It wasn’t the easy romp all of you (except Drozz) thought it would be. I have to go to a kid party, which I’ll escape in time for the Steelers game, but I’ll throw out some bullets.
- Barkley’s 358 total yards, a school record, was an amazingly blatant attempt to increase his Heisman visibility in prime time. Still, if you got it, flaunt it.
- Penalties’ll kill ya.
- Turnovers’ll kill ya.
- Defensive line exceeded expectations, especially without Torrance.
- Offensive line reverted to traffic conism. WTF is up with Andrew Nelson, who was seen either standing around or getting pushed around on several occasions?
- McSorley, uncomfortable in a shaky, collapsing pocket, did indeed channel Hack at times. (Kudos to Big Al for admitting this possibility.)
- Iowa is always a danger in Kinnick Stadium, and they’ve knocked off many superior opponents there. Why wasn’t Penn State ready?
- Hey, I won’t harp on TOP anymore. Penn State had a huge edge — about 40 to 20, while running 99 plays — but, Barkley aside, they lost their quick-strike capability in the face of an effective Iowa defensive game plan.
- Still, the final drive showed more moxie than I thought would be possible. They looked weary, concerned, and defeated after Iowa’s score. The drive was impressive. It changed my mind about these guys. They had to believe in themselves to get the job done.
I’m interested in your comments after this cardiac event.
Share this:
Discover more from The Nittany Turkey
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
Big Al says
Yeah, you nailed this game. Iowa played much better than I ever thought they could. I had several takeaways
1) Iowa gave everyone in the B1G the blueprint for containing “Genius Joe’s” vaunted offense. Which is: instead of packing the box to stop Barkley and applying press coverage on the receivers, use the old Penn State bend but don’t break defense. Apply pressure with your defensive line, put your linebackers and safeties back from the line of scrimmage and have them converge on the ball. You’ll need good defensive lineman and sure tackling linebackers to make this approach work and a lot the B1G teams can’t use it effectively. But Michigan and Ohio State certainly can. (and so can any BCS ready team from the other conferences)
2) With the exception of field goal kicking most aspects of special teams have improved this year. State wouldn’t have won this game if the punt coverage team hadn’t given Iowa poor field position nearly the entire game. However, the field goal kicking has become unreliable and those two missed field goals nearly cost us the game.
3) State’s defense has improved, but any offense with a competent dual threat quarterback and decent receivers can torch it. Iowa had receivers open all night and their quarterback couldn’t hit them or the receivers dropped the ball.
4) Cabinda and Apke are the weak links on Penn State’s defense. Both are smart players who rarely make mistakes or get caught out of position, but, when they do, they aren’t fast enough to recover from their mistakes
The Nittany Turkey says
At least I don’t think we saw any out-of-bounds kickoffs providing primo field position, so I’ll agree with your special teams comments for now. What’s up with Tyler Davis?
I haven’t seen enough of the defense to preclude an upset by Lagow and Company.
—TNT
Lawrence Hamilton says
The game winning drive reminded me of 9/24/1982 defeat of Nebraska in Beaver Stadium. Last second catch in the back of the end zone. I was there. …oh what a feeling. Why not let Saquon shine? Why be like my neighbor who keeps his corvette and harley in the garage full time and only rolls them out on a sunny weekend to rev the engines, tool around the block once and annoy all us lovers of peace and quiet. Set Saquon free…let him run wild. We may never pass this way again.
The Nittany Turkey says
McCloskey from Blackledge, 1982 — who else thought of that besides you and me? Who else thought about the 1994 “The Drive” against the Illini? I bet lots of our brethren were thinking along those lines. This was one to remember.
I didn’t mean to imply that I was discouraging the monodimensionality of a Barkley-dominated offense, but they’ll need to have a broader playbook to succeed further down in the Big Ten schedule. Using Barkley for everything at this stage increases his Heisman visibility and enhances his decoy value going forward, so no arguments with playing him all we can — up to the point where he gets injured and then we’re in deep doo-doo.
—TNT
Tom Wilson says
I had figured this was a loss when we finished the half with a huge advantage in yardage, TOP, and multiple trips into the red zone with only 3 points to show for it on offense and 2 on defense, coupled with a quick TD by Iowa before the half. Hate to see the team so dependent on one player because no one should be that indispensable.
The Nittany Turkey says
When I went to the kitchen to cook for my watch party group not long after the beginning of the second period, I expected that our guys would settle down and we’d nab a couple of touchdowns before halftime. I kept hearing moaning from out there in the vicinity of the TV screen. Then, I really got pissed when I heard Franklin interviewed on the way into the locker room. He brought up that crap about being a “second half team.”
What if Barkley is injured? It appears that he twisted his ankle on that one play late in the game. If we lose him, we lose at least 60% of our offense. I’m hoping that we open up the playbook and get a few more people involved. (Look at me, talking about this in the first person as if I was one of the coaches!)
I’m anxious about Indiana. I’m glad PSU is back in the Beave for that one.
—TNT
jd says
Just to note-4 of the last top ten teams to come into Kinnick walked away with losses.
Anyhoo, when the catch was made I just sat there. Just stared at the tv. Couldn’t believe what I just saw.
I’m a philly fan. These things don’t happen to my teams. We’re usually on the other side.
The Nittany Turkey says
I know where you’re coming from with that. On the morning after the Iowa game, I thought back to Chad Henne hitting Mario Manningham in the end zone after getting away from Alan Zemaitis and doing the same damn thing to us in 2005. (But we didn’t need Lloyd Carr’s two seconds.)
—TNT
jd says
also worth noting dick honig ran up 65 extra yards on our D and in addition to awarding an extra TO to Carr.