The Morning After - Penn State Falls To Iowa 21-10

Nick Sukay… how do you run in to the punter and then not block on a punt and not get goat of the game. That kid should not see the field till next year.

That was one of those games I could tell we were going to lose from half way thru the 3rd quarter, even before they got the lead. Our defense played great, even with the loss of Lee — and we even saw a great performance from freshman CB Stephon Morris. As long as our defense continues to play like that we’re still going to win a lot of games this season; once Lee returns and Bowman gets back to full speed I think that’s a top 10 defense. They played their heart out and had the offense not put them in terrible positions this would have been reflected on the score board.

Offensively we were shamefully bad — but you have give Iowa all the credit: they played us to near perfection.

If I had to draw up one single play I think could have changed the course of the game, it was Royster’s fumble. That was shaping up to be a momentum changing drive off a great return when were down by only 8. Royster broke off a great run and… Well I’m less bothered by Clark’s interceptions then I am about that one fumble — b/c I expected Royster to carry the team when we need it most (OSU last year).

Reasonable expectations are 10-2 and playing in the Orange Bowl. I think we lose to tOSU. We won’t be able to block their d-line.

First and foremost, Hats off to Iowa, they kicked our butts after the 1st quarter. Great job Iowa, you are the better team. The conference is more than likely a two team race between tOSU and Iowa. At 6-2 (my projected record), we can’t win the conference.

A couple thoughts…

1. Tip balls are part WR fault, but also part QB because the ball is usually not thrown accurately.

2. I think it is time to get Eric Shrive and Kevin Newsome some meaningful time. Shrive should play multiple series at one of the tackle positions so he is ready to be the stud LT next year. Newsome also needs to see meaningful time, whether it is running the wildcat or not, he just needs to get experience. I think he is the real deal despite the Syracuse outing. Great speed and the passing will come.

3. Let’s look at something positive…Navarro Bowman is back and was everywhere.

4. The secondary is coming on very well. They are gelling….plus I saw D’Anton Lynn on a corner blitz. When was the last time you saw that?

5. The whole defense did play their guts out and when you have a great defense, you always have a chance.

6. The running the kicker call was horrible….horrible….horrible. I know it didn’t result in direct points, but took a possession away from us.

The series that resulted in the safety was horrible. Wide run play, a full back blast and then a slow developing pass play.

Your o-line is getting rocked and you don’t start running multiple screen plays? I remember only one screen call and Clark threw the ball to high and hard for Royster to handle. Also, why not some slant routes off three step drops?

that Iowa was a better team. Because that’s the tenor here.

Personally, I’d rather try to cut-block a Humvee than Clayborn.

You may have missed it but Klug, our DT with the 36" waist, is so relentless that he recovered the last fumble in our secondary, and deflected the last Clark interception after being blocked successfully — twice.

Guys, it was all there going into this game: we are now 29 quarters without yielding a rush TD, we had won 7 in a row, we made South Carolina look they were playing football in their stocking feet, we destroyed two major program QBs in the two prior games (they both were yanked), we are the only team in D-I that explicitly brings pressure with four d-linemen, and our QB, for all of his foibles, is 12-3, career. We were plus 30 in turnovers last year, and you still wonder why Angerer was able to punch the ball out of Royster’s arm. (Because he is coached to do that?) It just amazes me, but I have concluded that it’s simply cultural, and since Iowa is a kind of unfashionable, underpopulated place (and Pennsylvania is what, Trafalgar Square?), it is therefore, in the age of TV Tebow, inconceivable that a team sport could be played well by a team that is coached well.

Anyway, I would ditch this mishmash you call the Spread HD and get yourself an identity and a core competency on offense, so you have something to depend on in close games.

I thought PSU wideouts were far superior to ours (we had 6-7 passes touch and bounce off hands), PSU linebackers tackle as great as ever, and the PSU fans a great mix of enthusiasm and bravado. It is possible, one might admit, that we were better in the other departments.

I need to get the negativity out of my system so here we go…

-Our defense is legit. Top 10 again I’d say and its really amazing how we can reload on that side of the ball with little drop off from previous years.

-Bowman looked great. You realize how special he is when you watch him read the running lanes patiently and cut diagonally to make the stop. Previously, I thought his strengths were pure physical dominance, but I realize now how smart of a player he is. I can’t wait till Lee gets himself together. Hopefully some rest for the both of them before heavy practice this week.

-Secondary is coming along. Sure we gave up the typical BBDS underneath stuff. But I saw us (gasp) in man coverage at times (was it Lynn) and there was a nice DB blitz. Again was that Lynn?

I felt a little ‘06/’07 nostalgia when watching this game. The overall feeling that the defense was going to keep us in it but the offense was never going to help them out. The difference being that psu played with the lead first tonight. I hope that changes around this year, though. The offensive talent is good except on the line. Those guys need to grow up.

