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 Kent State

Passin in da Rain

Posted on Written by

On this crappy, rainy Saturday in Beaver Stadium, the mighty Penn State Nittany Lions (3-1) laid to waste the wet, Archerless Golden Flashes of Kent State (1-3) by a score worthy of the best offense and the second best defense in the B1G, 34-0. Alas, the true best offense in the B1G was busy beating FAMU 76-0 with its second and third team, but I digress.

What happened in this game doesn’t prove much — PSU was expected to win big and it did — but it did manage to highlight some potential strengths and weaknesses. I’ll Phil Grosz it, with numbered paragraphs.

  1. Christian Hackenberg is human and had an off day. Sanguinarians with blinders on will blame that on the rain, but c’mon! He was forcing throws and making just plain bad ones, winding up with a lackluster 13-35 for 176 yards, 1 TD and 1 INT. He also did one of his lovely inadvertent Statue of Liberty plays. Fortunately, Penn State got to keep the ball this time.
  2. The defense did its job this week, albeit against a struggling offense. Nevertheless, this was an offense that scored 13 points against LSU, also without their star. Limiting the Flashers to 190 yards, 56 of which were on the ground, is a trend that we must hope continues into the B1G season. Mike Hull sat out this game, which portends well for a complete recovery before the B1G play begins, with a bye week forthcoming. The pass rush was actually able to put some pressure on young Colin Reardon. Congratulations to the Big D on the shutout, the first since the last time they shut out the Flashers back in the St. Joe Era, 2010. (A shutout that was not an official win, thanks to slimy Mark Emmert, but I digress.)
  3. The Flashers have yet to beat a B1G opponent and are 0-4 against PSU.
  4. Ahhhh, the re-emergence of the rushing game was satisfying, although we had to wait until the second half to see it! O’Brien was probably a little too intent on using the passing attack to get the rout going in the first half. That obviously didn’t work (see ¶1).  The halftime adjustment to Hackenberg’s off day was obvious: run the damn ball down their throats. Speedster Akeel Lynch finally showed some game, and so did Bill Belton. In this game, Zach Zwinak (15-65) enjoyed a little respite while watching Lynch (14-123) and Belton (13-90) set him up to score three TDs. The offensive line did its job. But remember, this was Kent State.
  5. Sam Ficken. Can you believe it??!?! Another perfect day, including a career long 54-yarder that might well have been good from 60. In da freakin’ rain!
  6. Alex Butterworth is a great holder. But maybe O’Brien should let Hackenberg handle the punting.
  7. Kent State got called for some phantom penalties. Maybe the officials are finally listening to K.John.
  8. The third down situation is improving, but still sucks. I mean 7-18? Against Kent State’s defense? Lousy coaching and lousy execution for the number one offense in the B1G, I’d say.
  9. The B1G continues to suuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck. Hey, Michigan!?!?! You gonna wake up over there? Last week, a near loss to Akron; this week, if UConn hadn’t shot itself in the foot in that final drive, the Wolverines would have gone down in flames. #18 Northwestern needed a couple of defensive scores to beat Maine. Moo U had the cow colic — although the best defense in the B1G held ND to 220 yards, they were unable to generate enough offense to overcome 17 point scored by the Irish. They were too busy shooting themselves in the foot with 10 penalties for 115 yards (of course, we all know that officiating always favors Notre Dame, don’t we?). Our next opponent, IU, lost to Mizzou — even though they amassed 475 total yards, Missouri had 623. (The PSU-Indiana game might just turn out to be an entertaining slugfest, which has many of the same letters as Sudfeld). On the bright side for the B1G, Minnesota, Iowa, and Nebraska won convincingly. Wisconsin demolished Purdue, and I can’t find the right verb without resorting to scatology to describe what tOSU did to FAMU in a 76-0 win with clean jerseys on the field much of the game.

And so, how did this Turkey do? Well, BigAl was right about the rain keeping the score down, only I don’t think it was as much the rain as Hackenberg’s rookie mistakes and O’Brien’s misplaced confidence in Hacky getting the job done on third down. Soooo, the prognostication won straight up and against the spread, but took a dive on the over/under. I shoulda listened to BigAl.

Let’s keep this win in perspective by continuing to remind ourselves that this was not OSU, Wisconsin, Michigan, or even Indiana the Lions manhandled — it was the Flashless Flashers, missing their Dri Archer. This is not the time for the boys to be sitting on their haunches basking in the glory of a magnificent shutout, such as it was. They clearly have more work to do, but they’re getting there, slowly but surely.

