My Grades for Penn State against Temple

After last week's harsh review of our performance against Alabama, I noticed a lot more controversy with my reviewing process than with week one, a few seemed to think it was based on just that they lost, but as you can see in this review, not every win gets good grades either. And I did upgrade week one and two after looking at the play by play of both teams in all 3 of their games, not just against us. This week I didn't think they played all that much better but the defense did what they needed to outside of penalties. This is a good Temple team, but they're not Boise State, but they're also not Western Kentucky, so people should bear in mind that although they're not a great Temple team, they're not someone the 2008 or 2009 teams would have hung 60 on.

Week One's grades against Indiana State
Week Two's grades against Alabama

Overall - D+: Anyone with working eyesight could see that Penn State didn't do much better overall than they did the week before. Penalties were the biggest killer in this game. Temple's initial drive should have never happened. In fact, it only did because of stupid penalties. Take away the penalties and we lead 7-3 at halftime and win 14-3. Replace Evan Lewis with Collin Wagner or Kevin Kelly and it's 13-3 at halftime and we win 23-3. Even keep the pantlies and scrap the kicker and we win 23-10. If it weren't for the defense, this would have been a loss. I'm expecting us to be seeing the defense bail us out (or trying to bail us out) of ugly situations. We won't always succeed unless the offense gets its act together. I really don't want another 6-4 game this year. Penn State could not sustain drives, all drives that resulted in points were started inside the 50. Even one drive that started at the 26 went nowhere as Evan Lewis missed a 36 yard field goal. Some see this as a sign that Penn State is going to go 4-8 (1-7) or something like that. I choose to be more optimistic and see this as Penn State playing in a fog because of the Alabama loss. Penn State always does that after a loss. Remember in 2006 when they lost a close one to Michigan only to struggle the following week against an Illinois team that would finish 2-10? And that was a solid (not great) 9-4 Penn State team. Until Penn State proves otherwise, I choose to believe that was just a post-loss fog.

Offense - D-: This may actually be a tad too generous, but let's remember something. We moved the ball. We got into field goal range. We converted two late fourth downs to win the game. We had over 300 yards of offense. But the biggest problems with the offense were that they couldn't finish drives and couldn't stay in rhythm. This isn't 2009 where we can rely on the strong leg of Collin Wagner. In all honesty, I think the offensive struggle was a post-loss hangover. Remember last year against Kent State? We simply had the luxury of playing a lousy Kent State team. Derek Moye finally started making catches, so that's a positive. Silas Redd had his moments of looking great, but Beachum led the winning drive. Neither QB looked impressive once agaain. Bolden threw an interception after we forced Pierce to fumble. Both scoring drives were the result of a short field. The offensive line is showing signs of improvement, only allowed one sack, at least with pass blocking, but with run blocking they seem to have regressed after the opening day treat we fans got. Derek Moye and Brandon Beachum ultimately saved the day by converting key fourth downs. The execution seemed to suck inside the 40 except for the two drives that netted touchdowns.

Defense - A: Which brings me to the bright spot of the game. The defense played phenomenal. Lights out all the way. Temple had under 200 yards of offense, including 74 on the ground, a mere 9 yards more than Indiana State had. But despite the fact that the Owls were shut down, some penalties allowed them to score early, which prevents this from being A+. However, they made up for that by getting an interception late that set up the winning score. They also tried to set up scores but the offense and special teams couldn't cash in. Michael Mauti, Sean Stanley, Jordan Hill, and Devon Still looked phenomenal. Chaz Powell had a nice pick, but we couldn't cash in despite moving the ball to the 19 yard line. The defense really did their part and then some, carrying the load for the offense and the special teams. Bernard Pierce was supposedly going to run at will on us and Mike Gerardi was supposedly going to throw all over us, but that didn't happen because we play defense here at Penn State. There's a reason we're called Linebacker U, and our linebackers really lived up to that name on Saturday.

Special Teams - F: I was honestly considering giving them a lower score after the way they performed, but the punting game outside of the block was passable and the coverage was decent at times. I'm looking for good things to say about our special teams on Saturday and I gotta tell you, it's not easy, especially when the Special Ed Teams not only were not winning it for us, but trying to lose it for us. There's different character types in fiction (The Hero, The Lancer, The Big Guy, The Smart Guy, The Chick, etc), and one type everyone hates is The Load who adds nothing to the team but just comes along for the ride. That's our offense (our defense is The Hero, in case you were wondering). Now, there's a type worse than The Load, and that's The Millstone, they not only add nothing to the team but drag them down to the point where they'd be better off without them, like a millstone around the neck. Evan Lewis can't make a kick to save his life, our punt and kick protection is crap, it's just inexcuseable. WE SHOULD HAVE WON 23-10! Repeat, WE SHOULD HAVE WON 23-10! And that's including the stupid penalties early on and the called back touchdown reception by Derek Moye. I say, get rid of Evan Lewis and have Anthony Fera handle kicking duties, and make our resident syrup bottle Alex Butterworth be the punter unless we need a long punt, THEN we bring Fera out to punt.

Gameball goes to - Penn State's defense: It was the defense that bailed out the offense and special teams numberous times during this game. Despite making some early mistakes that led to a Temple score, they did their part by shutting down Temple and getting the ball back to set up short fields. They did it twice with interceptions late in the fourth quarter.

It was over when: Sean Stanley sacked Mike Gerardi on fourth down to squash Temple's last hope of upsetting the Nittany Lions. Up until Penn State scored on the previous drive, Temple had shut down Penn State's offense enough to hold onto a 10-7 lead, but Penn State took their only lead of the game and held onto it by stopping Temple's last drive.

Next Opponent - Eastern Michigan: These guys should be a lot easier to handle than the Temple Owls, even with our struggling offense. Don't be surprised if Penn State scores in the 30s on these guys and holds them to less than 7 total points for the game.