Temple Post Game Odds and Ends

Tailgating at the Link has a much different feel to it. We showed up around 8:30 and pulled in the gate. After paying your eleven bucks you pull into the lot and it's a total free for all. Park wherever you want to. So everyone claimed their spot and then promptly claimed the spot next to theirs for their tents, grills, and chairs. Technically, you're not supposed to do this, but people did it anyway. So you can imagine by 10:30 most of the lot was full and people were driving around the parking lot looking for a space to park. It really makes you appreciate the effort Penn State puts into hiring parking lot attendants for the home games. The Klingman made a comment suggesting we tip the parking attendants next year.

The crowd was a much different crowd too. You don't get the old guy in the lion paw print pants and the sweet old ladies offering you their freshly baked blue berry muffins. I almost got the impression that most of the people were Eagles fans that left their green stuff at home and put on their Penn State gear instead. It seemed like there was a large group of people just there for the party. The young bucks seemed to be in charge. People were talking loud. Profanity was rampant. And people were urinating wherever they wanted.

Speaking of which, the port-a-john situation at the Link was atrocious. When we got there the parking lot was still fairly empty. We looked around for the port-a-johns and didn't see any. I suggested maybe you had to go in the Wachovia Center near where we were parked, so PSUncle and Kling's dad went for a walk. About 30 minutes later they came back saying the only johns they could find were a bank of 12 about a quarter mile away. We did some further investigating and came to the conclusion that this bank of 12 was all there was for this parking lot that contained maybe 10,000 people. It's no wonder people were pissing on their tires all over the place. I made one trip to the john's all morning. It took me about five minutes to walk there, then I had to wait in line for 30 minutes to use one, and another five minute walk back to the car. This is unacceptable, and the Philadelphia city health department should really look into the situation at the Link. I was disgusted.

The stadium itself was gorgeous. We got there early enough to do an entire lap around the concourse. It was very spacious to allow an easy flow of traffic to maneuver through. The only place where pedestrian traffic jammed up was around the escalators to the upper deck. But even that wasn't too bad, unless you were in line for the escalator. Tons of concession stands, beer kiosks, shops and restrooms made it a very comfortable place.

Anyone who complains about the Nittany Lion roar they play in Beaver Stadium would never complain again after watching a Temple game in the Link. After every single first down the PA system played this ear piercing screech. I guess it was supposed to be an Owl, but it sounded like someone scratching a chalk board with their fingernails at 170 decibels. I'm not exaggerating when I say it hurt my ears. It got to the point when Temple got a drive going I covered my ears in anticipation.

We were in row two of the endzone. We sat right next to the Blue Band. We were so close we could have smacked those bozos that wear the goofy masks and shoulder pads always mugging for the cameras...not that the thought crossed my mind or anything. There was a group of four couples in front of us. They were basically there just to drink. Every 10 or 15 minutes two or three of them would get up and come back with another round of drinks. They talked about this and that but paid little attention to the game. Finally someone came back at some point in the third quarter and said, "Can you believe they stopped selling beer at halftime?" That was it. They got up and left, and then we had front row seats in the endzone.

In the fourth quarter the public address announcer told the stadium, "Congratulations fans, we've set a new record for attendance in a MAC game." It was just over 69,000. As far as I'm concerned, Penn State set the record, not Temple. The stadium was at least 80% full with Blue and White.

But enough of the extracurricular activities. Let's talk some football. If we had played any Big Ten team yesterday we would have lost. Penn State shot themselves in the foot time after time. Fortunately, Temple kept shooting themselves in the chest time after time.

The defense was terrible in the first half. The secondary gave the receivers too much room too far down field. The linebackers blitzed but couldn't get to Charlton. Everyone was missing tackles. Only the fact that we played the Owls saved us. Temple missed an easy field goal, had a touchdown called back on a penalty, and dropped a touchdown in the endzone. There's 17 points right there. The defense tightened up eventually, but as PSUncle predicted at the tailgate party, it was a lot closer going into the fourth quarter than it should have been.

Penn State should hire the chef at Toftrees to come on the road with the team so Anthony Morelli can have his blueberry pancakes or green eggs and ham or whatever it is he eats before home games. I have no other explanation why he's an adequate quarterback at home and becomes a turnover machine on the road. Yeah, yeah the 22-for-33 for 260 yards and 3 TD looks like a pretty stat line, but he was terrible. He stared down every single throw. He's fortunate in that he has wide receivers so good they manage to sell the defender on some other route every single time before cutting to the sideline. I don't know how teams don't see it coming by now. I think Butler and Williams could sell ice to an Eskimo. It finally caught up with him in the second half when Temple adjusted to it. They dropped a lineman into coverage for one pick, and they had the linebacker jump the route for what should have been a second pick and six easy points.

The fumble on the goal line happened right in front of us. I saw him stretch the ball out and it was like I saw it coming before it happened. The ball hung out there forever and the hand inevitably came in and knocked it out. Even though the crowd was three-quarters Penn State, they booed.

In other news, Illinois screws us again for the second time this year. Going into Saturday it looked like Penn State had a great shot at the Capital One Bowl. The Illini knocked the Buckeyes out of the National Championship game. Now if they lose to the Wolverines they probably don't even go to a BCS bowl. The Badgers killed any hopes Michigan had of going to a BCS bowl. It looks like the best Penn State can do now is finish fourth in the Big Ten. No Bowl selection committee can justify picking a three loss Penn State team over three loss Michigan and Illinois teams that beat the Nittany Lions. We might stand a chance at the Outback Bowl if Ohio State beats Michigan giving them four losses, but most likely we're now looking at the Alamo Bowl.