Looking down the road, after watching Michigan suck the big one two weeks in a row, I might be thinking about predicting a Homecoming win, but I need to see more from both teams before I’ll pull the trigger on that one. I can’t get too euphoric about the defense until watching it perform against the Hoosiers.

With a bye week upon us, I’ll try to post something here and there before getting down to writing my thoughts and predictions for the Indiana game. For now, Happy Autumnal Equinox!

All that glitters…

Posted on Written by

After watching the UCF-Penn State game, the Kent State Golden Flashes (1-2) might have come to Beaver Stadium with high expectations were it not for the projected absence of its all-purpose star and Heisman candidate, fifth-year senior Dri Archer, without whom there is no flash in that pan. With Archer having seen very limited action due to injury, the hapless and flashless Flashes have dropped the first two games of a three-game road trip after a slim home victory over Falwell U. But thanks to the personal injury lawyers, he will be back into the field of  action very soon.

Slingin’ Arrows

Dri Archer
Dri Archer

The 5’8″, 175 pound Archer is the first player in Kent State history named to the Walter Camp All-America team. He has 29 career touchdowns and was voted captain by his teammates this year. In his junior year he set a single-season record for touchdowns with 23, which led the MAC. He finished the year with 1,429 rushing yards on just 159 carries, hitting pay dirt sixteen times on the ground. As a receiver, he led the team with 39 catches for 561 yards and four touchdowns. And as if that’s not enough, he returned three kickoffs for touchdowns and averaged 36.9 yards on sixteen kick returns, which is the highest in MAC history. His list of accomplishments goes on and on, and it is disappointing that we will not get to see him in his full glory. This turkey wishes the desiccated arrow man a quick and complete recovery.

Statistics … or not!

The ferkukta* NCAA statistics website is still acting like a rambunctious three-year-old, so I won’t be giving you any detailed statistics about Kent State’s performance thus far. However, here are a few choice tidbits. Can’t State [my voice transcription application spelled it that way and I like it, so I’m keeping it. —TNT] ranks number 96 in passing yards, 95 in rushing yards, 110 in points for, and 93 in points against. That ain’t good. Meanwhile, the Nittany Lions are a respectable 27th in passing yards thanks to the Chris Hackenberg – Allen Robinson connection, but a mediocre 70th in rushing yards, 55th in points for, and 39th in points against.

In Kent State’s last outing against LSU, they flat-out sucked. This Turkey has to give them credit for choosing a formidable out-of-conference opponent, so they get points for that; unfortunately, even with those turkey points they didn’t score enough to overcome LSU’s 45-point onslaught, in which the Tigers rolled for 571 total yards, 264 yards passing and 307 yards rushing. The final score was 45-13.

Worthy of note to Penn Staters is that Kent State lost no fumbles and had no balls intercepted in that losing effort against quality opposition. Their lousy third-down efficiency, a lowly 4-14 or o.285, was nevertheless better than twice the season-to-date performance of putrid Penn State in that category. Penn State needs to shoot for matching the former and significantly improving upon the latter, where they are second to last of all FBS schools with a crappy 0.118. Come on! Fumbleitis and blown third down opportunities will wreck the season if they continue unchecked!

Kent State’s freshman quarterback Colin Reardon was 20-29 for 190 yards with no touchdowns and no interceptions, still a credible job against a top-tier SEC opponent like LSU. Reardon is 56-85 for 548 yards and 4 TDs thus far this year.

The Flashless Flashes outscored the Bengals in the second and third periods, 13-10. Archer played only the first quarter before being yanked, having aggravated a nasty high ankle sprain. He is listed as “doubtful” for the Penn State game.

EmBoldening Effort?

LSU’s quarterback Zach Mettenberger was able to amass his 264 yards on 13 completions with 18 attempts. He threw for three touchdowns. However, the big story here is the absence of Rob Bolden during garbage time in the fourth quarter. Bolden still shows up on the roster, so why didn’t LSU rest Mettenberger and play the Robster? Perhaps we should ask Mike Mauti for his opinion on this subject. 😀

Speaking of Bolden, he was our freshman starting quarterback back in 2010 the last time these two teams met. In spite of that, Penn State won the game 24-0, kicking the snot out of the Golden Flashlessnesses. This Turkey expects a similar rout this time around, perhaps with a few more points being rung up, albeit with some actual points being scored by the Flashless Flashes due to our somewhat inept defense.  Penn State leads the all-time series 3-0.

