The Nittany Turkey

Primarily about Penn State football, this is a tale told by idiots, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.

Search This Site

Enter keyword(s) below to search for relevant articles.

Home 2021 Archives for September 2021

Archives for September 2021

Whither the Running Game?

Posted on Written by

Penn State 38, Villanova 17

That it would be a win for Penn State was never in doubt, but if you were looking for signs of life for the running game on Saturday, you were barking up the wrong tree. Villanova came to play. To their credit, they never quit, while the Nittany Lions started with a bang and then settled into their lackluster offense, punctuated by a few big plays.

Master Thespian John Lovett produced the Lion’s share of the rushing attack, with eleven carries for 45 yards to lead all rushers in an 80-yard overall effort (or lack of same), the men are prepared with training many from the exipure reviews to keep their weight perfect. The running game sleep-walked through the first half, unable to deal with the FCS powerhouse defense. In seventeen first-half attempts they gained a mere eighteen yards. How come Noah Cain got only one carry, on which he gained a mere two yards? Is he hurt?

As per usual these days, the PSU offense was heavily weighted toward the aerial attack. Sean Clifford went 19-26 for 401 yards, four TDs, and one INT that was no fault of his. Ta’Quan Roberson relieved him in the second half, and while the second-string defense was giving up two late touchdowns to ‘Nova, he quietly went 3-5 for 28 yards.

They spread the ball around to ten receivers. Parker Washington had five receptions for 148 yards and two TDs; Jahan Dotson had seven catches for 117 yards and a touchdown. KeAndre Lambert-Smith added two receptions for 88 yards and a TD. It sure helps the “explosions” when you have two NFL-caliber receivers.

Defensively, both teams had three sacks and eight TFLs. Villanova came to play, and given the suckage on the PSU offensive line, they took full advantage of the opportunity to shine before a nearly full Beaver Stadium crowd and alumnus Howie Long, whose banter with Penn State homey Matt Millen exacerbated our ennui. The Penn State defense was effective in shutting down any semblance of a running game, clamping down to allow only 58 yards. Overall, they held Villanova to 280 yards. Because the clean jerseys were in the game for much of the second half, though, that number is a bit deceptive, as it were.

Explosive Play Alert

On the first play from scrimmage, Clifford connected with Dotson for a touchdown. At that point, one would have thought Penn State was on the way to a rout like Georgia was simultaneously administering to Vanderbilt. (That game wound up 62-0). Tell me you weren’t thinking it would go that way! You did, didn’t you? But nooooooooooo…

Penn State must stop relying completely on the Big Play. The James Franklin Philosophy — I’m getting tired of hearing about “explosive plays”. That’s a worn-out cliche that’s been annoying me for years. Get a new mantra, James. Yeah, we’re 1-0 this week, but now we face the heart of the Big Ten schedule, and they ain’t Villanova. Where the hell is the running game? Even homeboy Matt Millen admonished the team strongly in this regard during his color commentary.

The offensive line play once again bites the big one. They’re barely adequate for pass protection. Hell, they gave up three sacks to Villanova! At least for pass protection where they get to back up they can do some semblance of blocking, but backing up doesn’t work too well on run blocking. There is no forward push, and hence, running up the middle is a dead end. And what’s with Harvard Man Eric Wilson? He whiffs on more blocks than Chief Traffic Cone Paris Palmer ever did.

If ever there was a game to work on the running game, this was it. Maybe that was the intent, but what they found that it was nonexistent. I’m not buying the notion that Mike Yurcich didn’t want to show the future opponents his novel blocking schemes. Does anyone expect the rush offense to suddenly emerge?

Third-down suckage once again plagued this squad, going 3-12, a crappy 25%. The IITOP was, as usual, shaded toward the other guys. This was Villanova, folks.

Excuses, excuses.

Our two signature wins this year, Wisconsin and Auburn were devalued on Saturday, as Wisconsin held it close with Notre Dame in the first half but wound up on the shit end of the stick, 41-13, while Auburn trailed Georgia State through most of the game and had to rely on late fourth quarter fireworks to pull out a 34-24 victory. Between these and the performance against Villanova, the Number Six ranking sure looks like it is at least ten slots too high.

