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 Archives for The Nittany Turkey

O-Line Shaky, Paterno Not Happy

Posted on Written by

He’s not saying much about the offensive line in public, but the Nittany Lions’ venerable head coach Joe Paterno has been fuming privately. His distemper spilled over onto the sideline at last weekend’s Syracuse game, as he replaced ineffectual guards Eliades and Stankiewicz with Troutman and Barham. It’s ironic that NHL hockey season just started, because now Paterno seems to be replacing lines on the fly — and the puck wasn’t even in the neutral zone.

We know that we have some new guys and we moved some other guys around. However, we at The Nittany Turkey (Artificially Sweetened, the Mouse, and I), feel that the present starting group has had enough time to show what they can — or more evidently, cannot — do.

So, now that Troutman has shed 20 pounds or so from his corpulent peak of 325, how about starting him? How about coming to the realization that Wisniewski might not be functional at center?

We are coming to the edge of the Big Ten season, and the Nittany Lions are not going to succeed without a running game. Moreover, they’re not going to have a running game if they stick with this offensive line.

Scout.com reports as follows:

“The big issue is the interior. Stefen Wisniewski is picking up one of the most challenging positions on the field (center). The guards (Matt Stankiewitch and Lou Eliades) are having a tough time picking up their roles consistently.” Observers indicate that first-team practice reps are now split between Stankiewitch, Eliades, Quinn Barham and Johnnie Troutman. “[The coaches] are trying to find the right combination heading into Big Ten play.

One more week to tune up, then comes Iowa. It’s almost too late to be farting around with different combinations. However, something has to be done; 2.2 yards per carry is abominable, and will lose games for Penn State as the Big Ten season progresses.

About that, Ron Musselman of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, says:

The team’s trademark running game has ground to a halt because of ineffective play on the offensive line. The Nittany Lions rank 94th among 109 Division I teams, averaging only 107 yards per game.

Did any of you ever — ever — think you would see a day when Penn State couldn’t move the ball on the ground? That end of first quarter goal-line stand by Syracuse was pitiful. Well, not for them — it was a great defensive stand — but for Penn State it was damn well pitiful! The coaches’ exasperation with the Lions’ running game led them to hedge their bets in a similar situation in the fourth quarter. After two unsuccessful attempts at blasting the ball up the middle from the 2 yard-line, Clark threw the ball to tight end Mickey Shuler for the TD. I was sitting there wondering whether they were going to continue to try to knock down that brick wall by breathing heavily in the direction of the goal line. The line sure as hell wasn’t surging and PSU was telegraphing its play calls directly to the Syracuse sideline — or so it seemed. The Orangemen sure as hell were stuffing the middle as if they had Paterno’s famous script in hand.

Jay Paterno agrees that the play calling in short yardage situations is too predictable by the opponent. In that same Ron Musselman article, he states:

“I think there’s something to that, absolutely,” he said. “… I think you never want to be where [the other team is saying], ‘Hey, they’re going to do this, they’re going to do that.’ And we may be that a little bit on the goal line. We’ve not been a real good goal-line team. That’s one area we have to improve tremendously.”

No kidding. They haven’t been a good goal-line team, that’s for damn sure.

It seems likely that Dick Anderson will be making some changes. At least this Turkey hopes so.

Temple is the last of the four-touchdown spreads.  Then it gets serious. (I’m not counting Eastern Illinois. That game is scheduled for October 10. I’d be surprised if it is on the board at all!)

I’ll be back later in the week with my take on Temple, and, of course, the Official Turkey Poop Prediction.

Orangemen Dispatched, Turkey Not Convinced

Posted on Written by

All the polls agree that Penn State is the number five team in the country after this weekend’s games, but this Turkey is not convinced. Even easily handling Syracuse 28-7 was not enough to convince me. After all, this was Syracuse, and they suck.

While the Turkey does not gamble on these games, it must be noted that Penn State failed to cover the spread for the second straight week. Was it Beano Cook who once said that you would never go broke taking the spread against the Nittany Lions?

Having watched the Notre Dame vs. Michigan and USC vs. Ohio State games on Saturday, I am now officially worried about both the UM and OSU games. Those guys are big game ready. Our guys are not. One thing that is definitely missing from the Nittany Lions is fire. The Buckeyes came out for that USC game playing like there was no tomorrow; the Lions tend to look like it’s another day of work in the coal mine. Of course, they were playing against Syracuse, not USC. But I noted that same flatness in the Rose Bowl, where the opponent was, in fact, USC.

The only weakness I observed in OSU’s game was Terrelle Pryor’s two-minute offense performance. By the time the Buckeyes roll into Beaver Stadium on November 7, Pryor might have worked out his mental kinks in that area.

As for Michigan, it looks like Rich Rodriguez has found himself a quarterback in freshman Tate Forcier, who went 23-33 for 240 yards, 2 TDs, and an INT. He showed that he could perform well under big game pressure, winning the game with a touchdown pass with 11 seconds on the clock.

Back to the Syracuse game, my main concern is that the Penn State running game has not yet come together. The Nittany Lions chalked up a measly 78 net rushing yards. I’m not ready to blame Royster (12-41) and Green (8-26). The offensive line is not yet doing its job. Remember, please, that this was against Syracuse, and Syracuse sucks.

Passing was better, with Graham Zug (6-79, 1 TD) showing us why he’s Darryl Clark’s go-to guy. Clark was 20 of 31 with three TDs and an INT.