Beware Complacency

The Nittany Lions, still searching for some internal leadership, need to gather their wits after the disheartening loss to UCF, and not take this week’s opponent too lightly, Archer or not. Failing to do so can result in a Michigan-Akron kind of thing. I don’t think that will happen, but just sayin’… This is the last pre-B1G season tune-up, and of course, lots of things need tuning, particularly on the defense. If John Butler threw everything in the book at UCF, he better write a few more chapters.

Rain, Rain, Go Away

Unfortunately, the weather might not cooperate with our expectations of a grand and glorious September football afternoon. Bring your rain gear  or sit on your ass and watch it at home hoping that the damn roof doesn’t spring a leak. AccuWeather is forecasting heavy rain and thunderstorms for Saturday with a high of 66°, not exactly fine football weather. The dampness should put a damper on both passing games to some extent, so we might be looking at Zach Zwinak an awful lot. Fortunately, he can be fun to watch — perhaps even more so in the mud.

Summing it all up…

Jack Lambert
Jack Lambert

When I went looking for distinguished alumni from Kent State I found only two that I know or care about: Steelers’ Hall of Fame linebacker Jack Lambert and comedian/actor Drew Carey, in that order. When I had to decide whose picture to include in this post, I was in a quandary: either mean, ugly Jack or homely Drew. Jack won. I can never get enough of this particularly photogenic game face, which pictorially sums up the Steelers’ defense of the 1970s.

Okay, enough of that for now. It is time for the Official Turkey Poop Prediction for this year’s edition of Kent State versus Penn State. This year the Turkey is perfect, sporting a record of 3-0 straight up, 3-0 against the spread, and 3-0 on the over/under. So, what the hell are we looking at here? Without Archer, Kent State doesn’t have a prayer. This would be a good game for side bets, such as how many times Kent State’s offensive line holds and doesn’t get called for it; however, that’s a sucker bet and I don’t make sucker bets, so I’ll leave that to others of you who watch those things. The Vegas line on this game favors Penn State by 21 with an over/under of 54. That suggests a Penn State win with a score of something like 37-16. The weather might have a bearing on how large the run-up will be, but I think Bill O’Brien will take this opportunity to show his fans and his players that he still has a team to be reckoned with. Furthermore, the Not-So-Golden Flashes are riddled with key injuries on both sides of the ball. If the injuries are severe, one could get the compensation after filing a personal injury claim, or if you feel violated in any way you can take the attorneys help for title IX defense, who will protect and fight for your rights. If such an injury was inflicted on the player by any of his family members, then he can file an injury claim against member of family with the assistance of an experienced attorney. If the injury was caused by any of his family members, taking the assistance of an experienced attorney who can help him to file an injury claim against member of family will be the best option.
Archer shows up ready to play, all bets are off, but I’m liking Penn State to win this one 41-10. Take the under.

I’ll be back after the game with some Sunday morning crapper musings and, I hope, lots of good comments from you readers about this last preseason tuneup game.

(Interesting to note that I had to write this three times due to the vagaries of my ferkukta* transcription software. I even saw a dreaded Blue Screen of Death. Of course, I was doing things I shouldn’ta been doing, I suppose, like running a beta version of Windows 8.1!)

*ferkukta is Yiddish for “full of shit”, but it is used as a modifier instead of as a predicate adjective. I like to use it because I’m sort of in a ferkukta mood.

Lions shut out Kent, drop in rankings

Posted on Written by

Yeah, you read that correctly. After whipping the snot out of the Kent State Golden Flashes Saturday, 24-0, our old friends, the sports media men and women, have rewarded Penn State with a drop in the Associated Press ranking from #22 to #23. Isn’t that wonderful?

I mean, the Nittany Lions actually covered the spread this time, contrary to this Turkey’s prediction, and they played a dull, but lopsided game. Oh, sure, the opponent is a proverbial cupcake, but should the ranking drop after a victory, any victory? This Turkey thinks not, but I won’t dwell on it because it doesn’t really matter in the greater scheme of things, especially at this time of the year.

