Another great performance from the Nittany Lion defense.  For its deficiencies, it must be said that this unit has not only overachieved this season, but dominated.  Looking only at Big Ten games, Penn State was in the top two in the following categories:  scoring defense, pass defense, turnover margin, rushing defense, total defense, pass efficiency defense, and first downs allowed.

(And a fun thing I just noticed?  Your Big Ten leader in assisted tackles is James Laurinaitis.  Seriously.)

She received four Buckeye stickers and one tackle for loss.

And while we're on the subject, let's bring in ESPN.com's Adam Rittenberg:

James Laurinaitis is a future College Football Hall of Famer and a sure-fire first-round NFL draft pick. He's an excellent football player. He should not have been named Big Ten Defensive Player of the Year. That award should have gone to Penn State defensive end Aaron Maybin. No one else is really in the discussion. Maybin was flat-out dominant this season. I don't care if he's just a sophomore. Base the award on merit, not on reputation or name recognition or having a nice back story.

Not sure Maybin is the best player on PSU's defense this year -- that honor goes to Jared Odrick, in my opinion -- but it's nice to see Laurinaitis knocked down a peg or two in a widely-viewed forum.  He's a good player.  He is not that good.  Anyone who watches an Ohio State game with a semi-critical eye knows this.  There's been a lot of argument between Ohio State and Penn State fans over who has produced the better linebackers over the past few years, and there's really no losing side.  A.J. Hawk was simply awesome.  Same with Paul Posluszny and Dan Connor.  James Laurinaitis isn't remotely close to any of them.

In the spirit of being Fair And Balanced, Rittenberg also says that Joe Paterno should not have been Big Ten Coach of the Year, which I happen to agree with.

If there was an award to give an entire coaching staff, than Penn State's staff should get it. But it's a single award, and one that should have gone to Michigan State's Mark Dantonio or Northwestern's Pat Fitzgerald. You can't tell me Paterno had as much influence in shaping his team as Dantonio or Fitzgerald. This vote was based on sentimentality, not by looking at what each man actually accomplished.

Given that Dantonio has officially cemented his status as The Jolly Green Douchebag, my vote would be for Fitzgerald.  And while the college football world will continue to pay tribute to Paterno over the next few weeks, nobody can legitimately argue that working from home and silently sitting in the press box qualifies as coaching, not when other guys are busting their asses every day and trying to win nine games at freakin' Northwestern.  They had one hiccup against Indiana, otherwise they'd be a 10-2 team and this vote wouldn't be remotely close.

Anyway, the game.

DEFENSIVE LINE:  A+

Tremendous all day long.  They were able to generate a pass rush with four players, something that the scheme depends upon for success.  When it works, it's usually a long day for the opposing offense.  They also received a little help from Sparty.  Down 14-0 halfway through the second quarter, Michigan State was moving the ball on the ground and reached the PSU 45 yard line.  They tried to get cute with a playaction pass, and Maurice Evans blew by the tackle and fullback for a sack of Brian Hoyer.  With 21 yards to go for a first down, they went with another useless playaction pass -- nobody in the stadium believed it for a second -- and a screen pass which even I called in Section NC ten seconds before the snap.

Jared Odrick was great again, and was in Brian Hoyer's face when he threw an interception to Anthony Scirrotto before halftime.  As Todd Blackledge noticed, Josh Hull also provided great coverage on that play.

Also, if you spotted #71 on the field during MSU's final offensive efforts, your eyes weren't deceiving you.  That was Devon Still.

LINEBACKERS:  A-

As you might expect from the previous paragraphs, their jobs were made exceptionally easy by the defensive line.  Hull was surprisingly good in pass coverage, not only on the play mentioned above, but he also tipped a pass that led to Anthony Scirrotto dusting a guy across the middle in the first quarter.  Tyrell Sales had a great tackle for loss against Ringer in the first half.   Special mention for Navarro Bowman absolutely sawing Brian Hoyer in half on Sparty's third quarter trick play.

Personally, I ragged on this group throughout the year, although I don't think it was unwarranted.  When they were bad, they were really awful.  When they were good, the defense was just killing dudes out there.  Still, they generally played well in the biggest games (at Ohio State, especially), and there's plenty to be said for that.

(Oh, and we get Sean Lee back next year.)

SECONDARY: A-

Held Hoyer to five yards per attempt, and never really allowed him to settle in.  Now, go back a few months ago and imagine me writing this:  I have no idea how we're going to replace Mark Rubin next year.  Scary, but true -- he's gone from utter liability to one of the most dependable players on the Penn State defense.  Nice to see Anthony Scirrotto have some great plays in his final Beaver Stadium game, and let's show some appreciation for Tony Davis' effort this season.  How many times did you hear his name throughout the year?  Good sign for a cornerback.  Also, Lydell Sargeant vastly improved this season.  After a while, people just stopped asking, "Why isn't A.J. Wallace in the game?"

