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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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

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(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.

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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

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This is not a post about how Evan Royster should be a Heisman winner.  It is a post about why he shouldn't care about whether he is a Heisman winner or not.

A while back Penn State's QB offered up the following as food for thought:

"If you want to talk Heisman and you want to talk running backs, Royster should be one of the top names, no question," Penn State quarterback Daryll Clark said.

Adam Rittenberg goes on in that piece to explain that (in so many words) Royster doesn't really have a shot because he simply doesn't get enough carries.  The thing is he's right, and that is why it's such a stupid award.

A quick look at Rivals' power rankings and you'll see Royster is sitting behind three different backs from his own conference: Shonn Greene (#4), Chris Wells (#6), and Javon Ringer (#7).

Some stats:

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So I think it's pretty clear what the story is here.  Penn State's tailback is getting by far the fewest carries per game, yet putting up very impressive yardage and a ridiculous ypc average.

Now this isn't an attempt to take anything away from these four runningbacks, as Paterno would say they are all pretty good football players.  What we are getting at is how to judge performance. 

The one thing I love about baseball is the way you can isolate statistics and get a true gauge on what the real story is. I hate football stats for their lack of this characteristic. No sport is as dependent on a "team effort" as football. The backs can't run without a great line, the quarterback can't pass without an honest run threat, the receivers can't catch balls unless they are thrown properly, and an offense can't win games unless the defense stops the other team from scoring. Despite all of this, a player cannot even be considered for the award unless his team is elite, which, to be honest, makes it a lot harder to tell if the ‘stars' are actually that good or simply a product of a great situation.

That being said, I think all four of these backs are very good at what they do, and Royster's ability to turn three yard gains into 7.4 yard gains is pretty impressive. He lacks the carries because of Green's involvement in the offense, and doesn't score as many TD's because of the effectiveness of the 230 lb QB sneak. It's because this is such a great team that Royster has no shot.  Because of this, it's important to not let the description of the Heisman fool you into thinking it's a real award.

 

Poll

Who is the "most outstanding" running back in the Big Ten?

66%

Evan Royster

402 votes

6%

Chris Wells

40 votes

12%

Javon Ringer

77 votes

13%

Shonn Greene

83 votes

602 votes | Poll has closed

 

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

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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.

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Better late than never and all that...the offense showed capable but you don't earn high marks in this post for playing Paternoball.  Penn State has an explosive offense and there is nothing wrong with using it.

 

Offensive Line

The line continued to dominate in the traditional sense, allowing Royster and Green to average 7.8 and 7.7 ypc, respectively.  There were timely errors, however.  Clark was sacked twice in the game, one near the 20 yard line on 2nd and short.  The other major mistake was a false start on a 2nd and goal at the Purdue 5 yard line; the drive was stalled and Penn State was forced to settle for a chip shot field goal.

I continue to be impressed with the line's ability to get down field for the occasional screen pass.  With such a strong ability to protect the pocket, keeping defenses honest usually isn't a major issue.  Just in case, though, the screen passes are a deadly weapon and one any defensive coordinator has to respect when preparing a game plan.  I don't have the ability to go back and look at every single pass play, but it's worth noting thatRoyster, on 16 receptions , is averaging 11 yards a touch.  I know these aren't all screen plays, but you get the idea.  For comparisons sake, Chris wells is at just just 2.5 yards per catch on (sample size alert) four receptions andJavon Ringer is at 8.6 on seven receptions.

Final Grade: B

 

Poll

Your Purdue Offensive MVP Award goes to:

22%

The O Line

92 votes

66%

Evan Royster

269 votes

0%

Stephfon Green

2 votes

4%

Daryll Clark

20 votes

1%

Derrick Williams

5 votes

1%

Deon Butler

5 votes

3%

Graham Zug

13 votes

406 votes | Poll has closed

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Here are some news and notes from Joe Paterno's weekly press conference leading up to the game between the Penn State Nittany Lions and the Wisconsin Badgers this weekend.

• Playing a team like Wisconsin creates different challenges than playing a team like Purdue. This is like saying tackling a wild boar is slightly more challenging than stepping on a bug.
• Jordan Norwood should be good to go this weekend. Quarless and Shuler are questionable.
• Joe lists himself as day-to-day. Some days he feels good and some days he doesn't. Whether he will coach from the sideline or the press box will be determined on game day. But Joe doesn't think this makes a difference to the team or the coaches.
• Joe had thought about playing A.J. Wallace on offense as a backup to Derrick Williams before the season started. But his hamstring injury nixed that and gave Chaz Powell an opportunity to switch sides of the ball.
• Joe is pleased with our situation in the defensive backfield. Joe says we are "fortunate" to have Wallace, Sargeant, and Davis at the corners and with the emergence of Drew Astorino we have three good guys on the inside too.
• Joe hopes we see more Chaz Powell as the season goes on. He says Powell has struggled with confidence because they switched him to offense just before the season started.
• There was an amusing moment where Joe was asked about coaching in the booth and he took the time to explain how a headset works as if we didn't already know.

