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Formations/Philosophy

The hiring of Mike Macdonald – a 34-year-old sporting a coaching resume with experience at every level of football (high school, college, NFL) despite never advancing to anything above a position coach at any of those levels – as Michigan’s new Defensive Coordinator was probably the most criticized move during Jim Harbaugh’s offseason re-shuffling of Titanic deckchairs…but, man, it’s worked out, huh?

Heading into this weekend’s showdown vs. Penn State, the Wolverines rank 6^th nationally in Scoring Defense and are graded as the 3^rd best Pass Rush, according the PFF.

So, how the heck has the relatively green, non-capitalized ‘D’ Macdonald, pulled this off?

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Introduction

Penn State is back in the win column, which makes pounding out this piece way more fun than the previous three. So, hey, we’re off to a sunny start!

Now for the dark cloud…

Despite registering the 6^th W of the season, there remains concern about this instillation of Penn State ever becoming a complete team. The run game looked better, especially with respect to the performances of Noah Cain and Keyvone Lee. Jahan Dotson gave his usual superstar performance. The defense limited Maryland to a very low point total and the game was sealed with an interception by a former Lackawanna Falcons safety, Ji’Ayir Brown. With that established, the offense only gained 2.8 yards-per-rush; the defense surrendered more than 400 yards, which is too many, and though it felt like the Nittany Lions had complete control, and the game was still technically in doubt with under 10 minutes remaining. So, a win’s a win but there are still things to explore and issues to fix.

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There are players who make plays, and then there are playmakers, the rare and oh-so-sought-after cats who have that instinctive ability to be in the right spot at the right time and the brains and balls to take advantage of it.

True playmakers can take a team from good to great (see Barkley, Saquon) or make a mediocre defense look formidable (see Parsons, Micah). They can breed confidence in their teammates and attract the attention of future playmakers. They’re the reason college coaches spend so much time and effort on recruiting and the reason the NFL keeps piling up the cash despite one public relations nightmare after another.

One of those playmakers won a game Penn State had little business winning on Saturday in sleepy College Park, Maryland.

Jahan Dotson was the best player on the field, which he’s been before, and on this day looked like he wouldn’t be an afterthought if the discussion were about the best player in the Big Ten. He shined so brightly that any of his teammates were going to seem dull by comparison and yet, that light also revealed why the Nittany Lions are pretty much an afterthought in early November after such a promising start.

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Introduction

Welp, another postgame analytics write-up following a Penn State loss, although this one is a little less demoralizing than the previous two. The Nittany Lions hung with the heavily favored Buckeyes from first whistle to last whistle but just couldn’t finish the job. Offensively, two big turnovers directly led to 10 Buckeye points, which was ultimately the difference in the game. The defense played very well and held the best offense in the conference, if not the nation, in check except for a few backbreaking chunk plays. Once again, this game reaffirmed a couple of things: 1. Penn State remains Ohio State’s toughest competition within the Big Ten year in and year out. And 2., the gap between Ohio State and everyone else in the conference is really, really wide.

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Three players trotted into the end zone with no one around them on Saturday night.

Only one of them scored a touchdown.

Penn State’s 33-24 loss to Ohio State in the Big … uh, Horseshoe was a game defined by big plays. The Buckeyes made enough of them — including a 57-yard scoop and score by defensive tackle Jerron Cage — to hold off a game bunch of Nittany Lions, who went toe-to-toe with the hosts in many ways but made more mistakes than big plays of their own.

Jesse Luketa’s jaunt into the end zone came after he picked up a harmless incomplete pass, and John Lovett’s romp was only after he had run more than a yard out-of-bounds before catching the pass. Neither counted, of course, and it was that kind of evening for the Nittany Lions, an evening of missed opportunities and almosts. Penn State forced a turnover on the first possession, the perfect start for a team looking to pull off a big upset on the road … and then gave the ball back on the very…next…play. Down three early in the final quarter, the Nittany Lions were gifted a turnover on downs when C.J. Stroud missed a wide-open Chris Olave … then gave the ball back four plays later on an ill-advised throw by Sean Clifford that was intercepted by Cameron Brown.

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• Wanna know the sickest aspect of this loss tonight? No? Well, too bad. The sickest aspect of this loss tonight is that it’s the type of “Well, if we gotta lose one” setback we all would have killllled for three weeks ago – a close, hard-fought setback worthy of CFP debate had Penn State finished the season at 11-1. (Inset Aunt/Uncle anatomy retort here).

• No moral victories. Not at Penn State. That’s Rutgers stuff. BUUUUUT…the team backed up all the preseason flowery talk of chemistry and closeness with their effort tonight. With nothing but pride on the line, they showed up. In 2020, the dam bursts and Penn State drowns at 17-7 and 27-17. So Yay!

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Introduction

“Oh man, what a terrible loss.” – Me, Oct. 9, 2021.

“Oh man, what a terrible loss.” – Me, Oct. 23, 2021.

Hope – the most dangerous of four-letter words – rested on the figurative shoulders and literal “right torso” (as ABC’s sideline reporter kept calling it, as if humans have two) of QB1 Sean Clifford following a disappointing, but excusable, setback at Iowa. And then Saturday happened. What began as a foregone conclusion on Tuesday – no way Clifford plays vs. Illinois, but no way Penn State loses to Illinois, either – turned into the most unpleasant surprise in recent memory – Oh wow, Clifford’s starting, and Oh Wow, Penn State lost to a bunch players the opposing coach doesn’t want on the roster. In the most ‘Big Ten’ of Big Ten games, Illinois posted 10 times more rushing yards than passing yards but couldn’t really score, as Penn State’s ‘Bend but Don’t Break’ defense once again showed off its Stretch Armstrong pliability. The Nittany Lions offense, with a clearly hobbled quarterback, couldn’t muster enough production to score more than 10 points in 60 minutes of play against an Illini defense that was allowing 28.7 points per game prior to Saturday.

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