And poor D'Anton Lynn thought he had his very first interception on the last play of the game, but the pass was ruled incomplete.

COACHING:  A

Was there a more entertaining sight than Sean Lee trying to get Tom Bradley to accept the rose during Sparty's last drive?  Give all of the defensive coaches a ton of credit for Penn State's dominant defense.  They were thin along the defensive line after the knuckleheads were sent packing before the season.  The secondary that I personally thought would be a disaster held up pretty well.

Your Sparty drives:

That's one meaningful drive while the game was actually in question.  Excellent work, all around.

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.

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Ladies and Gentlemen, we are intercepting in space
(Photo via PennLive.com)

It was a gritty win on the road against an opponent that admittedly has more questions than answers. Let's go through the defense and see how they did.

Defensive Line

Once again it was a solid performance by everyone in the trenches. Kory Sheets was held to half his season average and pretty well contained all day with one or two exceptions. Jared Odrick was a monster in the middle clogging the inside running lanes all day. Abe Koroma was also very impressive.

In the passing game I felt like the line wasn't consistently getting good pressure on Painter. But they had a few moments here and there and Maybin got another sack while Gaines and Odrick split another. But Maybin pretty much disappeared after that early sack and we didn't really hear for him the rest of the day.

Final Grade: B+

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Here are some of the highlights from Joe Paterno's press conference today. As you know the Penn State Nittany Lions will be playing the Temple Owls this weekend.

• Joe says this Temple team is the best Temple team we've ever faced and the toughest opponent we've played all year. Ok, I'm offcially scared of this game now. No, not really. Didn't he say that last year too?
• Joe is not sure how good Penn State is yet.  According to him, we'll learn a lot more this weekend. So if Penn State wins by five touchdowns I fully expect Joe to say Penn State is a national championship contender.
• Brandon Ware should probably cut down from the triple to the double cheeseburger.
• Joe is bothered about a lack of depth up front on the defensive line.
• When asked twice about when Evans and Koroma would come back Paterno denied the reporter and answer like a brick wall.
• Mike Lucian is going to rest up this week from his ankle injury in the Syracuse game. But Paterno thinks he will be good to go on Saturday.
• Joe is pleased with the workman like attitude of the team. He hasn't really had to kick their butt to keep them focused or motivated. Considering the creampuff schedule I think this is a good indication about the leadership and maturity on this team.
• Paterno made up his mind during practice last week that he was going to play Devlin in the second quarter against Syracuse. He explained it to both quarterbacks before the game that that was what he was going to do and it was not a reflection of Clark playing poorly, but rather Pat playing well enough to earn some playing time.
• He's not yet sure how the quarterback situation will be handled this week.
• Joe expressed concern about the starters having yet to play a full game. He starts to wonder if they are getting enough playing experience, so he tends to want to give them extra practice to make up for it, but then he's concerned he'll wear them out during the week and they will be tired by game time.
• Joe didn't think Mike Robinson was a very good quarterback prior to the 2005 season. Jay convinced him otherwise before the season.
• Joe gave some insight into why Williams returns some punts and Scirrotto returns others. Many people assume Paterno plays Scirrotto on punts deep into our territory because Scirrotto is the "hands" returner meaning he's better at catching the ball. In fact, Paterno plays Scirrotto because he believes the conditions are favorable for the opponent to run a fake punt. He thinks Scirrotto has better defensive instincts and can react better to covering a receiver or making a tackle if called on to do so. This makes a lot of sense to me.
• Joe thinks we have a good stable of young linebackes. Guys like Bowman and Gbadyu are going to be stars once they learn how to anticipate what the offense is doing. Nate Stupar also got a mention, but he referred to Colasanti as "the kid we talked about earlier" instead of referring to him by his name. Interesting from a guy who could tell you the name of the grandmother of the kid who played backup fullback on the 1975 team.

For other notes from Joe's presser check out some of these links.

FOS Recap with Audio Link
Lion Eyes Recap
Read Between The Lions Recap
Penn Live Recap

After a quick review of Saturday's game:

Defensive Line:  Let's call it a solid B.  The rushing numbers looked great (2.9 ypc), but something was just off when watching the game a second time.  Josh Gaines was obviously magnificent in every regard, and while Aaron Maybin continues to get into the opponent's backfield, he still struggles quite a bit against the run.  The defensive tackles were surprisingly soft, no doubt due to the lack of depth at the position.  Ollie Ogbu and Jared Odrick made some plays, but they were completely blown out of the play on multiple occasions.  Freshman Jack Crawford is not only attempting to adjust to the college game, he's still trying to learn the game.  He's seen action in both games this season, and hasn't performed particularly well.  It's just a fact of being an undersized true freshman defensive tackle.  Tom McEowen and Eric Latimore were okay in the second half, at best.  It may not have been apparent on the scoreboard, but the defensive line desperately needs Maurice Evans and Abe Koroma back when Illinois comes to town.

