The Big Ten announced their All Conference team this evening, and Penn State cleaned house.

2008 All-Big Ten Conference Football Team
As selected by CONFERENCE COACHES

FIRST TEAM	OFFENSE	SECOND TEAM
Daryll Clark, Penn State	Quarterback	Adam Weber, Minnesota
Shonn Greene, Iowa	Running Back	Chris "Beanie" Wells, Ohio State
Javon Ringer, Michigan State	Running Back	Evan Royster, Penn State
Eric Decker, Minnesota	Receiver	Arrelious Benn, Illinois
Derrick Williams, Penn State	Receiver	David Gilreath, Wisconsin
A.Q. Shipley, Penn State	Center	Rob Bruggeman, Iowa
Seth Olsen, Iowa	Guard	Stefen Wisniewski, Penn State
Rich Ohrnberger, Penn State	Guard	Kraig Urbik, Wisconsin
Alex Boone, Ohio State	Tackle	Xavier Fulton, Illinois
Gerald Cadogan, Penn State	Tackle	Bryan Bulaga, Iowa
Brandon Myers, Iowa	Tight End	Garrett Graham, Wisconsin
Kevin Kelly, Penn State	Kicker	Brett Swenson, Michigan State
FIRST TEAM	DEFENSE	SECOND TEAM
MITCH KING, IOWA	Line	Jammie Kirlew, Indiana
Corey Wootton, Northwestern	Line	Brandon Graham, Michigan
Aaron Maybin, Penn State	Line	Willie VanDeSteeg, Minnesota
Jared Odrick, Penn State	Line	Mike Newkirk, Wisconsin
Greg Jones, Michigan State	Linebacker	Brit Miller, Illinois
James Laurinaitis, Ohio State	Linebacker	Pat Angerer, Iowa
Navorro Bowman, Penn State	Linebacker	Marcus Freeman, Ohio State
Vontae Davis, Illinois	Defensive Back	Amari Spievey, Iowa
Otis Wiley, Michigan State	Defensive Back	Traye Simmons, Minnesota
MALCOLM JENKINS, OHIO STATE	Defensive Back	Allen Langford, Wisconsin
Anthony Scirrotto, Penn State	Defensive Back	Jay Valai, Wisconsin
Zoltan Mesko, Michigan	Punter	Ryan Donahue, Iowa

 

That's ten Nittany Lions on the first team and twelve overall. But this was the coaches poll. You can see how the writers voted after the jump.

Continue reading this post »

"Everything was perfect today." - Derrick Williams

Quarterback

I normally start with the offensive line because, well, the offense starts with the offensive line. Well today we start with Daryll Clark, who did in fact get his swagger back. His 341 passing yards were the most a Penn State quarterback has thrown since 2003 and that, along with the rest of his ridiculous stat line, was enough to earn him a Big Ten Player Of The Week award for the second time this season.

---

---

Poll

Who was the offensive MVP against Michigan State?

• Graham Zug
• Graham Zug
• Graham Zug
• Graham Zug

  382 votes | Results

Continue reading this post »

 

Who Shot Who In The What Now?  Michigan State (9-2, 6-1) at Penn State (10-1, 6-1).  Kickoff at Beaver Stadium scheduled for 3:30 p.m. The all-time series is tied at 12-12-1. 

Kicking Television:  YOU ARE LOOKING LIVE AT Mike Patrick, Todd Blackledge, and Holly Rowe on ABC/ESPN.

Weather:  Perhaps this is better in picture form.

In all seriousness, drunkards:  It's a long day, so dress appropriately.

A Fool And His Money:  Penn State is a 15.5 point favorite.  Looks like Vegas is just begging you to bet on Sparty.  The over/under is 47.5.

You'll Get Yours, Delany!:  Jim Delany's evil plan has borne fruit.  The league mandated rivalry between Penn State and Sparty, which so many of us have resented for so long, finally means something in the grand scheme of Big Ten football. 

