Week 11 Wrap Up

The Nittany Lions walked into Memorial Stadium believing their own hype from the Temple game.  They walked out with with their 5th loss of the year as they fall to Illinois, 14-16.  No matter how many times James Franklin says his team plays “12 one-week seasons” it was pretty darn clear, even to the casual observer, that in this case the team was caught looking ahead and phoning it in.  They came out completely flat on Saturday against an Illinois team they should have easily beaten.  Now they'll need to pull off a miracle next week in order to get to 7 wins.  Why do they need 7 wins?  Because I am NOT going to Detroit to watch this Penn State team stink up the field!  Hey Coach Franklin, all those incredible resources that Penn State brings to the table and allow you to recruit like never before?  Yeah, well they come with expectations, and right now you’re not living up to them.  Let's get into exactly what happened.

I don't know what was worse, Penn State's play or Illinois' student section

I'll start things off with the injury report.  LB Brandon Bell was held out of the game due to an undisclosed injury.  Bell has steadily gotten better all year, but this meant more playing time for freshman Jason Cabinda.  The last time a starting LB was injured, it was Nyeen Wartman during the Northwestern game – another PSU loss to an inferior Big Ten team on a day where the defense played less than stellar, especially against the pass.  Coincidence?  Maybe more a sign that our starting 3 LBs are solid, but our backups, not so much.  Otherwise, Trevor Williams was back at CB, and both Miles Dieffenbach and Donovan Smith were back to full capacity for the entire game.

Contrary to the rest of the contest, Penn State’s opening drive actually went quite well.  A good mix of run and pass plays got everyone from Hamilton, to Belton, to Lynch involved.  It would eventually end with Chris Godwin’s first career TD as the Lions took a quick 7-0 lead.  Things just seemed to be clicking.  On their second drive, it looked as if Penn State would have to punt… until wait, trick play!  A direct snap to backup DL Brad Bars.  The big man showed great athleticism, cutting to the outside for 32 yds and a 1^st down!  Along the way he picked up a big block from another backup, freshman safety (and converted WR) Troy Apke.  However, all the good luck came to an end as a botched FG attempt led to no points.  It would be a sign of things to come.

*Before I continue, I’d like to talk about a little thing in sports called “the yips.”  This phenomenon is simply defined as the sudden loss of fine motor skills for no apparent reason.  In football, when you can’t seem to execute even the simplest tasks, that's the yips.*

In the 2^nd quarter, things slowly started to fall apart.  TE Kyle Carter had numerous targets but all he managed to catch was a case of the yips.  And it must have been contagious because Christian Hackenberg was exhibiting signs of the dreaded condition as well.  It was particularly noticeable after Hack took a shot to the leg from an Illinois defender, getting up with a serious limp.  From that point on, he refused to step up in the pocket, opting instead to stand awkward and rigid, as if nursing the injury.  Worse still, it just looked like at some point, Hackenberg stopped caring.  More to that point, the coaches must have noticed too and only called 18 total pass plays.  It was clear they didn't trust him and for the first time all season, he failed to surpass 100 yds passing.

But the hits just kept on coming.  Bill Belton went to the sidelines in the 2nd quarter and sure enough, it was announced later that due to an apparent shoulder injury he would be out for the game.  Cole Chiappialle (pronounced “chippy-alley”) was somewhat of a hero in the Blue/White game, but was generally viewed as nothing more than a 4^th string option.  With injuries to Zwinak and now Belton, though, he found himself in the #2 spot.  Then, after Akeel Lynch was temporarily benched for an ill-timed fumble, Chippialle was suddenly thrust into the game.  Try as he might, though, all he managed to do was continue the downward spiral of Penn State’s offense.  The second half was, for the most part, more of the same.  Penn State was supposed to begin with the ball, but the wind messed up the opening kickoff and Illinois recovered what was essentially a long onsides kick.  With a short field, they picked up their first FG.