I wasn’t watching the Florida-Kentucky game. What was the score when Meyer decided to keep passing, and was he justified in doing so?

and it hurt too much so I am going to deal with the hang over (both game and booze) the only way I know. I will see how many bloody marys I can drink today. Over Under is at 12 I will report back in a couple hours.

The AP has Iowa at #13, us at #15.

The coaches somehow have PSU at #13 and Iowa at #17.

and I don’t really think he was able to do that because of their ends.

On the other hand those situations should permit more stuff up the middle. Like the read-option or a delayed handoff to Royster. Our guard play wasn’t letting that happen though because when we tried it, we’d get pulled down at the LOS.

The defense played their @$$es off last night. Josh Hull really needs to stop being so bang or bust. We missed both Lee and Stupar last night. Can’t knock the D at all last night.

Special Teams- Collin Wagner needs to go period. 48yard field missed short…. not to mention who ever is doing kickoffs blows. Let Fera kick or atleast kick off. How did the first couple of punts go fine then everyone fall asleep on the last one?

Offense- this was all around failure. Coaching, players etc. Clark needs to stop throwing so damn high. 2 of the picks were deflections but they were because they were high thrown balls. The line needs to gel and gel QUICK. They looked terrible as the game rolled on.

Well hopefully we can learn from our mistakes, of which there were many.

Just some of the things I saw in the game:

The O-line was horrible, they couldn’t block the pass rush all night and their run blocking was suspect when we actually chose to run. There needs to be major changes made to that line because clearly the current configuration doesn’t have the talent together to play Big 10 football, or most of our OOC teams either for that matter. So far all season I’ve seen Clark have to rush his throws or get knocked over on nearly every screen pass.

Clark, easy to put the blame on his with the 3 ints. Two were deflections, the blame is shared on those. The other int was horrible, right into the guy’s arms, I don’t think anyone was close. His aim was off all night and he consistently threw into double or triple coverage. He was constantly getting hit and knocked over or being rushed due to the O-Line.

I can’t really think of much to say about Royster, as probably our best player on offense they just didn’t (and haven’t) called his number enough so far. The fumble sucked but I guess he felt like he needed to keep up the feel of the game.

The D-line wasn’t able to apply much pressure at all, when a blitz was called it was very successful but the coaches didn’t call them often enough.

Hull had a couple big plays but his missed tackles really subtracted from the quality plays he had. Bowman was everywhere and to me seemed like the only played on defense who showed any heart when the game started to go south. When the others appeared to be giving up Bowman was still flying across the field and making plays. The secondary wasn’t great but that’s part of our scheme.

Wagner needs to be spelled a little. His kickoffs are horrible and Iowa was constantly getting the ball around the 35 yard line since he could barely kick it past the 20. Which also leads me to wonder why we even attempted the 48 yarder in the same direction Wagner was struggling. It should have been a pooch kick any maybe we could have pinned them down on the 5. Give Fera a chance, he certainly can’t be worse.

Officiating was horrible, I don’t know if the punter was touched or not but to everyone in the stands it certainly appeared that whoever it was, was thrown or blocked directly into him which in my understanding of the rules isn’t a penalty, just a dumb move by the protection. A couple late hits went uncalled as well holding on Iowa, which they did all the time.

Play calling was horrible. This is a game that should have been won on the ground, not through the air in those conditions. The play calls both time we were deep in our own territory were horrible too. Running a stretch from the 2? Most of the time that isn’t going to work anyway and when it doesn’t it’s usually a loss, hats off to Royster for pushing himself back onto the field instead of taking the safety. A screen pass would have been way more effective.

Iowa was flat out the best team on the field yesterday and deserved that win. There is a lot we can learn from this as we move on in our Big-10 schedule.

We looked like Akron last night except our big TD came on the game’s first play. If we by some chance end up in the rose bowl against USC please evryone band together and help convince Clark that he doesn’t have to redeem himself after last year’s loss(that mind set can only get us so far),
Four D-Linemen vs 5 O-linemen turned out to be a horrible equation for us last night and even when they didn’t break through their hands were up or they had Clark skiddish enough that he wouldn’t set his feet to throw.
 I’m sure its been brought up somewhere but i think Herbsrtiet’s ideal man would be Iowa’s punter with Darryl Clark’s arms…THAT WAS CREEPY!
Nick Sukay you’re young and inexperienced and i pray for your improvement
Andrew Quarrless welcome to your potential, we’ve been expecting you
Derrick Moye i’m pretty sure that if you played in the big 12 you’d be well on your way to holding out from the 49ers for an entire season
And finally, much to my dismay i awoke this morning and the world went on after the loss so i guess i can to, Juice anyone?