Week 6 Wrap Up

Mother Nature finally decided to cooperate for Homecoming 2015 and the final act of a five game home stand for the Nittany Lions.  The weather looked absolutely beautiful on TV, which may have contributed to the pass-happy playcalling for both teams.  In the end, PSU dominated Indiana, and brought their current win streak up to five.  More importantly, Penn State suffered no new injuries for the first time all season.  That may allow them to get pretty close to full strength when they travel to Columbus next week to take on #1 Ohio State... we'll talk about that more on Friday.  For now, let's focus on Indiana.

I'd like to start by saying, touche John Donovan.  Just when I had pretty much given up all hope of you ever putting together a competent offense, you go and pull this game plan out of your ass.  You might actually know what you're doing after all... or did the blind squirrel just find a nut?  Regardless, you managed to put points on the board in creative ways despite the loss of your top two RBs and the starting center on your depleted offensive line.  To that, all I have to say is...

Speaking of lost players, both teams came into the game extremely banged up, and for the most part the players we expected to sit out did exactly that.  Neither Saquon Barkley nor Akeel Lynch played, giving Nick Scott the start.  OL Angelo Mangiro was also out and replaced by Wendy Laurent.  Fellow lineman Andrew Nelson was back in action, though, leaving the line like this: Paris Palmer, Brendon Mahon, Wendy Laurent, Brian Gaia, Andrew Nelson.  Punter Chris Gulla apparently got injured in the Army game and also didn’t play.  This meant the Punter From Down Under, Danny Pasquariello, got the nod.  The good news was that S Marcus Allen and LB Brandon Bell were finally back and TE Adam Breneman was in uniform for the first time all season (although he did not play).  This may be the longest injury report I’ve ever done for a single game.  I hope it never comes to this again.

Now, I want to begin by talking about the two key match-ups I mentioned in my prediction post: our poor offense vs their poor defense, and their great offense vs our great defense.  Well, it looks like our offense isn't as bad as we thought, while our defense is exactly as legitimate as we knew all along.  To give you an idea, Indiana had allowed only 3 sacks all season coming into Saturday's contest; our defense recorded 4.  They also chopped IU's yds per play in half, limited their 36 points per game to only 7, and turned a team averaging 498 yds per game into the latest victim of The Streak (PSU still hasn't given up more than 300 total yds to an opponent this year).  Just how good was this defense?  Following the Hoosiers' only points of the game, they inexplicably went for and recovered an onside kick.  It promptly led to a three-and-out.  On Penn State's ensuing drive, RB Mark Allen lost the first fumble PSU has given up this whole season and gave Indiana the ball at their own 43; they would only manage one 1st down.  Yeah, they were that good.

Teams have clearly taken note of Anthony Zettel's break out 2014 campaign and focused their attention on the potential first round draft pick.  This has in turn allowed his DT counterpart Austin Johnson to step out from Zettel's shadow, and allowed DE Carl Nassib to have his own break out year, wreaking havoc on every offense he comes in contact with and fighting for the title of Nation's Sack Master.  Still, we knew coming into this one that the defense was awesome.  What we didn't know was what to think about this offense.  Well, they answered in a big way, and hopefully they can keep things going from here on out.  Let's dive into what happened!

Penn State got the ball to start but didn’t do much.  Two uncharacteristic drops by Chris Godwin and some poor play by Hackenberg resulted in the first of many punts on the day, but allowed Danny Pasquariello to pin Indiana back at their own 6 yd line.  Dual-threat QB Zander Diamont came out throwing instead of running, and just like Hack, he did it poorly.  Here's a stat to symbolize the futility of the 1st quarter - both team’s QBs combined to go 0-7 on their opening possessions.

Hackenberg continued to find his groove and the multitude of dropped passes by his WRs didn’t help matters.  Chris Godwin would drop four catchable balls before finally shaking the cobwebs loose in the 2nd quarter.  TE Mike Gesicki also dropped his first two targets of the afternoon.  RB Nick Scott was the lone bright spot early, running for a few important 1st downs before Brandon Polk faked the jet sweep, ran a route down the sideline, and caught a 39 yd bomb from Hack for the first points of the game and Polk's first career receiving TD!  Indiana would answer immediately on their next drive with a Zander Diamont sneak and score.  But even more alarming was the successful onside kick recovery during the ensuing kickoff.  Penn State’s defense would hold strong and prevent a huge swing in momentum.

