Sponsor: For The Blogy’s 2022 season coverage is sponsored by FANATICS. Looking for the perfect holiday gift for the Nit in your life? Check out our FANATICS on FTB STORE HERE. Use our Cyber Monday checkout code ‘BOLT’ for 30% off your order, or use the checkout code ‘FTB’ for 0% off your order.

Introduction

We’ve reached the conclusion of Penn State’s 12-game 2022 regular season slate, marking the end of an era in Happy Valley. (I told myself I wasn’t gonna cry. Hold it together, Nate). Barney Amor will never kick another punt in Beaver Stadium. As almost-canceled author Dr. Seuss once said, “Don’t cry because it’s over, smile because it happened.” The unofficial mascot of this weekly blog post ended his storied career with another signature performance, booming balls for a 50 yards-per-punt average – just how a legend should go out. #RE96ECT.

via GIPHY

According to my notes, another era ended on Saturday, too – The Sean Clifford Era. More polarizing than the epic “yanny” vs. “laurel” debate of 2018 (when Sean was actually a sophomore academically), the 6^th-year senior and 4^th-year starter graced the Beaver Stadium stage for the final time on Saturday. He, and the 2022 team, went out with a 19-point win over “rival”(?) Michigan State, closing the season on a 4-game win streak during which the average margin of victory was 31 points. All things considered, it’s a good way to go out for Clifford but instead of focusing our attention solely on No. 14, today we’ll talk about this game and this season from a 30,000-foot perspective and put it in context of Penn State’s entire football history.

Continue reading

Disclaimer: The following opinions do not necessarily reflect the views of For The Blogy. Hell, they might not even reflect the views of the author but, rather, those of Penn State fans he has been hearing from or reading during these last few weeks.

Penn State has completed a 10-win regular season, and will likely finish among the nation’s top 10 and play in a quality bowl game, such as they exist in any way, shape, or form outside the playoff these days.

By any measure, for a team that was predicted to go 8-4 or 9-3 by most, and was coming off 4-5 and 7-6 campaigns, the 2022 season must be considered a success. The Nittany Lions were the bug against Michigan and Ohio State (as was everyone else in the Big Ten), but they were the windshield against every other opponent on the schedule, winning those 10 games by the average margin of 25 points.

Continue reading

Sponsor: FTB’s Donors Club – the most direct way to support our efforts – is back for another year! (Sally Struthers voice) For $9.99 you can feed a starving blogger and get a cool FTB Koozie in return. JOIN HERE.

*Please remember to click the ‘Share My Address With For The Blogy’ box when checking out so we know where to mail your gift!

• 10-2. Pretty much a Cotton Candy season. Enjoyable but hardly filling and a tad empty but sure as hell tastier than whatever gruel Mom slap on our plates in 2020 and 2021. As far as the way the 12-game slate played out, this season reminds us a bunch of the 2017 season – double-digit wins but none of them worth memorializing with one of those commemorative plates or coins they’re always advertising to insomniacs on TV at 3 a.m. In 2017, Penn State’s “best” win came in the dying breaths of an Instant Classic at Iowa – a team that eventually won 8 games. In 2022, Penn State’s “best” win came in the dying breaths of an Instant Classic at Purdue – a team that won its 8th game today.

Continue reading

Sponsor: Whether tailgating in Happy Valley or watching the action at home, take your Saturday spread to the next level with Sauces, BBQ Dry Rubs and Bloody Mary Mix from the 409 Tailgate Club. Visit 409’s Online Store HERE.

Knowing us, of course we saved our wildest tailgate recipe of the season for last. Yes, even wilder than making pork poppable, like we did with our Kielbasa Tots creation.

Hear us out:

Peanut Butter.

Chocolate.

Chicken.

Yep, you read that right.

Continue reading

Sponsor: FTB’s Donors Club – the most direct way to support our efforts – is back for another year! (Sally Struthers voice) For $9.99 you can feed a starving blogger and get a cool FTB Koozie in return. JOIN HERE.

*Please remember to click the ‘Share My Address With For The Blogy’ box when checking out so we know where to mail your gift!

Introduction

Another week, another dominating Penn State win. Huh, so this is what being an Ohio State fan must feel like. How boring. Like always, Penn State traveled east and big-brothered Rutgers like the Nittany Lions always do, marking the third straight Saturday Penn State picked up a W against the division’s traditional also-rans. Much like the Indiana and Maryland wallopings, Penn State leaned on it’s two-headed freshmen backfield attack along with another merciless defensive performance to end the competitive phase of this contest by the middle of the 3^rd Quarter.

Continue reading

TV analysts and other such folks who like to oversimplify football will often say that a defense will try to make an opposing offense “one-dimensional” – stack the box to gum up the run game and encourage the offense to pass, or (in fewer cases) flood the secondary with extra defenders to deter the pass and offering a clear path to run the ball.

Manny Diaz and Penn State’s defense, it seems, don’t seem to care which dimension their opponents choose, only that, whether they decide to run or to pass, they wind up losing yardage.

An aggressive and effective defense once again ruled the day for the Nittany Lions in a 55-10 stomping of Rutgers that did not seem headed for a stomping in the first quarter. While a Penn State offense missing Parker Washington and relying upon several young offensive linemen struggled to find consistent footing and the special teams followed up Nick Singleton’s scintillating 100-yard return by giving up a 66-yard return to Aron Cruickshank, the defense found itself in a mildly alarming 10-7 hole.

Continue reading

Sponsor: Whether tailgating in Happy Valley or watching the action at home, take your Saturday spread to the next level with Sauces, BBQ Dry Rubs and Bloody Mary Mix from the 409 Tailgate Club. Visit 409’s Online Store HERE.

• As much as we love to b*tch about the Big Ten schedule-makers’ obvious vendetta against Penn State Football, those Excel aficionados in Chicago unknowingly did the Nittany Lions a HUGE solid by backloading the 2022 slate with a bunch of helmet-wearing sloths. Because, my goodness, recent the tidal wave of injuries on offense has forced Mike Yurcich to piece things together with duct-tape, chewed wads of Juicy Fruit, and infomercial Flex Seal – like the Nittany Lions OC is some lamented playsheet-holding MacGyver or something. It’s weird offering up this commentary considering Penn State eclipsed the 50-point mark for the first time since 2020, but this offense was a sputtering mess for a decent portion of Saturday. For much of the first half, faulty pass protection was the stick in the Nittany Lions’ bicycle spokes. Once that issue was fixed, another leak sprung – Penn State’s incomplete WR crops, down the services of safety blanket Parker Washington, couldn’t separate.

Continue reading