Week 7 Wrap Up

The Penn State faithful made their way over the western border of PA and into Columbus for a prime time showdown with the #1 team in the country.  After a double-overtime near miss against the Buckeyes last season, the Nittany Lions had high hopes of keeping up with Ohio State and maybe even pulling off the upset.  But alas, many of the same issues that have plagued these young cubs all year long were exploited as they fell to the defending champs, 38-10.

Some quick observations:
- The black uniforms vs white uniforms were AWESOME!
- Dark colored "outs" don't work; your fans are supposed to pop, not disappear into the night.
- The announcers, Chris Fowler and Kirk Herbstreet, have gigantic man crushes on Penn State's defensive line and could not stop gushing about them all night.
- We finally have our starting offensive line together again!  That would be: Palmer, Mahon, Mangiro, Gaia, Nelson.  It showed in the running game, not so much in the pass protection.

Injury update:
Basically everyone was back, including OL Angelo Mangiro and P Chris Gulla.  Now, I was anticipating Barkley's return, but Akeel Lynch too?  That was great!  Adam Breneman once again suited up but did not play.  The only new loss was Kyle Carter.  No word on his status.  Hackenberg would eventually gash his leg during the game, leading to a limp, and also suffer an unspecified back injury.  Hopefully we'll have (good) news on that later in the week.

Now, about the game...
Ok, so we lost.  We knew we were going to lose.  There was even the possibility that we'd lose big, and that's pretty much what happened.  However, the fact is we're still 5-2 with two relatively easy teams coming up next.  It's not the end of the world.  Still, in his parting post with Black Shoe Diaries, Devon Edwards does a wonderful job of summing up the futility of this game and this team (at least, from an offensive standpoint).  In so many words, bad play calling continues to ruin incredible raw talent, and we only have so much time to watch guys like Christian Hackenberg and Saquon Barkley.  These players deserve way better than John Donovan.

One of those players is Saquon Barkley.  Have you heard of this kid?  Because apparently he's really good!  So let's really start this wrap up with him.  Think about this: Barkley has now rushed for at least 100 yds in every game he's played in.  He currently has the 3rd (195 yds vs Rutgers) and 4th (194 yds vs Ohio State) best single-game rushing performances by a freshman in Penn State history!  Those two record setting games represent 2/3 of the total number of games he's ever suited up for as a Nittany Lion!  If he stays healthy and finishes the year, he is basically guaranteed to obliterate every freshman record that exists, plus some non-freshman records for good measure.  This is history in the making folks.

The Big Ten Network gave the team a D grade, probably because we lost and they have zero creativity.  Our boys played well and got beat by the #1 team in the country, at their place, in prime time, against essentially an NFL roster.  It happens.  They definitely didn't deserve a D, though, that just means you weren't paying attention.  The truth is Penn State would have needed a perfect game to win, while Ohio State only needed to be average.  Turns out they were better than average and we were far from perfect.  One nice consolation prize is that we still have the better defensive line, despite OSU having Larry Johnson as their defensive line coach these days.  Don't believe me?  Well Josh Moyer from ESPN breaks down the numbers (btw, Austin Ward's argument for Ohio State... isn't very persuasive).

More to the point, all those people saying Ohio State's offense was so much better, I strongly beg to differ.  When Cardale Jones was in at QB, the Buckeyes slogged along and looked lost.  Only when he was replaced with JT Barrett did they show any signs of life.  Chasing after Barrett and Ezekiel Elliott all game will wear down even the best defenses, as they did ours.  But lest we forget about all the help OSU received from the punters... on both teams.  Punting was the biggest difference in this game.

Ohio State only had to start a drive from inside their own 25 twice, and got to start in PSU territory no fewer than four times.  Conversely, Penn State had to start inside their own 25 on 11 of their 12 possessions, including four times inside their own 10!  Field position made the scoreboard look the way it did, not talent.  When you take that into account, the offensive stats between the two teams actually look quite similar.  Case in point, here are some stats I bet the media won't acknowledge: Barkley ran for 40 more yds than Elliott on 1 fewer carries (although JT Barrett did add 102 yds and 2 TDs on 12 carries).  Hackenberg went 7-13 for 120 yds and 1 TD, while his primary competition in the draft, Cardale Jones, went 9-15 for only 84 yds and 0 TDs.  Chris Godwin had 3 catches for a whopping 103 yds, while Ohio State's leading WR was former QB Braxton Miller who had 4 catches for only 33 yds.  My point is this, it's disingenuous to act like Ohio State put on a show and Penn State was terrible just because they had 38 points and we only had 10.  This was a nuanced game... and if the stupid refs had let that Saquon Barkley TD stand, the game would have been VERY different!  Again, not a win, but maybe we could've covered the spread!

