Judging From What Was Said Right After Penn State’s Never-In-Doubt 38-17 Rubber-Stamp Performance vs. Villanova, Good is Now the Enemy of Great as the Nittany Lions Offense Seeks Balance
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Burned through all our leaf blower material already. Therefore, executive decision: Pithy intros are reserved for FBS opponents.
Let’s get to it.
The week-to-week evolution of Mike Yurcich’s offense sort of resembles that famous 1965 Rudolph Zallinger ‘March of Progress’ illustration, you know the one where the monkey gradually morphs into early man…but in reverse.
On Saturday, the same modern mind that flung the ball all over the field, challenged refs’ cardiorespiratory capacity with his Meep-Meep tempo, and reduced tough-guy defenders to nothing more than a bunch of injury-faking thespians four years ago at Oklahoma State lined up in what Wikipedia calls “the oldest formation in American football” – the T formation, invented in 1882 by Walter Camp and revived 50 years later thanks to a revolutionary, game-changing innovation…the introduction of the hand-to-hand center-quarterback snap.
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To be honest, I’m writing this during the halftime of the Villanova game because the stats that we’re going to get out of this game don’t matter. Penn State is going to win. The defense has been awesome and will continue being awesome, Sean Clifford and Ta’Quan Roberson will throw for a couple more TDs (probably), and in all likelihood, the run game will keep spinning its tires. That’s where I want to focus today – the run game. In the first half of the Villanova game, the Nittany Lions averaged 1.1 YPC running the ball – well below their already-lackluster 3.8 YPC for the season. In the three games prior to Saturday, Penn State’s offense generated 68% of its total yards in the air. Against Villanova, 84% of Penn State’s 509 total yards came via the passing game. How does this bode for the team going forward? Has an FBS team had this uneven of pass/run ratio and been #elite?
I’ve always hated the “If you take away these (insert number) big plays, the offense only has (insert more paltry number) total yards” trope. I understand that it is often used to point out a lack of consistency. But it also diminishes the execution and the value of those big plays. If 100 yards come in 10 plays of 10 or one play of 70 and nine plays that total 30 … it’s still 100 yards, right?
The goal Penn State’s offense sets each week, after all, is to pile up those chunk plays, as the Nittany Lions did in Saturday’s 38-17 win over Villanova. The hosts had four plays of more than 50 yards, which is what you would expect against an FCS opponent but also rarely ever happens because, well, damn.
So (close your eyes and hold your nose) take away those four plays (all of which would have gone for more yards had not it been for that pesky end zone), which accounted for 254 total yards, and Penn State had 255 total yards on its other 61 plays, with only 80 of those yards coming on the ground.
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• Stands full of fans vs. Ball State: cathartic. The triumphant return of the Beaver Stadium Whiteout last Saturday: an invigorating revival. But today, when fans ducked out early in the 4th Quarter moments after Tyler Warren’s plodding touchdown put Penn State up five touchdowns YET still had plenty to bitch about amongst friends back at the tailgate…well, that felt normal.
• Actually, that’s not entirely fair. ‘Plenty’ is a stretch. Sean Clifford threw for 400+ yards – the first Penn State quarterback to do so on this side of the pond (Christian Hackenberg eclipsed the 400-yard mark while navigating the Slip N’ Slide Croke Park turf in Ireland seven years ago). Jahan Dotson was Jahan Dotson. Parker Washington flashed the type of big-play ability that had been MIA (from him, we’re saying) through three weeks. And Penn State’s two-deep defense shut down an inferior opponent. Overall, Penn State did more good than bad during this schedule-filling, revenue generator masquerading as a competitive athletic contest. It’s just that the bad was really, really, really BAD.
Just Like the Guy Controlling the Between-Play Beaver Stadium Music, Penn State’s Passing Attack Didn’t Let Up in a 28-20 Whiteout Win vs. Auburn
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Accountability is just a click away.
Scroll three-quarters of a digital page down the Penn State-Auburn box score released by the Sports Information Department. Don’t whine. The link is right above this paragraph. Go ahead. We’ll wait.
OK, Nooooow….stop! There! Right there: the names of every member of The Malignant Seven – better known as James Carter’s SEC officiating crew that absolutely bungled an otherwise perfect night of college football. Referee. Line Judge. Side Judge. Umpire. Back Judge. Linesman. Field Judge. They’re all listed…
…except the replay official.
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Penn State is 3-0 with two wins over ranked opponents! James Franklin’s squad is off to a great start to the year and the Whiteout victory over Auburn keeps the 2021 snowball building. It’s early, but doesn’t this team and this season already feel special? This edition of Penn State football is resilient as evidenced by the fact that the Nittany Lions seemingly had to beat two opponents on Saturday – Auburn and the SEC refs. A team of a lesser caliber would’ve folded after some of the calls (or non-calls), but not this group. They are a team of immense character and are really starting to get rolling. I love that I get to do this every week!
This was big-boy football.
Auburn’s first visit to Beaver Stadium resulted in the sort of back-and-forth, big-swinging bout between two historical college football brutes that made you wonder what the hell it had taken so long to get these two teams together in the regular season. It was a game that came down to the final play but it felt like it would pretty much the whole night, didn’t it?
For all the spectacle the White Out games have delivered during the past two decades, the quality of football and the intrigue of the game script have only rarely matched the atmosphere. Both did on this night, even if the quality of the officiating left you pining for the orderly days of John O’Neill.
We learned a few things about the Nittany Lions during each of the first two weeks and a few more this week. Jahan Dotson applied a few more layers of cement to an already impressive legacy. Noah Cain was quietly brilliant. Joey Porter Jr. and Jaquan Brisker patrolled the secondary with the physicality of linebackers. Even the tight ends showed up! And Sean Clifford served up plenty of dimes and an extra helping of crow for his critics.
If You Can’t Hire The One You Love – Because of a BTS Coaching Search Power Struggle Ripped From the Pages of a ‘Succession’ Script– Love The One You Hired
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Editor’s Note: No Auburn Defense Film at 11 this week because until I slip and fall in the right place I have to keep my 9 to 5 – a job that had me on the road in BFE last week. Planning Offense and Defense Film at 11’s for Iowa, Ohio State, Maryland and Michigan. Thanks for your patience and understanding.
Relationship Tip No. 1: Honeymoon with Akron.
No, not in Akron…unless you got some weird, out-there industrial plight and architectural decay fetish (hey dude, no judgment here). Honeymoon with Akron, perhaps the softest of several OOC schedule-filler marshmallows from the MAC.
That’s what unwanted, unwelcomed, 8th-choice, not-from-‘round-here new Auburn head coach Bryan Harsin arranged Week 1, and 60 minutes and 60 points later Cupid’s arrow pierced the deep-fried hearts of Auburn’s meddlesome, never-satisfied, impossible-to-deal-with boosters…well, for one week, at least.
In the most prolific offensive debut in Auburn history, Harsin and new OC Mike Bobo called plays and pulled levers that amassed 600+ total yards, tallied the most points (60) in a game since 1971, and scored on their first eight possessions. Embattled and often erratic Tigers QB 10-Bo Nix – think Sean Clifford but with better hair – completed 20 of 22 throws vs. the zipless Zips, good for a single-game school record 90.9 completion percentage that really should have been 95.5 percent if Tigers WR 5-Kobe Hudson didn’t Featherstone this dot late in the second quarter.