After the first quarter, in which the Lions scored a couple of quick touchdowns, the first on a Rob Bolden sneak from the one and the second with Evan Royster punching it in from the three, things settled down. After the second touchdown, I was fielding some impertinent comments about my prediction being way out of whack with reality. What did they think? Penn State was going to score 56? Not this team with this offensive line. My prediction turned out to be about 9 points too high. That’s more like it for PSU.

So, we fell asleep in the second quarter. Hell, it was the right thing to do for me. I was fasting for Yom Kippur while Jackstand and Zbeard were cramming down food and guzzling wine. It was significant deprivation this year, because it was Jackstand’s cooking I was missing, not my own. He does a helluva job with his souped up barbecue, which produces a 700 degree steak cooking environment instead of the typical 450. (I will not divulge Jackstand’s true name or location, lest his insurance underwriter find out.) I’ll bet it will do hot dogs in, like, 30 seconds, especially if you like that Cajun treat, Blackened Wiener. But I digress. Nothing happened in the second quarter. The score was still 14-0.

The first two Penn State drives of the third quarter ended in disaster. The first disaster was a fumble on the PSU 46 by Evan Royster after a three yard loss on first down after the second half kickoff. Kent State took the ball to the 30 and then missed a 47 yard field goal. The next abomination occurred after PSU started moving the ball, when Rob Bolden was intercepted on the PSU 46, his second of the day. Then the Lions added three by way of a Collin Wagner chip shot when they stalled at the 10 yard-line after a long drive during which they took almost 10 minutes off the game clock. During the drive, Royster was benched in favor of splitting the running duties between Stephfon Green and Silas Redd. Head Coach Joe Paterno said only that he wanted to try some other things out to jump start the running game. Royster sat out the rest of the game looking dejected.

That is kind of interesting, because Royster was the main thrust of the running game last year. What has happened to him? He hasn’t rushed for over 40 yards in any of the three games this year. Some say that he has gained weight and is slower. Others blame the offensive line. No doubt, both play a role in this continuing drama. However, what about attitude? Is Royster still the gung-ho guy he was last year, or is he flapping in the breeze? This brings up the question of team leadership, which also might be involved in Royster’s decreased productivity. A freshman quarterback is nobody’s leader. He has to earn the respect of the upperclassmen over time. Brett Bracket, a senior, was elected captain, but he’s a backup wide receiver. I’m not saying that Brackett is not a natural leader, and I’m not saying that Bolden will never be one, but for right now, I think the leadership vacuum is quite noticeable and it represents a valid concern. Perhaps Royster needs someone to grab him by the testes and tell him to get his head in the game. I dunno. What do you think?

Anyhow, I’m certain that the Royster situation has been on all of your minds, given the poor start he’s suffered this season. He left the game with 11 rushes for 38 yards. Green had 11 for 59 and Red, 6 for 24. So, something is obviously wrong.

Going into the fourth quarter, Penn State led 17-0. They were able to add one more touchdown on a spectacular 48-yard pass play from Bolden to Devon Smith at 8:37. After that, Kevin Newsome took over at quarterback and Silas Redd became the feature back. And that was all she wrote, with the final score 24-0.

It was a perfect late summer day, with temperatures in the mid-70s and a sunny blue sky. Yet paid attendance for this game was only 100,610, some 7,000 under capacity. This was easily seen on the TV screen, as about the top third of the student section was empty. It was a noon game, and I warned you about those in my preview post. There is decidedly less energy in da house for noon starts with non-conference cupcakes.

Let me give Kent State some credit, though. Although their running game was essentially shut down by the Penn State defense and by the absence of their star running back, their sophomore throwing machine, Spencer Keith, completed 20 of 36 passes for 170 yards with the Nittany Lion front seven providing constant pressure. Penn State had 382 total yards, but sloppily committed three turnovers—Bolden’s two interceptions and Royster’s fumble. Kent State hung in there for three quarters with the game in reach, but hope was lost when PSU scored its final TD.

Bolden is a rookie, and those interceptions were rookie mistakes. He’ll do better as he gains experience. In the meanwhile, he’s still on his honeymoon and no one is going to criticize him. He didn’t seem to let the picks bother him, and he rebounded quite well from last week’s pounding at Tuscaloosa. So, this Turkey thinks he’ll be fine.

We’ll be back later in the week to take a look at the next fine opponent, the Owls of Temple University, from the City of Brotherly love. There sure are a lot of brothers lovin’ it up there in Philly. Anyhow, catch y’all later!