Dubious Statistical Achievements:  Let me understand this correctly.  Michigan State's offense revolves around Javon Ringer, yet they're ranked 9th out of 11 Big Ten teams in rushing offense?   And speaking of weird Big Ten specific stats, it appears that nearly every statistical category is led by Penn State or...Illinois.  Really:

Penn State: Rushing offense, scoring offense, rushing defense, pass efficiency defense, total defense, scoring defense, kickoff returns, pass defense, sacks allowed.

Illinois: Passing offense, total offense, passing efficiency, sacks, tackles for loss.

Minnesota: Turnover margin (paging Dr. Saturday, Dr. Saturday report to Minneapolis!).

Ohio State: Punt returns.

Michigan: Net punting.  Of course.

Lest We Forget:  The best sports talk radio meltdown EVER.  Sparty, you never let us down.   (AGAAAAAAAAAAAAAIN.)

Pickin' On The Big Ten:  Come for the midwestern humor, stay for analysis of Cal Poly @ Wisconsin!

A Senior Moment:  This particular group of seniors has a chance to be remembered as perhaps the greatest class of the PSU Big Ten years, provided they can nail down another Big Ten championship tomorrow.  That would be two conference championships in four years -- not too shabby, considering where the program was when these guys first walked on campus.  Derrick Williams isn't going to get his national championship.  Perhaps that's appropriate, as his biggest contributions to the program extended way beyond the playing field.  He believed in Penn State, and made his present and future teammates believe in Penn State, as well.  There are just so many good stories in this senior class -- walk-ons who unexpectedly flourished, five-star athletes who became leaders, and any number of guys who perservered through various physical and emotional difficulties with the help of their friends, families, teammates, coaches, and fans.  Gerald Cadogen's humility and class, Mike Lucian's attitude as he was moved from position to position, Kevin Kelly's success in the face of constant sniping, Jordan Norwood's heart, A.Q. Shipley's ability to turn defensive linemen into a bloody pulp. 

It's a great group, one that we can be proud of for many reasons.  

 

Another tale of two halves..  It's probably a little troubling, a start like this against even an average team could be trouble.  But then again, it was a hangover game if there ever was one and it was the most points Penn State has been favored by against a Big Ten opponent since 1994.

Quarterback

Continue reading this post »

(AP Photo by Charlie Neibergall) 

This isn't going to be pretty. Let's just get to it.

Quarterbacks

Daryll Clark had his game of the season. There is no other way to put it.

---

---

From the opening series he seemed tentative and unsure of himself. He seemed like he was struggling with his reads, his timing was off, and he often overthrew his receivers. This is a problem that has plagued him all season. This week it finally bit him with the interception in the redzone. Jason Avant had an eleven-foot-tall imaginary friend named Tacopants. Derrick Williams must have an eleven-foot-tall imaginary friend as well. Any ideas on what we should call him?

You have to feel sorry for the kid. It was hard to watch him being interviewed after the game. He manned up and took all the blame for the loss. You have to admire him for that. Sadly, he's correct in that his play was a large part of the reason we lost.

Final Grade: F

Continue reading this post »

 

We all expected more offense in this game, but I think we can all agree the end result came out ok. Let's take a look at how the offense did.

Offensive Line

The line had trouble creating running lanes as Ohio State did an excellent job of clogging the middle. But they were getting a nice push allowing Royster to gain three or four yards when there was seemingly nothing there. I thought Landolt was having problems holding a few blocks on Gibson, but Cadogen had an excellent game. Penn State was often pulling him down the line as a lead blocker. It's quite satisfying watching a linebacker line up thinking he's about to bring down Royster for no gain just before big ol' #76 comes around the corner and pancakes him. Ohio State is claiming moral victory because they held us sixty yards under our season average in rushing yards. I'm claiming moral victory because we rushed for sixty yards over their defensive average.

They had their hands full with pass protection as Ohio State was blitzing heavily on passing downs. Again I thought Cadogen did extremely well. Everyone else was ok and they only gave up one sack.