Geno Lewis had been strangely absent this year, but we finally heard his name in a game where 9 different players would catch a pass.  He, along with Chris Godwin (who woke up after a miserable opening quarter that saw him drop no fewer than four catchable passes), made plays when the team needed them and came up with a number of critical 1st downs.  Fellow WR Daesean Hamilton would also get involved, pulling in Hackenberg's second 39 bomb of the day for a TD.  The celebration was cut short when the usually reliable Joey "Big Toe" Julius missed the extra point, leaving the score at 13-7.

One of the biggest stories of the game was Christian Hackenberg's evolution into a "dual-threat" QB.  No seriously, on the very next offensive possession, he got things rolling with a 9 yd scramble, then followed it up with an impressive 22 yd run.  He would eventually polish the drive off himself with a 5 yd run and his third TD of the day (much to the dismay of a wide open Kyle Carter).  Joey Julius would go on to miss his second extra point of the day and eventually get replaced by freshman Tyler Davis.  *Just to play devil's advocate, Chris Gulla is usually the holder for FGs and extra points, but he was out with an injury.  Maybe that's what caused the misses.  Either way, that needs to stop ASAP!*

Nothing of any real importance happened immediately after halftime.  For some perspective, the 3rd quarter featured 7 punts and no 1st downs.  4 of those punts belonged to Penn State, and 3 of those came after three-and-outs.  Ouch.  However, one key play was when Zander Diamont (already the back up to original starting QB Nate Sudfeld) took a huge shot from DE Garrett Sickells and was knocked out of the game.  This forced the Hoosiers to bring in their third stringer, Danny Cameron, a redshirt freshman playing his first collegiate snaps ever.  He would predictably play like a freshman, especially against this defense, and remove all doubt regarding the outcome of the game.

In the 4th quarter, CB John Reid snagged a tipped pass for his second career interception, proving what I’ve said about him since day one.  On the first play of the ensuing drive, Kyle Carter got involved with a nice catch.  He would actually have three that drive, including some 1st down grabs.  But just like earlier, Hackenberg would steal Carter's thunder, polishing off the drive with a 5 yd run and a superman style dive for his fourth TD of the day.  New kicker Tyler Davis managed to hit this extra point, putting the Nittany Lions up 26-7.

Later on we saw the obligatory stalled drive that ends in a FG attempt, just as I predicted in my post, only it was Davis kicking, not Julius.  He would hit the 30 yarder for the last points of the game.

So how’d I do on my prediction?  Well if Joey Julius hadn’t missed those extra points I would have nailed PSU’s score!  And I ended up either giving too much credit to IU’s offense or not enough credit to PSU’s defense… can’t decide. Either way, they only managed 7.  Hackenberg did throw for well over 200 yds and 2 TDs, but he didn’t throw a pick!  And who could have guessed he’d run for 2 TDs as well?  His targets on those TDs ended up being Polk and Hamilton instead of Godwin and Hamilton, so I was half right there.  The 3 RBs I mentioned combined for 111 yds instead of 150 and none of them scored, so swing and a miss.  Julius was pulled after his misses, so it was actually Tyler Davis who hit the stalled drive FG.  On defense, 3 players tied for the lead in tackles while plenty of people got sacks including my predictions of Nassib and Johnson.  Finally, freshman John Reid grabbed the INT, not Lucas or Haley, but it did effectively seal the game.  The Nittany Lions get the win, improve to 5-1 on the season, and are now just one win away from bowl eligibility!

That will do it for today.  I think the grades post is coming along nicely and might be up as soon as tomorrow evening.  In the meantime, head on over to my Facebook page and give it a like or even a share.  Don't forget to follow me on Twitter @PSUOptimus, and as always, go State!