2011 Penn State reminds me of...
by psu_all_day on Oct 9, 2011 11:05 PM EDT
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Print...the 2000 Baltimore Ravens (yes, I'm a Ravens fan, but this is a PSU blog so I really don't want to hear anything from Steelers fans about that on here. Let's keep it about Penn State). The 2000 Ravens are well known for having one of the greatest defenses in NFL history, and they rode that epic defense all the way to a Super Bowl victory. The Ravens offense that year was, shall we say, mediocre at best (they went 5 straight games without scoring an offensive TD at one point). The year started off with mediocre QB play by Tony Banks, but 6 games in a change was made to backup Trent Dilfer. Dilfer wasn't the greatest QB in the league, but he didn't need to be. All he needed to do was be a "game manager". His job was to move the offense well enough to score 2-3 field goals and 1-2 touchdowns per game, then sit back and let the defense do the rest. MOST IMPORTANTLY, his main job was to NOT TURN THE BALL OVER. Dilfer knew his job, and never once asked him to do too much. The 2000 Ravens had PLENTY of playmakers on offense...Shannon Sharpe, Brandon Stokley, Jamal Lewis, and Priest Holmes to name a few. The offense was built around a STRONG RUN GAME, and feeding the ball to their playmakers and letting them do the rest. All the offense had to do was score 13-20 ppg to give the defense some room to breathe and a nice cushion to work with.
This PSU team reminds me A LOT of those 2000 Ravens. Our defense is great. Extraordinary, even. Unless I'm mistaken, we are the ONLY team that Alabama hasn't scored over 30 pts against. Our defense is good enough to win us a Big Ten Championship. Our offense, however, is mediocre AT BEST. BUT, just like the 2000 Ravens, I don't believe that our offense needs to be great. Our offense doesn't even need to be good, it just needs to be average. If our offense can score anywhere between 17-24 points per game, we can play with anybody (except maybe Bama or LSU). Just like the 2000 Ravens, we have two very good RBs in Silas Redd and Curtis Dukes. McGloin reminds me A LOT of Trent Dilfer...he's not going to set the world on fire, but he's adequate enough to get the job done. We most certainly have great playmakers on offense (I already mentioned Redd and Dukes) - Moye is an NFL caliber receiver, Justin Brown is getting better with each game, and Devon Smith is extremely dangerous in the open field. If the coaches can build a gameplan that focuses on running the ball, and letting McGloin get the ball to our playmakers without asking too much from him, then our offense should be able to put up enough points for our defense to win us the game.
Those 2000 Ravens made a living on winning ugly with a suffocating defense. And yes, this isn't the NFL, this is college, where you can't afford to win ugly. But the way I see it...winning ugly is still winning. I don't care if PSU wins every game the rest of the season by one goddamn point, because we would end up 11-1 and we would be playing for the Big Ten title.
This team can learn something from the 2000 Ravens. If we can get the most from our offense by running the ball and utilizing the talents of our playmakers while minimizing mistakes, and let our defense do the rest...we can win A LOT of games. Maybe we can even win em all. But I don't think this team needs to learn anything from those 2000 Ravens because...based on the way they played Saturday against Iowa...it seems like they already have.
P.S. All they need to do now is name McGloin the starter and let the kid play the whole game against Purdue. But that might be wishful thinking.
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I think you dead onto something here
I was thinking something along this lines for a few weeks. Why does our offense need to score 30-40 points a game, if our defense holds opponents to 7 a game? If we win them all by 1 point, we will still win them. I know the thing these days is to have a sexy offense, but to me, I guess I am an old school Big Ten fan, a sexy defense is a marvel to watch these days. We have a sexy defense, don’t believe me, then watch Iowa’s last possesion of the game over again and tell me that wasn’t sexy. Has anyone seen scores out of the Big XII? 45-38, 70-28, 55-17? Does anyone in that league have a defense, or is it first to 50 wins? As long as you hold your opponets offense in check and not allow them to score, until garbage time comes around, which we all know Penn State loves to do, then we shall win alot of games.
Along with your point, the Bears from a few years ago when they went to the Super Bowl aginst the Colts, their offense was beyond awful, every week people were asking why Lovie Smith wasn’t benching Rex Grossman, and yet he won the game and they went to the Super Bowl, on the backs of their defense. There was one game I remember where Rex had a qb rating of 30, but they won the game.
Just win baby!
We Are…
agreed
I catch myself falling in love with the Big X11 and west coast offenses sometimes, and am refreshed by the style of victory I saw Saturday by our team.
I think where it gets dicey is when our D comes out flat, maybe on the road, and we have to come back from a 14 point deficit against a decent team. That’s when I yearn for some real live offensive innovation. BUT, I’ll take what we got for now.
"my dad says Michigan used to be good"
PENN STATE!!!