Final Grade: B

Running Backs

As I mentioned before Evan Royster had a tough time finding any open space to run. The Ohio State defensive line did an excellent job of blocking the running lanes. But he did what good backs do in those situations. He followed the push of his offensive line and got three yards where other backs would try to bounce outside and lose two. He was never once tackled for a loss. But there were a few cases where he missed a blitz pickup, and he made a poor decision in cutting a screen pass inside instead of following his blockers in the red zone. He may have cost us a touchdown there.

Poll

Who was the offensive MVP against Ohio State?

6%

Daryll Clark

40 votes

20%

Pat Devlin

131 votes

44%

Evan Royster

284 votes

1%

Stephfon Green

9 votes

20%

Offensive Line

130 votes

7%

Graham Zug

46 votes

640 votes | Poll has closed

Continue reading this post »

All of the wrong things were happening to Penn State's offense -- botched snaps, fumbles, dropped passes, receivers coming up a foot short on third downs.  If you felt the onset of deja vu and dread, it was completely justified.  They eventually settled down, and with a little help from an amazingly stupid personal foul penalty, scored a late touchdown to make it a three-point deficit at halftime. 

Offensively, the turning point was cashing in with a touchdown after the third-quarter safety.  After Michigan shanked the free kick*, Penn State received the ball at the 50 yard line.  Four plays later, the score was 26-17 and the rout was on.

Anyway, the grades.

Continue reading this post »

 
C'mon, people. Give me something to work with here.

It was a little sketchy in the beginning, but the defense finally clamped down and stopped the bleeding. I watched the tape again last night so I'll try to describe what happened and the adjustments that were made during the game. Let's start right off with the defensive coaching.

 

Defensive Coaching

Penn State started the game in nickel defense with Hull and Bowman as the linebackers. When you look at most of the plays on the first drive, Michigan spread them out with four wide receivers and Brandon Minor in the backfield forcing Penn State to pull Hull back into coverage leaving just five guys to defend in the box. This gave Michigan two options in the backfield (Threet and Minor) with five guys to block our five guys. This was clearly a good matchup for Michigan, and due to the fact they were going no-huddle we couldn't get an opportunity to change personnel. Michigan almost exclusively ran left away from Evans and Bowman choosing to attack Gaines and Hull. Obviously this paid off with a touchdown.

Continue reading this post »

Back by popular demand...some video and screenshots of the Wisconsin game.  The episode in which we explore illegal picks, easy touchdowns and phantom reversals.

Act I: How the bend-but-don't-break broke.

In an otherwise great performance, the defense gave up a very uncharacteristic big play on what appeared to be a sell-out rush combined with bad coverage.  Upon further inspection, however, there was something a little fishy about the way a receiver running a five yard slant pattern was able to get six yards of separation from his cornerback.

The first thing to look at here are the two Wisconsin receivers, running toward each other about three yards in front of the LoS.  Notice that, to the right, Tony Davis is all over Travis Beckum.

 

Continue reading this post »

 

The word of the day was balance.  And domination.  The word of the day was dominalance.  Penn State's defense baladominated.

Defensive Line

After not getting much pressure last week against Purdue, the D-line showed up gangbusters, completely running over the much heralded Wisconsin offensive line and stopping Hill short of three yards over and over again.  The very first series set the tone as the Badger power run game was stopped on 2nd and 3rd down and forced to punt after a quick three-n-out.  The linebackers consistently showed up in the backfield in large part because this unit was doing their part to occupy (roughly) 1700 pound offensive line.

Special space needs to be devoted to Aaron Maybin's performance.  He showed up in the backfield early in the game and it was clear from the start Bielema and his staff had no answer for him.  Paterno said after the game:

“He’s doing really well. I just wish I could put weight on him. He doesn’t eat. He’s doing very well. He’s so quick and he loves to play. You can see that. I have to sit him down and tell him never mind all of the jumping around. He’s going to get us a 15-yarder,” Paterno said.

How about this: if it's not broken don't fix it.  He recorded 3.5 tackles for a loss and forced two fumbles, including what turned out to be the game sealing recovery by Hull that lead to the third touchdown of the game.  He does seem a little underweight but his speed is what made him so effective on Saturday night. 

Final Grade: A

Continue reading this post »