Syracuse’s only score came after a fumble by backup quarterback Kevin Newsome. Otherwise, the Penn State defense did its job, holding the Orangemen to 200 total yards. But remember, this was Syracuse (0-2, 0-0 Big East), and they suck.

Next week, we have another week off with Temple, and this Turkey better damn well see some improvement in the running game. Until that component comes together, we must look ahead to the Big Ten schedule with some dread. Iowa, Michigan, and Ohio State are going to be very tough to win without a ground game. Iowa is coming up the week after Temple. Is that enough time to work out the kinks in the offensive line?

I’ll be back later in the week for a preview of the Temple game, such as it is.

The Orangeman Cometh

Posted on Written by

Sorry for the lateness of this week’s preview and prediction. ?????? ??? A long weekend, associated travel, and any number of aging Turkey ailments have conspired to delay this irascible fowl’s malinformed musings and pellucid prognostications until now. At this late hour, I can only offer a cursory effort. A thousand pardons!

All right. Enough already with the apologies. I need to get on with this so someone can stand up in the audience and yell, “You lie!”

We start by looking at the Nittany Lions’ performance last week against hapless Akron. Offensively, the running game was a disappointment, through no fault of the running backs. ???? ???? The offensive line sucked throughout, missing assignments and even running into each other at times. As this Turkey has noted many times in the past, it takes lots of practice and game experience to produce a cohesive and competent offensive line. This unit just started working together this summer. It’ll be a while until they’re up to speed. On the other hand, they did a decent job at pass protection. Remember, though, this was Akron. We won’t know how good they really are until Iowa rolls into town in two weeks.

The big surprise was the amount of work given to Devon Smith, a impressive, albeit lilliputian, freshman. Joseph Vincent Paterno, is that you coaching out there? Oy, playing freshmen, already? Pretty soon you’re going to start tweedle-dumming and tweedle-deeing, but I digress. Smith wound up with 7 yards rushing, 25 yards receiving, and 43 yards on his two kickoff returns.

With decent pass protection, Daryll Clark was able to operate in the pocket with ease, completing 29 of 40 passes for 353 yards, with three touchdowns and one interception. However, he’ll have to be more patient with his check-downs, as he seemed to want to force the ball into coverage on several occasions. It is not a great idea to throw to a receiver with three defenders close by when you have another option that is more open. Duh! Clark’s backup, Kevin Newsome, another freshman, got some good game experience going 3-4 for 26 yards.

We expected the defensive secondary to get some tests, but Akron was not up to the task except for one 40-yard touchdown play. So, we still don’t know whether they’re going to be effective.

The defensive front seven were solid and effective. The ability of Larry Johnson to come up with a front four rotation was key, and it appears that he’s got a good scheme going. The defensive line was impressive. Linebacker play was excellent, too. Navorro Bowman injured his groin, giving Nate Stupar a chance to show his stuff. Bowman will probably continue to rest his groin this week. ?????? ?????? Sit back and have a toke, Navorro.

I have to say that the kicking game looks shaky this far. Collin Wagner, a State College kid, missed two of three field goals, one of the misses being 28 yards. His kickoffs were good. Let’s see how this goes this week against Syracuse, though, before we start pissing and moaning about getting Fera in there.

The game got ugly in the second half, as the Lions slept through it, but tightened up a bit after Akron scored their lone touchdown at the end of the third quarter.

So, what’s coming this week? The Syracuse Orangemen (0-1, 0-0 Big East) face the #5, 6, or 7 (depending on whose poll) Penn State Nittany Lions (1-0, 0-0 Big Ten) at high noon Saturday at Beaver Stadium. The Orangemen are coming off a heartbreaking 23-20 overtime home loss to Minnesota.

Syracuse doesn’t have much of a running game, having run for only 90 yards against Minnesota, and they’re going to have even less of a running game against Penn State. So, they better rely on their converted basketballer QB, Greg Paulus, to throw up a shitload of 12-foot jumpers and a couple of “prayers” from mid-court (as we say in basketball circles), metaphorically speaking, of course. You see, Paulus played basketball at Duke, but was given a year of eligibility to play football at Syracuse after his basketball career ended. Before last week’s game, the last time Paulus played organized football was in high school, in 2004. It showed. Throwing mainly short passes, Paulus was 19-31 for only 167 yards. That said — I just confirmed  myself as a total hack writer by writing “that said, …” — anyhow, that said, Paulus will have to come out throwing because a) the Syracuse running game sucks, and b) Penn State’s defensive secondary still needs to be tested. After last week’s non-test by Akron, Paulus and the Syracuse receivers will need to provide that test. So, test away, basketball boy!

After very little bullshit this week, that brings us to the weekly wanking  you crave, the vaunted, valued, virtuous, verisimilitude of the perfunctory, punctilious pontification known as the Official Turkey Poop Prediction of the Week! But first, let me just say that Greg Paulus thinks he’s faced some tough crowds playing basketball on the road at the Dean Dome. Well, Basketball Boy, may your welcome to Beaver Stadium be a painful lesson in what a home field advantage really is. OK, so back to the outta my butt prediction. Current gambling line is 28.5 points with a 51-point over/under. That suggests a final score of something like 40-12. I firmly believe that Penn State can score more than 40, but I don’t think they will. Not if they fall asleep, as they did in the second half against Akron, anyway. So, I’m saying that the Nittany Lions don’t cover the spread yet again this week. Penn State 37, Syracuse 10.