*Side bar* Speaking of which, I've been reading everywhere that the holding call on Brian Gaia, which negated said TD run, was legitimate and blatant.  Well I went back and watched it and I call bullshit!  Holding is grabbing a guy's jersey from behind or holding his arms.  Gaia was face to face with his man and grabbing all shoulder pad, exactly as he was taught.  It had the makings of a textbook pancake block, was definitely NOT a hold, and the refs blew the call costing us a TD and momentum! #RantOver

Defensively, it really sucks that the streak of games holding opponents under 300 yds of offense was broken.  It's one thing if you play like crap and get exposed; it's a whole other thing to play at a high level only to have your punting game put you in bad situations.  Continuing with our theme, these guys deserve better.

Ok, time for a recap of all the action.  Things started off well enough.  Penn State won the coin toss and deferred to the 2nd half.  Ohio State immediately suffered a three-and-out, while Akeel Lynch picked up a 1st down on his first play.  Right after that, Chris Godwin caught a 45 yd bomb to get the Lions all the way to the Buckeye 20.  It would lead to a 33 yd Joey Julius FG and quiet the raucous home crowd.  Also, PSU was on the board first!

But in what would become an annoying trend, Barkley had to lead the charge out of Penn State’s own endzone.  With the help of some penalties (pass interference and unsportsmanlike conduct) they got out to mid-field.  Mike Gesicki continued to drop clutch passes, even when he was wide open, but momentum really swung when the refs negated an incredible Barkley TD run.  The drive would end in a sack and spell the end for any chance PSU had at an upset.

JT Barrett eventually took over for the struggling Cardale Jones and walked a TD in on Ohio State's next possession.  That was followed by a Braxton Miller led drive that ended with an Ezekiel Elliott TD.

Make no mistake, Barkley continued to run the ball well with two consecutive 1st downs.  Unfortunately, when James Franklin decided to go for it on 4th and 8, Hack hesitated, got sacked, and killed the drive.  Bad new piled up as the 1st half came to a close.  JT Barrett found the endzone again and suddenly Hackenberg was sporting a large gash on his leg which caused him to have a noticeable limp for the rest of the game.

For once Penn State had a strong start to a 2nd half.  Hackenberg took a shot on the first play, going 56 yds downfield to Chris Godwin who dragged his defender for at least 20 of those yds after the catch.  Saquon Barkley got the team inside the 10 yd line, and Daesean Hamilton finished it off with a sideline tight rope and dive into the endzone!  Now PSU was only down by two scores.  The defense did their part with Carl Nassib once again collecting two sacks on the evening.  They held Ohio State to a FG and it almost looked like the Lions would have a chance of covering.  However, in the 4th quarter, when they tried once more on 4th down, Hack hesitated again while completely missing a wide open Barkley on his right.  Per usual, the drive ended in a sack.

By this point I had stopped caring and kind of enjoyed seeing Ohio State score on Urban Meyer's signature play, the QB jump pass.  I was less enthusiastic when Hackenberg fumbled with less than 6 minutes left.  The Buckeyes would score one more TD off that turnover with a beautiful fade pass to the back of the endzone.

It was around this time, down 4 TDs, that I started to wonder (as I had during the Temple game) why Hackenberg and Barkley were still in the game?  James Franklin tried to explain this away postgame by saying Ohio State still had their starting defense in.  That's a really lame excuse for risking injury to your two best players, especially with Hack already limping.  Someone needs to take charge in those situations and get those guys on the bench.

Long story short, it was another bad night in Columbus for Penn State.  How did I do in my prediction?  Well, we didn't come close to covering a spread that I already thought was too high... so whoops.  Considering I was only 4 points off Ohio State's score, I think it's safe to say I totally overestimated our offense when I spotted them 24 points.  In fact, yeah, let's just not talk about my prediction... *sigh*

Stupid Joey Bosa.  Yes, we're mad, bro!

That will do it for tonight.  Grades should be up by Wednesday night, and then we can move on to a slightly easier opponent and possibly bowl eligibility!  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!