I too miss the days of a great defense. I’d gladly take baseball scores of 13-6, 12-0, 9-3, 10-4, and even scores like 6-3, 6-4, 5-4, 3-2, and even the improbable 4-3 as long as we’re the team with the more points. I’ve actually for a few years wanted to see us engaged in a defensive meat grinder with a final score of 4-3 with us getting two safeties and them a field goal due to something like a returned punt. But ideally it’d be due to great defenses, not two offenses shooting themselves in the foot.
SWEAR TO GOD
On “Big Ten Pulse” on the B1G Network, one of the show hosts compared Penn State’s team to the 2000 Ravens.
BITCH THAT WAS MY IDEA
or maybe he reads this blog :)
I can see the similar make up and our D is good...
but that Ravens team of 2000 D was probably top 1 or 2 ever in the NFL.
This PSU team gave up 27 to Bama and Saban called the dogs off…it could have been worse.
I do agree with many points. Where are you based? I am in Harford
I blame HITS
I'm currently based in Hunt Valley
we DID give up 27 to Bama…but I remember in the 2nd game of the season, the 2000 Ravens gave up something like 34 pts to Jacksonville. It took a few games for that defense to settle in, and I think it took a few games for our defense to settle in. But the way they played against Iowa on Saturday, I think they’re all settled in now
When did Sabin call off the dogs, that is a freaking false statement.
I was at that game and that team did not lay down one bit. THey were blitzing the crap out of Bolden on the last drive and the offense never stopped trying to pound the ball. Alabama was hamstrung trying to run out the game because PSU was still fighting against the run game. Disagree completely wilth the call off the dogs statement. You are using revisionist memory as NO ONE after the game felt that way, now you use it as an excuse to say PSU didn’t perform well.
My grammer skills need improved.
I disagree that
they let off the gas last year. I don’t think they’ve done that either year.
"It's never a bad thing thing to vote for the suckiness of tOSU." -RWReese
Follow @Paige2PSU
You may be right
But it’s just those who desperately want to believe that the gap between PSU (read: Paterno) and Alabama/LSU/Oklahoma is soooo great who trade in the idea that Bama could have scored as much as they wanted.
by kijana's acl on Oct 10, 2011 3:45 PM EDT up reply actions
The closest thing to calling off the dogs was not going for it on 4th and 1, but there was real strategy.
That being, go up by three scores on the road instead of risk it still being a two score game. With the way the teams played, the worst it could have been was 31-11.
If only we had a good pass rush
We’d be literally unstopable. We still haven’t found a DE that scares anyone. At times during the Iowa game the QB just had way too much time in the pocket. In the past that would spell disaster except this is a great secondary. We have our 3rd string corner out there and there’s no drop off…
The loss of Massero preseason was probably a bigger loss than Mauti to this defense.
Anyway, the flashlights eat our human power grids, our souls if you will. So i destroyed them, and if a few precious panties were burnt or soiled in the reckoning then so be it
3rd string corner is also true freshman
FWIW, I think that Amos ends up better than Lynn once he gets a few years under his belt. I’m still amazed at his size coming out of high school…for a kid who’s only 18, he’s got some man strength
zone blitzing
was causing absolute mayhem Saturday. If a vanilla 4 man front can’t scare the QB, then by all means get creative. Iowa was utterly confused by the unbalanced pressure with DEs dropping into coverage.
I don’t think this will work well against a mobile QB. We’d see a lot of broken plays with the QB running into the space vacated by the LB. But against less mobile players, I’d love to see this level of aggression and creativity.
Don't underestimate Bradley's ability to confuse a mobile quarterback.
"Who do you think you are? You’re the son-of-a-bitch that sat at that desk over there and fired Johnny Cash. Let it go down in history that you’re the dumbest son-of-a-bitch I’ve ever met." - Merle Haggard
by ReadingRambler on Oct 10, 2011 1:11 PM EDT up reply actions 1 recs
Especially given the success against Troy Smith in 04-06.
Even though we only won one of those games, it’s still worth noting how in 06 Smith was shut down all game outside of a play that was just him throwing the ball away (it was almost picked off but instead tipped into Robiskie’s hands) and Morelli actually gave them as many points as Smith did.
this was not the defense that will be employed against a more mobile QB.
The ends will maintain lanes and the rush won’t be as agressive. If flushed, it will be planned for a certain direction. Persa is not nearly as mobile as last year, Scheelhase is somewhat mobile and Wiscy showed how to stop Martinez, force him to throw. I think PSU’s D is better than Wiscy’s and their zone completely confused Martinez.
My grammer skills need improved.
by BMAN13 on Oct 10, 2011 2:42 PM EDT up reply actions 1 recs
2000 Ravens
At one point they scored ZERO offensive TDs in 5 games-and went 3-2. An all time great D. This defense is very good-but not an all timer.
tO$U sucks-ALWAYS the right choice!
yeah I know that
but my point is that this team can be successful if they play like the 2000 Ravens.
All the offense needs to do is score 17-24 pts per game, NOT TURN THE BALL OVER, and let the defense do the rest
In no way am I insinuating that this PSU team has an all-time great defense. It is exceptionally good, but probably not all time great
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