Dispensing Thoughts & Opinions – Penn State vs. Purdue
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• Gus Johnson: “That’s one of the best drives, Joel Klatt, that I’ve ever seen!” Gus…buddy…look…you’re excited; I’m excited; we’re all excited, OK? But, please, a little perspective. You do realize there’s a drive called THE DRIVE, right? Right?
• Good lord, where to start? Scrolling back and re-reading our in-game Twitter feed (before the phone died…thanks Jobs), we were pretty damn grouchy, so why don’t we flip the script and shovel down our ice cream before we hold our nose and force-swallow that pile of lima beans so Mom lets us leave the table and go to bed.
• Don’t let Aidan O’Connell’s Madden-ish passing stats fool you…Manny Diaz was borderline brilliant in his Penn State coaching debut. Yeah, brilliant. Pulling the strings on a unit that lost 5 draft picks, and 4 players who made NFL 53-man rosters, Diaz’s defense held Purdue scoreless in the final 15 minutes of play, gifting the ball back to Sean Clifford and the offense with 2.22 remaining. What might be the most impressive aspect of Diaz’s first impression, though, is that for a defense implementing a vastly different scheme against a super-charged offense engineered to stress teams from sideline to sideline and goalpost to goalpost, there weren’t very many blown assignments, guys out of position, coverage busts, or mental toe-stubs.
• Penn State fans looove to criticize James Franklin’s in-game coaching. Rightfully so. But, credit where credit is due…his decision to replace right tackle Caedan Wallace with Bryce Effner in the second half might have saved the season…well, for at least two more weeks. It’ll be interesting to see how PFF grades Effner’s effort…but off the top of our tired and slightly-inebriated heads, we can’t recall him giving up a QB pressure.
• Is ginger caterpillar Sean Clifford going to bust through the cocoon and fly high like last year’s beautiful 6th-year butterfly Kenny Pickett? Um, no. Would his mother hang this sloppy finger-paint performance up on the fridge? Probably not. Is he a better NIL manager and overpriced/overhyped chicken finger spokesman than college QB? No clue…but yes. And yet, he won the game. Yes, HE won the game. Give him that.
• Has any projected 1st Round cornerback encountered more footballs flying through his air space than Joey Porter Jr.? Don’t OCs normally try to throw away from those guys?
• Gold star for new S&C coordinator Chuck Losey. Yes, the defense rotated linemen in waves throughout the game, but the fact that Penn State’s front-4 still had juice in the tank when most teams would flash the hazards and be walking to the Citgo, gas can in hand, speaks volumes to Losey’s ability to carry the baton after Dwight Galt retired this offseason. Other than a couple players lying about their pregame Pedialyte intake and cramping up, Penn State was the noticeably fresher team in the 4th Quarter.
• Lima bean time…when it comes to us believing in Penn State’s offensive line, once again Lucy has pulled the football away right before we were set to kick it. As a bald, depressed, animated child would say, “Good Grief!” Perhaps someday we’ll learn.
• Drops, drops, drops, drops, drops, drops, drops, drops, drops, drops, drops, drops, drops, drops, drops, DROPS, EVERYBODY!
• Speaking of LMFAO, Penn State’s revamped receiver corps produced a pretty forgettable catalog of hits tonight. There was Mitchell Tinsley’s YAC masterpiece on the final drive. There was KeAndre Lambert-Smith’s foot-to-the-floor TD following a sweet broken tackle in the second half. And then there was….there was….hmmm.
• ($100,000 Pyramid Winner’s Circle music playing) Bizarre. Unexpected. Maddening. Uh, Maddening. Bizarre…Primitive. Ummm, Unimaginative. Maddening. Maddening….Maddening. OH, WHAT ARE WORDS TO DESCRIBE PENN STATE’S 1st HALF OFFENSE! Ding, Ding, Ding! Seriously, what the heck was that? It’s like Kirk Ciarrocca abducted, duct-taped and tossed Mike Yurcich in the back of rusted-to-hell Ford Econoline before kickoff and slapped on the headset once again. The amount of respect Penn State showed a leaky Purdue defense was unwarranted, undeserved and inexcusable. I sort of understand the sentiment to establish the run and bully the band of try-hard 3-stars lined up across form you…but you know what’s a great time to establish the running game? When you’ve absolutely bombed these fools in to submission through the air and blew a scoreboard fuse!
• Did you see how Manny Diaz had his corners line up midway through the 4th Quarter on a pivotal 3rd and freakin’ 30?!?!?!?! Jeeeeeesus. My heart can’t take that, man. There’s aggressive and then there’s arrogant, Manny. Who else was clutching their imaginary pearls praying the officials kept their flags in their pocket? (Hand Up).
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