Linebackers:  B+.  Navarro Bowman and Tyrell Sales racked up a ton of tackles.  Josh Hull played better and made an easy interception, but Tom Bradley isn't helping his defense by sending Hull on blitzes.  He's not a good enough athlete to disrupt the play in a blitzing role, not to mention how poorly disguised the blitzes are in the first place.  Still, he was better this week than against Coastal Carolina.  Bani Gbadyu allegedly played on Saturday.  Nathan Stupar looked quite good in his limited action.

Secondary:  B+.  Mark Rubin, better.  Not great, but better.  He was caught up in traffic a few times on running plays, but otherwise did a fine job shedding some blocks and making the tackle.  Nice interception, too.  Tony Davis played very well.  Outside of the clusterfrick that was Oregon State's first touchdown, Anthony Scirrotto had a nice game.  Good to see Drew Astorino in the game early and breaking up a pass.  I don't recall Lydell Sargeant doing anything great or awful.

I already know what many of you are thinking.  We held them to 7 meaningful points, and even if you take away the sacks, Oregon State only had 116 yards rushing.  I know.  I know.  But I saw what I saw:  many defensive tackles being abused far too often, and average but effective play from the defense as a whole.  They'll look great against Syracuse and Temple.  After that, we'll probably have Evans and Koroma back in the rotation, which will certainly help against Illinois.  

Too harsh?  Just right?  Your comments are always welcome.

Who Shot Who In The What, Now?  Oregon State (0-1) at Penn State (1-0).  The Beavers lost 36-28 to Stanford last week.  Penn State steamrolled little Coastal Carolina 66-10.  Kickoff at 3:30 p.m.

Thanks, I Just Had It Stuffed!  The Beavers are the second best Pac-10 team over the past two seasons.  Seriously.  Their defense was one of the best in the entire nation last season, but they have an entirely new front seven this year.  Not so coincidentally, Stanford ran for 210 yards against the Beavers last week.  Offensively, they have more than enough playmakers to legitimately scare you.  Now that their defense has weakened significantly, they're the stereotypical Pac-10 team.  And holy crap, did they rack up a ton of penalties against Stanford (12 for 100 yards). 

(Cast your vote and click through for the rest of the preview.)

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We were all pleased with the results on Saturday I'm sure, but there were definitely some things to work on. Let's take a look at the defense and see how each unit did.

Defensive Line

You would be hard pressed to ask for a better game from the defensive line. The Chanticleers were held to just 52 yards on 32 attempts for a puny 1.6 yards per carry. The defensive tackles were stuffing the middle and the ends were getting good pressure off the edge. Aaron Maybin was a beast coming around the left tackle all day like the kid was standing in a foot of mud. He recorded 2 sacks and five tackles. Not bad for a guy that wasn't even listed on the depth chart earlier in the week. Jared Odrick was credited with a sack, though I could have sworn he had two by my count. Redshirt freshman Eric Latimore also got a sack on the day.

The only knock I have on them is they were a little too aggressive at times. The Chants were letting them go on the jailbreak screen and we were still falling for it late in the game. The quarterback sucked them in and dunked the ball over their heads for a 15 yard gain. They have to learn to read that and adjust. That guy in front of you isn't putting up a fight for a reason.

Final Grade: B+

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On Thursday, we ran a comparison of last year's offensive personnel compared to the players who will take the field for this year's Nittany Lions.  The results were largely favorable.   Personnel shouldn't be an issue for 2008's offense (2009?  Ugh.), provided that the quarterback -- let's face it, Daryll Clark's the guy -- can take care of the ball and help the team cut down on (1) ghastly-timed turnovers and (2) short field goal attempts.

Today, we'll look at the defense.  You already know the big stories.  A knee exploded.  A nation mourned.  Two guys were bounced after the Outside The Lines report.  A nation rejoiced.  While these incidents sucked for a variety of reasons, many fans seem to believe that Penn State can absorb the losses due to excellent defensive recruiting and depth.

More likely than not, they're wrong.

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Only 7 days until "I'll take that mmkaythxbye"

Regarding convenient explanations.

These criminal charges coincide with concerns from a former player, a recruiting analyst, local media and others that Penn State has pursued recruits who are good athletes but might have questionable character issues, in order to improve performance. The team under head coach Joe Paterno faced an unprecedented four out of five losing seasons from 2000 to 2004.

Not sure why they couldn't just mention their names. That would appear to be the "journalism" thing to do.

Former Player - Michael Haynes
Recruiting Analyst - Bob Lichtenfels
Local Media - Stephen A. Smith Mike Missanelli
Others - Unknown - Nice touch ESPN, very....pointless.

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