Week 3 Wrap Up

For the first time ever, Penn State fans veered away from their now famous White Out and instead attempted a Stripe Out.  It turned out pretty nice actually, but I have to admit Iowa does it better.  Still, 104,000 blue and white diehards braved a second rainy Saturday in a row to make things look extra nice for the Big Ten Network cameras.  I have to give it to BTN, not only did they show tons of great aerial shots of the Stripe Out but they also showed the Blue Band's pregame entrance (complete with fireworks!) and even aired the post game singing of the alma mater with the team in its entirety.  Very classy!

The first ever Stripe Out in all its glory

Now that the game is over, I want to get something off my chest.  I understand Rutgers came to Happy Valley depressed and drained after a tough week.  They were playing without key contributors on both sides of the ball and without their head coach.  They proceed to leave Happy Valley on the losing end of an embarrassing 28-3 beatdown that was never really close.  So you’ll probably hear a lot of excuses for the loss coming from Piscataway this week, but the fact remains that great programs rise above adversity, they don’t collapse under it.  Last year, when the Scarlet Knights and their fans were puffing their chests and boasting about how big a splash they were going to make in their new conference by beating their “rival” Penn State, they seemed more than willing to ignore extenuating circumstances off the field.  They had no problems bragging about beating PSU (if they had won) even though the team was still under heavy sanctions, going through a coaching change, and playing a night game on the road.  So when they came to our house this year for a night game, reeling from their own off field issues, I saw no problem with the Nittany Lions kicking them while they were down in front of a nationally televised audience.  Don’t worry, they’ll get over it; they’re used to losing by this point.  And hell, maybe now they’ll cut back on all the “ped state” and “rivalry" talk.  Just sayin...

Now, Coach Franklin and the players like to look at things one week at a time and that's fine.  However, I have the luxury, neigh the obligation as a blogger, to blindly prognosticate about the future of this team as if I actually have a clue!  And here's how I see it.  With this victory, Penn State stands at 2-1 (1-0 in Big Ten play).  In front of them are home games against San Diego State, Army, and Indiana, all of whom are very beatable.  That puts the Lions at 5-1 and only 1 win shy of bowl eligibility.  More importantly, at 2-0 in conference play, Penn State will be temporarily atop the East Division as they travel to Columbus to take on defending National Champions and #1 ranked Ohio State.  Don't get me wrong, we're probably going to get destroyed in that game, but if everything works out, the week leading up to it sure will be fun!

Why do I have such optimism for the future?  Well, only two WRs, sophomores Chris Godwin and Daesean Hamilton, caught passes on Saturday night.  All things considered, they put up nice numbers with those limited touches.  Hamilton, for example, quadrupled his combined yardage from the first two games.  What's really scary, though, is that they were just two of the youngsters making plays.  DeAndre Thompkins and Brandon Polk have each made the jet sweep work for their respective first TDs as Nittany Lions.  CB Grant Haley and his back up, freshman John Reid each had interceptions (although Reid's return was better looking) while safety Troy Apke forced a fumble that Reid recovered to basically seal the victory.  Saquon Barkley ran for an astounding 195 yds and 2 TDs (more on him in a minute).  And Jason Cabinda and Troy Reeder were a terrifying duo at LB reminiscent of Mauti and Hodges, combining for 14 tackles, 1.5 for a loss, and a pass breakup.  All of these guys are either sophomores or freshmen.  Yes, it's a youth movement ladies and gentlemen, and they'll only continue to grow and get better over the next few years.  As Glenn Quagmire once said...

Alright, alright, alright, what happened in this supposedly awesome game?  Well, as has come to be expected from this offense, the first couple drives stalled despite great field position from the special teams units.  One good thing was that Akeel Lynch and Saquon Barkley were splitting carries and looking great doing it.  I also came to the conclusion that the jet sweep is this year’s wildcat formation.  It’s the play that rarely works and fans hate seeing, but the staff insists on running anyway.  However, I found myself eating crow about that when DeAndre Thompkins scored his first ever TD using it to start what would be a very eventful quarter of football.