Actually, as far as making a significant contribution to the strategy side and on the tactical side, you're better off upstairs. You can see more. You can get, as long as we have the kind of communications we have now, I can talk to everybody on the sideline with the one microphone and the one set of ear phones, and they can all talk to me.

Thanks for explaining that, Joe. This is why I love the man.

• Joe refused to say the turf was to blame for all the running backs slipping. Then he told a story about some guy who used to coach at Penn State 450 years ago that would preach against cutting on the inside foot. It's actually good advice when you think about it.
• Joe repeatedly said things like he's going to have to live with the pain in his leg for a few weeks. Then he said what he has "can be fixed" which leads me to believe we're talking hip replacement surgery or something like that. My guess is Joe wants to tough it out until the season is over. Say what you will about Joe Paterno, but he's a tough dude.
• Joe mentioned that Evan Royster was good enough to play lacrosse on the Div. I level. He said he would consider letting Royster play lacrosse for Penn State if he came to him and asked.
• Not surprisingly, Joe says his most recent injury will have no effect on his coaching future. Some poor reporter actually wasted their one question in asking this. Probably some guy that flew all the way from Wisconsin too.
• Joe refused to compare this team to the '05 team saying this team hasn't been in as many tough spots yet. But he finished it up saying this is a good squad that he likes very much. This is a mantra he has repeated several times this year which is very unlike Joe Paterno.
• To compensate for his absence on the practice field and the sideline on game day Joe is spending more time hanging around the locker room to build camaraderie with the team.
• Joe has been very pleased with the performance of the defense. He pointed out that Purdue didn't commit a single penalty and only turned the ball over once. They played a sound game against us and we held them to six points.
• When asked about Wisconsin's defensive line he said, "they'll knock your jock off." I love that line. But then he followed it up with "They're not flopping aroudn out there. They're not big strong fat guys."
• This quote was kind of disturbing.

Q. Will this be your offensive line's toughest test (so far)?

Yeah, I think so. They're going to play eight guys in a box. They're going to stop your run. They've got good corners. That number 17 (Allen Langford) is a heck of a football player. Number 25 (Shane Carter), their safety is really a big time safety. As I said, they've got three good linebackers. So I think it will be a test for us to be able to move the ball. (ed. - emphasis added)

Sounds like Joe is already convinced we won't be able to run on this team. Could he have tipped his hand that he plans to open the playbook and throw down field in this game?

Be afraid, little guy.  Very afraid.

photo via www.bigtennetwork.com

BSD Mike:  Last week the pundits said Penn State would face their first real test in Illinois. It would seem that we passed, but now those same pundits are saying, "Yeah, but they haven't been tested on the road." Fine. Tomorrow we'll play Purdue. But come Monday I think they'll still be saying we haven't been tested because I don't see this as being much of a game.

Everyone is hoping Joe opens up the playbook on the road this weekend and avoids the conservative play calling that has dogged this team in the past. But honestly, why? Notre Dame rolled up 201 yards rushing, 476 yards of total offense, and 38 points against the Boilermakers. This is a Notre Dame team that ranks 105th in the nation in rushing yards per game. If you extrapolate those numbers Penn State should get about 3000 yards rushing in this game.

I look for Evan Royster to have his best day in a Nittany Lion uniform. I'm talking 200-plus yards with three or four touchdowns. I fully expect Curtis Painter to have 50 passing attempts and 350 yards passing, but he'll also throw at least two interceptions. The first half will feature some back and forth like last week, but Penn State will wear them down and pull away in the second half.

Prediction: Penn State 40, Purdue 24

Kevin HD:   Ah, the dreaded noon road game. When the all-white uniforms take the field I can't help but feel like the team, the last couple of years anyway, is walking on glass. I have hope, however. For those of you who weren't able to catch this week's Penn State Football Story, or read yesterday's quote, there's a new swagger in town and it's spelled C. L. A. R. K. This, to me, is a big moment. The pundits have been calling it a 'test', but I don't think that's the right word. On paper, tomorrow should be a rather lopsided game.  What I'm going to remember about Week 6 is not the score, but rather the confidence the team displays in their first true road game. Unfortunately for this very talented team, the Big Ten schedule sucks. And ESPN didn't help by making the two toughest games, which were already on the road, 8pm kick-offs. If Clark & Co. can go out there, start strong, and play their game, it will speak volumes about our chances in Madison and Columbus.