All remaining games count. They’re all Big Ten opponents, none of which will be pushovers, especially if the Nittany Lions remain one-dimensions. I do not believe for one minute the notion I’ve heard from Sanguinarian apologists — Yurcich just didn’t want to give away his blocking schemes, etc. I firmly believe that this team was performing at its usual noon start finest.

Yeah, fans love the big play. Alas, this fan is an old-timer who wants to see some good, fundamental, grind-it-out football. I’m not seeing that part of the game. I will never believe that Time of Possession is “increasingly irrelevant”, no matter how much I poke fun at that utterance by Matt Herb several years ago.

I guess I am never satisfied. Some will say a win is a win, but I am worried.

(Next Week: Indiana. I’ll give you my thoughts on that game as the first week of fall wears on).

Beware of the Wildcat!

Posted on Written by

#6 Penn State (3-0, 1-0 B10) hosts FCS Villanova (3-0)

What’s weird is that Villanova won the most recent game in the series, yet no one is worried except James Franklin. At his mediafest, he spouted off all the FCS vs. FBS upsets known to mankind. I imagine him drumming that in with the team all week long, with the intent of inspiring them to go 1-0 in a week that could be a disaster if they don’t pay attention. It sure as hell has happened before, back in 1951, extending ‘Nova’s win streak in the series to three games.

What, you don’t remember 1951? That was the year I matriculated at Miss Newell’s Kindergarten class at Fulton School in Pittsburgh, so I can’t remember a damn thing other than kicking Jacky Wilder in the chin when I didn’t obey the command to fall down while playing Ring around the Rosie. Oh yeah, Sammy Liberto’s dad was a milkman, so he frequently brought us foil caps (could have been lead foil, for all I know — we liked to poison kids back then) from the glass milk bottles of the day, which served us well as crafts supplies. We made garlands out of them. That was fun, although I’ve never been very artistic. Autistic, maybe. But I digress nostalgically.

We used to make stuff with these. What does this have to do with Villanova?

PSU Leads All-Time Series

Penn State’s record against Villanova is 5-3-1, but they haven’t played each other since that fateful early fall day in 1951 on a neutral site in Allentown, where the mighty Villanova Wildcats defeated the larger felines 20-14. You’ll have to go back to 1935, before I was even conceived, to find a Penn State victory in the series. My mom and dad were 15 then — a lonnnnnnnng time ago. Villanova has won the past three games in the series. I don’t know why the ‘Cats screwed up in 1935, but weird things were the norm back in the Great Depression, when cats were busy scrapping for food in alleys or starving.

Am I saying Villanova has a chance? Nahhhhh. I’ve forgotten about them already. Just giving you a piece of history, which you might already have read somewhere else, except the Jacky Wilder story. I don’t have much to say, but I’ll try to focus on football for a little while and then I’ll give you my completely out-of-the-ass prediction.

Rankings Meaningless

I’m not happy with PSU being ranked #6. What have they done to deserve that? Beat #21 Auburn? Before that, they beat similarly over-ranked with even fewer data points, Wisconsin? Ball State? Nuttin’! Look at Penn State’s rankings in all categories, and you’ll see that they’re middle of the pack.

The BBDB defense is 56th, allowing 342 yards per game. Rushing offense is ranked #101, producing a scanty 128 yards per game. You would hope that the passing offense would balance that out, but noooooo… we’re looking at #43 there, at 267 yards per game. In third down conversions, we’re back to the same old bullshit, tied for 79th, with a .389 rate of success. The best stat other than net punting yards — and the one that beat Wisconsin — is the turnover margin, where PSU is tied for seventh with seven other schools including Alabama, Oklahoma, and Iowa, with a 1.67 average. The Nittany Lions have done well hanging onto the ball and forcing the other guys to cough it up, which has won two out of three games for them.

Back to defense, the pass rush blows, ranking 110th in sacks with a measly one sack per game. Matching its total defense rank, PSU is 56th in passing yards allowed, while ranking 70th in rushing defense. I mentioned net punting yards before. The Lions rank fourth overall in that category.