The 2nd quarter brought with it heavy rain for the second consecutive week.  In spite of the rain, Hackenberg took a few shots downfield, including one to Daesean Hamilton for a huge play.  After some short passes to Chris Godwin, freshman sensation Saquon Barkley polished off the drive with an incredible TD that, at first, looked like it was going nowhere.  Looking at the clock, most fans figured that would end the half with Penn State up 14-0… but we were wrong.  A quick three and out by the defense gave the Lions the ball back with 1:30 left.  Hackenberg handed it off to Akeel Lynch who hit the largest hole I’ve ever seen an offensive line make and proceeded to take it 70 yds to the house!  I think he was just as shocked as the rest of us to see nothing but green grass in front of him.  Seriously, there was NO ONE on defense!  On the ensuing Rutgers possession, Grant Haley announced his return from injury with his first interception of the year to end the half for good with Penn State on top 21-0.

The 2nd half was dominated by defense, although it was mostly Penn State’s defense.  I already mentioned young guys like Haley, Reid, Cabinda, and Reeder.  Well the old heads came to play too.  Jordan Lucas was effective both blitzing and playing in coverage.  He also made a big impact on special teams where he batted down a punt at the 1 yd line.  Carl Nassib and Austin Johnson both played great along the line with 10 combined tackles, 3.5 for a loss and 2 sacks.  Backup DT Antoine White also played well with 3 tackles and half a sack.  It all culminated with 7 minutes left in the game.  Rutgers was in the middle of an otherwise promising drive, until suddenly they suffered 3 sacks in a row by 3 different Penn State players: Nassib, Lucas, and Johnson.  The end result was a hilarious 4^th and 39!

Oh, did I mention Penn State ran the ball well?  Yeah, you might have heard a little bit about this kid, Saquon Barkley.  Enjoy this guy while he's here because he is something special.  A former Rutgers commit, Barkley had huge runs pretty much every time he touched the ball.  Realistically he should have had 3 TDs in this game, but had to settle for just 2.  He had a fantastic night, coming just 5 yds shy of 200 total and averaging 9.3 yds/carry!  His performance was good enough to earn his 2nd consecutive Big Ten Freshman of the Week honors.  Akeel Lynch (the actual 1st string back) also ran for 100+ yds and had his own TD.  They became the first Penn State RB duo to rush for 100 yds each since Royster and Redd 7 years ago!

A big help to that running game was the offensive line who went a second week in a row with ZERO sacks!  I know, I'll give you a second to stop gasping... Even without their best player, Andrew Nelson, who remains out with a knee injury, the line put together their most complete game yet.  Paris Palmer looked like a totally different player.  I guess he finally got all those first game jitters out of his system.  Running lanes were wide open seemingly all night and pass protection was much better.  It can definitely still improve, seeing as there are much better defensive lines on the schedule, but the big boys up front showed that they aren't nearly as awful as we thought following the Temple game.

On special teams, Chris Gulla got a second chance by replacing the struggling Danny Pasquariello and he was absolutely awesome!  He pinned Rutgers deep on every possession and never once let them get past their own 25 yd line to start a drive.  He was helped by the fantastic play of Jordan Lucas on “gunner” duty.  Gulla averaged 41 yds/punt with a long of 52.  More impressively, he held Rutgers’ explosive return man Janarion Grant to -1 yd and only allowed him to attempt a return once!  In the return game, Nick Scott is averaging nearly 30 yds per return and just itching to break one for a TD.

So how did I do with my prediction?  I was only off by 1 point on Penn State's score, but I vastly overestimated the Rutgers offense (or underestimated our own defense).  A win is a win, though.  Unfortunately I was right about Hackenberg.  He threw for just over 100 yds and had an interception with no TDs.  Akeel Lynch and Saquon Barkley both had TDs (in fact Barkley had 2) but Godwin couldn't find the endzone.  The defense played exactly the kind of lights out style I was anticipating.  The crowd definitely got involved, especially when Rutgers was backed up right in the heart of the student section.  It was Marcus Allen, coming back from injury, not Austin Johnson who led the team in tackles.  Johnson and Nassib each recorded sacks, but Sickels and Zettel were both shockingly absent most of the night.  Grant Haley and Brandon Bell did return from injuries but only Haley got a pick.  And it was John Reid who got a fumble recovery, not Troy Reeder.  Still, all things considered I did pretty darn well!

Sorry for the length of this one.  I was just so excited to write about all the awesomeness that happened that I got carried away.  I think I was still trying to get the sour taste of the Temple loss out of my mouth.  I'll have my grades post out later this week.  In the meantime, keep up to date with all things Penn State football over on my Facebook page.  Don't forget to follow me on Twitter @PSUOptimus, and as always, go State!