There are a couple of other practical things to look at, however. It's still a challenging game, on the road, against a team that is capable of taking advantage of our weaknesses. The secondary will get it's first true test and the offense...well, the offense is probably going to gain a lot of yards tomorrow. There is hesitation to do what JoePa always does on the road: run four different plays over and over again and grind out a win.  To me, it's important that we don't do this. I know it's tempting, but the play callers need to be able to use the full playbook and the players need to be comfortable taking chances in a foreign enviornment. Regardless of strategy, I think this one turns out alright.

Penn State 45, Purdue 24

RUTS:

For whatever reason, Tom Bradley always seems to have a pretty good plan to slow down Purdue's pass-happy offense, even when you look back to the Drew Brees years.  The following statement will sound unbelievably obvious and stupid, but here it goes:  Penn State needs to score touchdowns.  Don't fall into the situation that Wisconsin stumbled into at Michigan last week.  The Lions are going to move the ball, practically at will.  Turn those drives into touchdowns, and life will get very, very easy in the second half.  Let the home team hang around, and there's a potential problem in West Lafayette.  I have to disagree with Kevin's plea to open up the playbook.  Go with what works, get in the end zone a few times, and allow the defense to maul Painter in the second half.  Make it look like the fourth quarter against Tennessee two years ago.  There's absolutely no reason to get fancy in this game -- not with Purdue's abysmal rushing defense.  Run the ball, kill the clock, and get the hell out of there with a win.

Penn State 35, Purdue 20

Your predictions and random open thread hilarity are welcome in the comments.

When you have a team with so many weapons, one of the challenging things isn't necessarily being able to use them all, but threatening to.  For those reasons, I love this set:

The concept is simple: get all of the playmakers on the field.   However, the way it's set up is efficient enough to make me excited about pointing it out.  Just to break this down, let's point out what we are looking at:

• Under center, a 235 lb quarterback who can throw the ball
• Six yards back, one of two explosive backs, each one bringing a different style that makes it hard for defenses to sit on a particular pattern
• On the near side, one of two very sure handed receivers who have the speed to force the secondary to protect against the deep ball
  
• Just to the right of the QB, a FB ready for the blast or used to pick up blocking.  He is also available to clear out a lane created by what is probably the best offensive line in the Big Ten
• To the right of the FB, a playmaker who can move toward the center for the ball or go downfield into a passing pattern
• Oh, and don't forget about the TE

Now just to get this rolling, lets look at one of the more traditional options:

Now that obviously went for big yardage, but it doesn't have to in order to be effective.  You get the play opened up by leaving the TE on the line for a block and bringing in the FB to clear out a lane.  The LBs can't sit on the play because they have to worry about Williams sweeping around to the sideline, not to mention the possibility of a QB keeper.  The result?  Green needs only to get past the line of scrimmage and all of the sudden things are wide open.

Now that won't work with any kind of regularity unless you force the defense to play it honest, enter the second option:

You sell the run, which brings the LBs to the line of scrimmage, but then give the ball to Williams, already at full speed.  On the near side you've already brought the FB over to help Williams turn the corner, and as a bonus you have the WR blocking the corner and giving the ball carrier more room. 

Something that should be clearly pointed out here is that the coaching staff may have finally figured out a way to get Williams the ball without the terrible telegraphing we've grown oh so accustomed to over the past couple of years.  All the different threats on the field mean the former #1 overall recruit is getting a fair shot at a big play.  If he learns to run through traffic it is only a matter of time before he starts breaking a couple of these.

Moving on to a third option:

Ah yes, the pass.  What originally looks like a running set is, only moments after the play fake, a passing play with options all over the field.  You hope someone bites on the fake to Williams and then get the chance to look for the big play to Bulter (or Norwood) streaking across the middle or the TE who has by now released his block and gone straight north.  If those options aren't there?  You have Williams or the RB available for a quick dump off.  Also, The way this clears out the box, Clark can easily gain positive yards without even giving up the ball.

I'm going to stop here but it's only because I'm out of video; we've hardly covered all the different options of this set.  I never claimed to be and X's and O's guy, so I'll leave the finer details alone, but the bottom line is this thing is going to work.  They won't run it every play, or even every series, but four to eight times a game and you are looking at solid yardage with big play potential.  All of the best football players are on the field and all of them are a liability to the defense.