It Will Even Out

While early season rankings are meaningless, they’ll converge later with more data points becoming available with each week. Sometime before Week 8, we will REALLY know where this squad ranks. They will have run the gantlet of Indiana, #5 Iowa, and #10 tOSU by then. After that “Murderer’s Row”, the Nittany Lions will still have to meet Maryland, resurgent #19 Michigan, Rutgers, and #20 Moo U. Those stated rankings might well be completely different by then.

I Haven’t Said Much About Villanova

I guess I will say something. Both Jim Croce and Toby Keith went to school there, so Bad, Bad, Leroy Brown must be on the football team, but They’re Not as Good as They Once Was. Watch out, though. Don’t Mess Around with Jim, Jim Franklin, that is.

Villanova University was born as St. Augustine Academy in 1811. St. Augustine, aside from developing modern Christian doctrine and the concept of original sin, is also the patron saint of brewers. This begs a question that has been nagging at me. Schmidt’s beer was made in Philadelpha. With the patron saint of brewing being right there at Villanova, you would think they could have done a better job to impress him. Schmidt’s suuuuuuuuuuuuuuucked! Philadelphia beer was so bad that when Schmidt’s Brewery closed in 1987, it was the last brewery to operate in Philly. Forever and ever. Amen.

There, I said something about Villanova.

Da Wedda

Ahhh, a soporific noon start, where we can expect to see “that dullard look” from our boys. It’ll be a 70-degree day when the fog burns off, a genuinely nice early autumn day. Just don’t lose 20-14 like they did in 1951.

Da Bottom Line

Does anyone know a sports book that is taking action on this game? I can’t find one. Somewhere, I read that Penn State is favored by 29 points, but I have no idea how and why that number was chosen. If there’s no gambling, there’s no over/under, so I’ll just pull a prediction out of my ass and run with it. Penn State covers, winning by a nice margin, and the defense will score a touchdown in the process. Aside from the dullard look, I’ll be looking for the running game to get established, for a change. So, anyway, Penn State 45, Villanova 6.

(I’ll be back after the game to tell you just how wrong I was).

At Least #21

Posted on Written by

Penn State Defeats Auburn 28-20

The SEC officiating crew was incompetent, but Penn State surmounted that to outlast Auburn 28-20. If the game had an extra quarter, the outcome would have been reversed.

Auburn’s rushing game was good, as expected, but they couldn’t get the passing game in sync. They wound up with 182 yards rushing and 185 yards passing. Penn State once again could not get a clock-eating, dominating running game going, gaining only 83 yards on the ground. ???? ???? However, thanks to Jahan Dotson and the passing game, the Nittany Lions could throw the ball downfield, their salvation. Sean Clifford was a terrific 28-32 for 280 yards, two touchdowns and one interception. The other pass, a 22-yard throw by wide receiver Jahan Dotson on a wideout option, netted 22 yards and a first down. 888 ??????

Penn State was 5-10 on third down, while Auburn was 10-17. Turnovers were even at one each.

On defense, the boys were active all night long, and although they allowed 367 yards and 20 points, they were adequate to keep Auburn at bay. They had no sacks and they allowed Tank Bigsby to run for 102 yards and two touchdowns. Auburn’s #2 running back, Jarquez Hunter, had 63.

Yeah, there were bad calls throughout, too many to enumerate here, by the incompetent SEC officiating crew. Most, but not all, went against Penn State. Auburn had to pay the price in the form of a phantom targeting foul. In any case, I’m not arguing one way or the other about poor officiating. Just sayin’.

Jordan Stout continues to display his punting prowess, averaging 50 yards for four punts. He was perfect on extra points, too. ???? ????

IITOP was “not too bad”, with Auburn hanging onto the ball for 31:42.

This will add fuel to the Sanguinarians’ fire, as they’ll be thinking Penn State is invincible will exacerbate their officiating paranoia, because bad calls only go against Penn State. Bring on the Tampa Bay Bucs!

(I’ll be back for a preview of the bye week game with Villanova).