The longest throws of the night for both quarterbacks told the story.

Justin Fields’ longest toss came after a pump fake to hold the safety, and was a dime that traveled 50 yards from his hand to the waiting fingertips of Chris Olave, who had a step, maybe a step and a half, on Marquis Wilson. That fake held the safety just long enough to prevent him from getting over in time, and Ohio State had a 49-yard touchdown.

Sean Clifford’s longest throw of the evening was a deep post to Parker Washington, who had found himself behind an Ohio State secondary that left more than a few Penn State receivers open on Saturday evening. Clifford, under duress for the vast majority of his passes, had some time to get rid of this pass. It sailed several yards long.

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FTB’s Rapid Reaction/Stream of Consciousness After Penn State Proved to be More Trick Than Treat Against Ohio State.

• I can’t remember a bigger gut-punch first play to start a big Penn State game than Garrett Wilson’s 62-yard run. Set the tone for the long evening and sucked the air out of Beaver Stadium…oh wait.

•  The ease and regularity of elite quarterbacks transferring is the reason why the gap between Tier 1 Programs and Tier 1A Programs is widening in college football – because you’re no longer penalized for “misses” in recruiting. Don’t have a QB you trust? Grab disgruntled Justin Fields, Jalen Hurts, Kyler Murray. It’s the ultimate mulligan.

• Speaking of…because I’m gainfully employed (for now, anyway) I don’t spend a lot of time surfing Georgia message boards. But I gotta assume keyboard commandos have been MAULING Kirby Smart for letting Justin Fields slip out of Athens. In 2018, Dabo Sweeney and Smart were presented with the EXACT same scenario: Stick with the established (but limited) winner, or go with the green generational talent?  Dabo chose the latter (Trevor Lawrence over Kelly Bryant), and Kirby chose the former (Jake Fromm over Justin Fields). Kirby chose wrong. Dabo chose wisely.

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One Last Look at Saturday’s Mess – This Time With an Eye on the Nittany Lions Defense – Before We Bury The Ball, Burn the Tape, and Convince Ourselves the Season Can Still be Salvaged. 

FTB CHARTING – BOX SCORE

Just let this sink in…if Devyn Ford does the right/smart thing and belly flops on the 3-yard-line, Penn State’s defense would have held Indiana to less than 150 total yards of offense.

(Stares into space for 3 minutes…)

I’m too tired/still-not-over-Saturday to type something clever about that stat, so let’s just get to the damn review. 

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It’s Not the Debut We All Expected, but the Show Must Go On. Film Shows Plenty of Room for Improvement and Plenty of Reasons to be Optimistic.

FTB CHARTING – BOX SCORE 

For those expecting us to spew venom for the next 1,900 words, you got the wrong blog. 

Because for as frustrating as Penn State’s bed-wetting in Bloomington was on Saturday, the offense wasn’t the 1970 Gremlin sporting a duct-taped bumper many message-board Marthas (we’re taking back Karen for all the Karens out there) claimed it to be. 

Kirk Ciarrocca’s Lions gained 488 total yards against a veteran defense. In 2019, Penn State failed to reach that yardage mark in 9 of 13 games. Two of the games they did (Idaho and Maryland) shouldn’t even count. So just calm down and let us offer some perspective. Film review shows the offensive line fluctuated between Very Good to Dominant – despite a lot of negativity heaped on this group after the game, the Penn State skill players were pedestrian at best, and Sean Clifford was Sean Clifford.

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This was not the opponent that Penn State wanted to see for its season opener. Not in any season, really, but certainly not this (insert whatever adjectives you’re using to describe 2020 these days) season.

Indiana, the punchy punchline of the Big Ten. Maybe someday someone will come along and lead the Hoosiers to back-to-back-to-back conference titles, and they’ll smack around Alabama in a playoff game, and the five-stars will flock to Bloomington. Until that day arrives, though, Indiana is not a name that will be taken seriously among fans of other Big Ten programs. On the contrary, people will expect Indiana to find new and creative ways to hand opponents the game, because, well, that’s what Indiana does.

The Nittany Lions themselves had little reason to take the Hoosiers lightly after getting healthy scares last season (34-27) and the season before (33-28), but players hear the Indiana jokes, and they know who they’re playing next week.

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Editor’s Note: Each Saturday FTB will release rapid, unfiltered stream on consciousness notes after every Penn State game. We picked a helluva day to debut this segment, huh?

• I really don’t know how that last 2-point conversion (ruled a successful try) isn’t overturned. YOU COULD NOT HAVE A BETTER CAMERA ANGLE! If I was an Indiana fan, and I saw the initial replay, the first words out of my mouth would have been, “Ugh, we lost.” If Sean Clifford was the one carrying the ball, the first words out of my mouth would have been, “Ugh, we lost.” What exactly am I missing here?
• Franklin’s running back rotation continues to make absolutely NO SENSE.  Caziah Holmes gets benched for a fumble that isn’t a fumble. Keyvonne Lee flashes a hot hand in the 2nd quarter then he’s exiled until the 4th. BUT Devyn Ford makes a completely bonehead and SELFISH play, and he’s out there to start overtime.
• I hated the play on 2nd and inches with 11 seconds left in regulation. Hand the ball off and get 3-5 yards! Penn State was out of timeouts, but a first down pauses the clock temporarily, leaving more than enough time to spike and send the FG team out. The line to gain is literally inches away. Instead Ciarrocca calls a play with .0001 percent chance of success. Stout kicks a FG 2 yards shy of being good. Seems like those extra yards via the handoff might have mattered.

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Fox 8 New Orleans Sports Reporter/AP Poll Voter/Friend of the Blog Garland Gillen Spoke With FTB About the Big Ten’s Place in the Rankings and the Tough Task of Picking 25 Teams When Everyone Isn’t Playing 

FTB: How have you handled placing Big Ten teams in your Top 25 considering the on-off-then-on-again nature of the conference’s season?

GG: It’s been difficult. Initially, the AP preseason poll came out before the Big Ten’s decision to cancel the 2020 Fall season, so you saw a lot of Big Ten teams in the poll. To be honest, before COVID forced conferences to mess with all the schedules I had a Big Ten team, Ohio State, as preseason No. 1 in my poll that I submitted. 

Then, they told us to take the Big Ten out when they decided they were going to punt on the season. So for a lot of September, I didn’t have any Big Ten teams in my rankings…not until they changed their mind and decided they’re playing again. So I have Big Ten teams in my poll right now, but there are some AP voters who are only including the teams playing on Saturdays – so no Big Ten. That’s their right. They can do that.

FTB: So if not every AP voter is including the Big Ten currently, do you expect Big Ten teams to shoot up in the polls after this Saturday?

GG: Probably. If you look at the latest AP poll, you have all these Cinderella teams – teams like BYU and Cincinnati – ranked higher than they normally are in mid-October because 2/5ths of the Power 5 conferences aren’t playing yet. Are the darlings like Coastal Carolina going to hang around in the poll once the Big Dogs start rolling this weekend?

You look at Ohio State. If they smoke Nebraska by 40, they’re probably going to catapult a team like Notre Dame who has looked shaky, and a one-loss Georgia. If Wisconsin does what they’re supposed to do against Illinois on Friday, then they probably leapfrog No. 12 BYU. The Big Ten is the new shiny thing this weekend, so you’ll see a real bump for those teams in the rankings assuming they look good. 

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