.  Saeed Blacknall was second on the team with 4 catches for 34 yds and his first career TD.  And Chris Godwin pulled in 3 of his own for 16 yds.  Godwin has now caught a pass in every game this year and with him and Blacknall being freshman, the receiver position looks set for the foreseeable future.

TE: (B-) I think it's safe to say we were spoiled by Bill O'Brien.  He assembled an elite collection of TE talent for his TE-heavy schemes, but without his coaching and play calling, they've been just OK so far.  Jesse James, Kyle Carter, and Mike Gesicki combined for 6 catches and 29 yds, but 4 of those catches and 22 of those yds came from James alone.  Overall, they’re just not breaking out the way many experts predicted.  And since most of them have little experience blocking, they can't even be of use as an extra blocker on the offensive line.  Would things be better if Adam Breneman was healthy?  Who knows, but it couldn't hurt.

Defense

DL: (A) The insane numbers start on the defensive line.  Anthony Zettel continues on his warpath hauling in his second interception in as many games, this time returning it 40 yds for a TD that sparked the Lions' 2nd half comeback.  As I mentioned yesterday, though, he was conspicuously absent for large stretches of the game.  Hopefully he was just winded and not injured.  CJ Olaniyan led the linemen with 9 tackles and Deion Barnes was next with 7, including 1.5 for a loss and a sack.  Zettel actually only registered 2 tackles, but added 1 for a loss, 1 sack, and a pass breakup on a double jump move that almost turned into a 2nd interception!  The backups combined for another 7 tackles.

LB: (A+) All I have to say is, Mike Hull for every award!  The unquestioned leader of the defense, and Linebacker U flag-bearer, had a personal record 19 total tackles against the Buckeyes as well as an interception that led to Penn State's 2nd TD!  He's absolutely ridiculous!  Brandon Bell was 2nd on the team with 13 tackles of his own, including 1 for a loss and 1 sack.  Nyeem Wartman wasn't far behind with 9 tackles.  All told, the starting 3 had 40 freaking tackles!  Going back to Hull, even though he was inexplicably snubbed as a semi-finalist for the Butkus Award (given to the nation's best LB), he was added to the watch list for the Bednarik Award (given to the nation's best defender), which isn't a bad consolation prize.

DB: (A-) Adrian Amos had a decent day with 7 tackles, while fellow safety Jesse Della Valle added 4 more.  CB Trevor Williams had 3, while Jordan Lucas and Grant Haley each had 2.  But the day belonged to unlikely breakout star Marcus Allen.  The true freshman took over in place of injured senior Ryan Keiser and looked like a veteran from the get go.  He had an amazing 11 tackles, but more importantly had 2 huge pass breakups which should have been interceptions.  Not on the stat sheet were the number of times he came flying in from out of nowhere to make a huge hit on the ball carrier.  Between him and Haley, the future of the secondary is almost as bright as the wide receiver position.

*Side note* There are conflicting reports on the status of Ryan Keiser.  Some sources say he caught an infection during surgery and is in critical condition.  Other sources say there was no infection and he's in stable condition.  Either way, please send your thoughts and/or prayers out to Ryan and his family.

Special Teams

K: (A) What can I say?  Ficken sent us into overtime and nailed both extra points.  Solid performance.

P: (F) I had high hopes for Chris Gulla; really I did.  What a difference a few games make.  The punting situation right now is abysmal, dreadful, terrible, insert negative adjective here.  It didn't matter who was back there.  The coaches tried Gulla, then switched to fellow rookie (and Australian soccer player) Daniel Pasquariello.  Both clearly have the leg to be big time punters, but both also kept shanking their punts out of bounds.  They just couldn't reverse the field position and put the defense in bad spots all night.  Together they only averaged 34 yds, which is even more scary when you consider they each had a 40+ yarder, so their other punts must have been really bad to average out to 34 yds.  Will we see James Franklin take a page out of the O'Brien playbook and go for it on 4th down more often?  With this running game, I wouldn't count on it.

Bonus grade: The Blue Band gets an A+ because, well, the Blue Band always wins.  More to the point, though, after being voted the No 1 band in the nation by USA Today, they decided to dazzle us with this “Channel surfing” halftime show.  Oh, and if you've ever wondered what it’s like to actually march pregame with the Blue Band, here’s a trumpet-eye view of the White House from field level.

That's all the grades I have for today.  Awards will be out tomorrow, so stop back then.  Facebook is still a thing, and I'm there now!  Don't forget to follow me on Twitter @PSUOptimus, and as always, go State!