Week 11 Wrap Up

On a perfectly brisk fall afternoon, in front of an emotionally charged Senior Day/Whiteout crowd hoping for an upset, the dreams of Nittany Nation (no matter how unrealistic) were dashed as Penn State fell to the Michigan Wolverines by a score of 28-16.  Another lackluster performance by the offense mixed with the continued slide on defense gave us a perfect storm of ineptitude.  Despite a litany of self-inflicted penalties by Michigan, James Franklin's crew couldn't get out of their own way long enough to take advantage of the mistakes and eke out a win.  Their undefeated home record for the year was ruined as PSU slides to 7-4 with the mighty Spartans of Michigan State looming on the road next week to finish out the season.  The loss was expected, the lingering disappointment, not so much.

Before we get started, I haven't had a chance to do a recruiting update in a while.  Saturday was actually a huge recruiting day with upwards of 100 prospects on hand.  Obviously most are just there to be on the sidelines for a free football game; many wouldn't stand a chance as anything other than a walk-on; and still others have no intention of ever attending PSU.  Regardless, 2017 LB prospect Dylan Rivers decided to pull the proverbial trigger more than a year early and commit to the Nittany Lions!  We'll be focused more on the 2016 class in the spring, but welcome to Linebacker U anyway Dylan!

Watching on TV, my first thought was that this was the best crowd I might have ever seen at Penn State for a noon kick off.  Coincidentally, it was also the highest rated noon game in all of college football this year.  Being the Whiteout game obviously helped, and I'll admit it actually looked surprisingly decent in the day time (not the complete "wow factor" of a nighttime Whiteout, but impressive nonetheless).  As I mentioned, it was also a very special Senior Day because the last class to be recruited by and play for Joe Paterno took the home field one last time.  A total of 6 fifth year Seniors were honored as JoePa's last class: TE Kyle Carter, LB Ben Kline, OL Angelo Mangiro, DE Carl Nassib, WR Matt Zanellato, and DT Anthony Zettel.  Thank you gentlemen!  Your loyalty will never be forgotten.

Getting back to game action, Penn State has finally faced some real competition in the last few weeks and the results are in: this team is mediocre at best.  They beat who they're supposed to beat and lose to who they're supposed to lose to (in other words, ranked teams).  In the loss to Michigan the same three problems that have plagued the Lions all year continued to ruin any chance of success. 1) Special Teams is a complete mess. 2) The offensive line has not improved and might have regressed, and 3) The coaching staff is not earning their Big Ten salaries, specifically because of horrible play calling and poor clock/game management.

Let's start with Special Teams.  It appears the coaches have relegated Joey Julius to just kick offs because of his stronger, yet less accurate leg.  To his credit Tyler Davis hit all of his FGs and his extra point on Saturday.  Conversely the punting game featured short kicks and bad coverage.  And then there's DeAndre Thompkins.  His fumbled return inside the 10 giftwrapped a TD to Michigan and drastically altered the end-of-game strategy.  It's not the first time either.  The redshirt freshman has had ball security issues all season.  We get it, he's fast, but there's more to football than speed.

Ugh, the offensive line...  I was scared for Christian Hackenberg after the Temple Game, then the line went on a streak of games with no sacks.  That only served to lull me into a false sense of security.  This week they added 4 sacks to the stat sheet, but honestly, Hack was running for his life all day.  Michigan's line, on the other hand, stopped our pass rush and gave Jake Ruddock all the time in the world to distribute the ball.  They seemed to effortlessly stand up our All-Big Ten defensive linemen and hold their blocks for as long as they wanted. Consequently, Jake Rudock (25-38 for 256 yds and 2 TDs) out-shined Christian Hackenberg (13-31 for 137 yds and 1 TD) in his own house, in possibly his last game in Beaver Stadium.  Rudock was in a consistent rhythm all day.  By the 4th quarter, Hackenberg was visibly shaken and disoriented from the crushing shots he kept taking.  It was night and day and hard to watch.

Now we get to the playcalling.  Boring, predictable, situationally unaware, we saw it all in this game.  The one positive is that the skill guys in particular have proven they can make chunk plays.  Production has gone down since the Maryland game, but the Lions still had 4 plays of 20+ yds.  That will only get you so far though.  Contrary to my prediction, Saquon Barkley struggled.  He started out like his usual self, sprinting up the middle on his first carry for 56 yds to get the offense inside the 10.  Three stuffed runs later and we were already settling for our first FG.  Worse still, if you set that run aside, Barkley only had 29 yds on 14 carries with no TDs for the rest of the game.  Overall the offense just isn't good at staying on the field.  On critical 3rd downs we converted just 3 out of 14 attempts.  That's not how you win football games.

Arguably the biggest difference between these coaching staffs, though, was game management.  After apologizing for his poor clock management against Northwestern, James Franklin again couldn't get out of his own way.  He wasted time outs in the 2nd half, and played conservatively from behind, especially in the red zone, settling for a FG three times with a TD in reach.  But it was his decision at the end of the 1st half that had myself and seemingly everyone in the stands scratching their heads.  With enough time for a drive and given the fact that Michigan would be getting the ball to start the 2nd half, Franklin chose to take a knee and head to the locker room.  Even ESPN's Mark May agreed that Franklin should have at least tried to put some points on the board.

Meanwhile, the defense, which had been the strength of this team all year, finally showed that maybe they're human after all.  Carl Nassib was injured, and Anthony Zettel was probably playing half speed after almost getting ejected for targeting (which was a bullshit call btw), so the defensive line gets a slight pass.  To the rest of the defense, however, all I can say is tackling, tackling, tackling!  Our admittedly young back seven got bullied by a more physical team.  Brandon Bell went berserk with 5 tackles, a sack, a forced fumble that he recovered himself, and even an interception which he returned for 25 yds.  The other LBs not so much.  Don't get me wrong, Cabinda and Reeder were 2nd and 3rd in tackling, but they missed opportunities and took bad angles all afternoon.  In the secondary, it was yds after the catch.  Back there, injuries again took their toll as both CB Christian Campbell and S Jordan Lucas were out (fellow Senior Malik Golden wore Lucas's #9 in his honor).

If you'd like some in depth game summaries, might I suggest Black Shoe Diaries, or Onward State.

Ok, so how did I do on my prediction?  Well, I was off on the score but I knew we would lose, although that's not much consolation.  I was close with Hackenberg but waaaay off about Saquon Barkley having a big day.  There was no way for me to know about Nassib's injury, and Brandon Bell hogged all the turnovers to himself.  Who are we kidding, when the Lions lose, no one cares about predictions.

Alright, come on back this Wednesday night for the weekly grades.  On Friday I'll try to fit some writing in between my shopping and fill you in on the last game of the regular season.  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!