Penn State 22, Wisconsin 10
Those of us who had lost faith in the Lions, thinking they couldn’t solve their problems before the end of the year, were treated to a pleasant surprise in the blustery cold of St. Joe Memorial-Irwin Financial Stadium at Beaver Field on Saturday. The #21 Penn State Nittany Lions, much maligned offensive line and all, defeated the Wisconsin Badgers, 22-10, spoiling any hope in Madison that their team would compete for the Big Ten championship this year.
Any notion that Time of Possession is increasingly irrelevant should fly back in to Matt Herb’s ass from whence it came. Penn State won the game because it took care of business, keeping the ball for 34 minutes while the Badgers could manage only 26, quite a turnaround from being dead last in the conference.
Low Offensive Output in Da Cold
The only part of my prediction that turned out to be valid was that Jonathan Taylor would run for close to 200 yards against the Penn State defense. He actually earned 185 yards on 20 carries, including an early touchdown on a 71-yard scamper. Miles Sanders all but matched Taylor’s performance with 165 all-purpose yards, including a touchdown.
The big difference was in quarterback performance. Jack Coan, who had been pressed into service due to starter Alex Hornibrook undergoing the concussion protocol, was haaaaarrrrrrrible for Wisconsin, 9-20 for 60 yards and two interceptions. Meanwhile, Trace McSorley, operating behind a shuffled offensive line that did its job in the trenches more often than not, for a change, was 19-25 for 160 yards and a touchdown. Not great shakes, but it got the job done.
Sloppiness in Da Cold
You want sloppiness? I’ll give ya sloppiness, already, in da cold, already. Although Penn State won the battle of turnovers 4-2, there were far too many. You would think badgers with those claws and their acclimation to the cold would be able to hang onto the ball, but two fumbles lost and two interceptions thrown paint a sorry picture of butterfingered weasels.
The Penn State special teams play suffered sloppiness in da cold, already, too. Problem child Jake Pinegar missed two field goals and one extra point. Wow, does that ever suuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck!
It Was Good Enough to Beat the Badgers
Not great numbers, but good enough. Encouraging progress by the offensive line, but they’ve let us down before and they’ll let us down again. Tommy Stevens came in, but not to take snaps as a QB, just as a running back or a decoy. We saw one carry by the doghouse denizen Ricky Slade. The offensive brain trust seemed to listen to the outcry from the fans (and from KJ Hamler, himself) as Bugs Bunny was used as a part of the short game, snagging 5 receptions for 35 yards.
So, good on time of possession, getting better on third-down and fourth-down conversions (6-15 & 2-2), and better offensive line play. It was good enough to beat the Badgers and will probably be good enough to beat Rutgers and Maryland. It ain’t going to be good enough to beat LSU in the Capital One Bowl, though.
Around the Big Ten
Meanwhile, the Badgers are themselves looking toward a possible short bowl trip to Kohler for the Toilet Bowl. Because Minnesota beat Purdue and Wisconsin lost, the Northwestern victory over Iowa gives the Wildcats an unassailable lead in the West Division of the Big Ten. Northwestern will play the winner of the Ohio State vs. Michigan game for the Big Ten Championship. The Badgers will be eating cheese.
Penn State’s performance was rewarded by elevation to #16 in the AP poll. Northwestern entered the poll this week at #24. There are four Big Ten teams in the Top 25, including Michigan (#4), Ohio State (#9), PSU, and Northwestern. College Football Playoff Committee ranking will be revealed on Tuesday.
I’ll be back during the week with a look toward Piscataway for an overview of the clash with the mighty Scarlet Knights, one of our forced rivals in the Big Ten.
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Big Al says
It was the best game for the Kitties offense since Ohio State. Franklin apparently decided to use his best receivers (i.e Hamler, Dotson, Freiermuth) instead of the unproductive upperclassmen and that decision paid off. The defense pretty much dominated Wisconsin’s one dimensional offense. Coan was probably the worst college quarterback I’ve seen since Rob Bolden. Wisky is going to lose to Purdue this weekend if Hornybrook can’t play.
And Franklin made fewer than normal head-up-his-ass-decisions in the 4th quarter. Although I still don’t understand the play call that resulted in the fumble with 2 minutes left. It looked like he was trying to be “aggressive” and pad Stevens’ stats instead of just taking a knee and running out the clock. State had already beaten the spread and Franklin didn’t need more points to cover any bets he might have made.
The only serious negative was Pinegar’s kicking. His performance in the Iowa game was apparently just a fluke. He can’t be trusted to kick a field goal unless State gets inside the 20 yard line and, even then, his trajectory is so low that a block is likely.
Barring some kind of colossal fuck up in the next two weeks, it looks like State is going to finish the regular season at 9-3 (as you sagely predicted) and will be headed for a new year’s day bowl (Citrus or Outback) ass-kicking by an SEC team.
The Nittany Turkey says
Yeah, I know. That seems to be where the boys are headed. I don’t see how they’ll be able to beat LSU, Florida, or even hapless Kentucky, who Tennessee showed were the pretenders we all knew they were.
Too late, in my opinion to go with the freshmen instead of Johnson, Polk, and Thompkins. That move should have occurred during the cupcake phase of the season. Now, they’re on the earn while you learn program. The seniors will have to play on Senior Day, which means we have to worry about Maryland.
But we have to get past the Rutgers (1-9, 0-7) Super Bowl first. Opening line on that game was PSU – 27. Should we be concerned? I mean, Michigan’s low-powered offense scored only 42 on them while their vaunted defense allowed an early 80-yard TD run. Will the Nits put them away early, as they should, or let them hang around?
Regarding the strange call with two minutes left, I’m beginning to think Franklin reads the MSM and Blog-idiot posts that said Tommy wasn’t getting enough reps. I doubt it, but his reactionary late season adjustments seem a little weird to me, coming after they might have made a difference.
—TNT