What was most frustrating, however, was that we saw brief glimpses of what this offense could be.  Hamilton on the jet sweep seemed to work, until Illinois figured it out and blew it up for a big loss.  Jesse James and Mike Gesicki each pulled in nice catches for 1^st downs in relief of Kyle Carter.  Akeel Lynch performed admirably as both a RB, where he scored a 47 yd TD to start the 3rd quarter, and as a wildcat QB, where he was vital in converting tough 3rd downs.  This eventually opened up the playaction pass to Geno Lewis.  Even the O-line showed marked improvement.  For the second week in a row, the only problem seemed to be Hackenberg.  Too many drives came to a sudden halt thanks to throws that were either way over receivers' heads or tossed at their shoelaces.

Meanwhile on the other sideline, Illinois began making adjustments that would prove to be the difference in the game.  QB Wes Lunt was replaced with dual-threat Riley O’Toole in the 2nd quarter.  At first, he did nothing to inspire much confidence and the Illini were forced to punt… until wait, Zettel jumped offsides!  A rare mistake gave Illinois a fresh set of downs and that’s when O’Toole really came alive.  Unfortunately, it was at this exact moment that Bob Shoop made the regrettable decision to switch to zone coverage.  For those who don't know, here's the difference between zone and man-to-man coverage.  Suffice it to say, this strategy generally leaves you vulnerable against talented WRs; and as I mentioned in my prediction post, Mike Dudek is a talented receiver.  He ended the day with 11 catches for 115 yds and generally made our secondary look as bad as they've looked all year.

By the 4th quarter, Riley O’Toole had figured out Penn State's vaunted defense and was firing on all cylinders.  The key to his success seemed to be getting the ball out of his hands in a way that Hackenberg simply hasn't been able to.  On at least three different plays, O’Toole looked to be sacked only to somehow pull off a circus throw just before hitting the ground.  Even more inexplicably, it always seemed to find its way right into the waiting hands of his receivers, most often the aforementioned Mike Dudek.  By game's end, Illinois would attempt 2 straight FGs, missing 1, and leaving Penn State with 3:29 left, a 1 point lead, and the ball.  But after 3 consecutive runs including a 3^rd and 5 sneak by Hackenberg that came up just 1 yd short of the 1^st down, James Franklin decided to punt instead of going for it to ice the game. It was a bad omen of what was to come.

Illinois started their drive with 2 huge throws, each for a 1^st down.  Mike Dudek was unstoppable by this point, and eventually the Illini made it all the way down inside the 10 yd line, setting up an easy FG with only 13 seconds left on the clock.  It sneaked inside the uprights and that was all she wrote.

As for my prediction… whoops.  Vegas once again “knew something” when they set the line at 7 points, although even they didn't think Illinois would win outright.  Hackenberg kind of improved, I guess.  He made it back up to 50% passing, had a TD (to a WR instead of a TE like I predicted), and he actually managed to go an entire game without throwing it to the other team.  However, he also took some really bad sacks that were completely his fault, and he only threw for 93 yds while handing off to RBs for most of the day.  I will say that he tried to get the TEs involved more, but especially Kyle Carter didn't give him much to work with.  Belton's injury prevented him from scoring but Lynch made up for it on one of the few highlights of the game.  Ficken was only asked to try a FG once, but Chris Gulla (who I just got done praising 2 weeks ago!) bobbled the snap and was tackled for an 8 yd loss.  Defensively, Mike Hull did get to double digits with 10 tackles, again leading the team, but didn't quite reach the 15 tackles I thought he would have.  Overall, the defense had one of their worst performances all year, failing to get a turnover and not coming anywhere close to the shutout I anticipated.

It was all very depressing, but we press on with the season.  Check back tomorrow for a breakdown of what went wrong position by position as I hand out the grades.  If you want to stay up to date on all things Penn State football be sure to go like my Facebook page.  Don't forget to follow me on Twitter @PSUOptimus, and as always, go State!