The Nittany Turkey

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

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Logjam in Beaverville

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So, I have a bellyache and my creative title generator isn’t working too well. Thus, “Logjam in Beaverville” was the best I could muster. It sucks, I know, but I’m amusing myself, which is the stated purpose of this blog. In any event, the title refers to the total domination of the Oregon State Beavers by the #19 Penn State Nittany Lions on Saturday last. The final score was 45-14, and to use my oft-abused hack sports writer cliche, it wuddn’t that close.

Evan Royster had a career day, running for 141 yards on 17 carries and three TDs. Daryll Clark looked sharp, too, going 14-23 for 215 yards and two TDs and no INTs. Clark also ran the ball five times for 61 yards, looking much like Michael Robinson in 2005. In all, the Nittany Lions rung up 454 all-purpose yards. On the strength of this performance, the Lions rose to #17 in the AP Poll.

Jordan Norwood reeled in eight passes, which moved him past O. J. McDuffie on Penn State’s all-time list.

Josh Hull and Mark Rubin both had interceptions and both were career firsts.

The game started with a flubbed kickoff by Kevin Kelly, which put the Beavers on the 40 yard-line. Fortunately, it was his last awful kick of the day. After Oregon State couldn’t move the ball, they kicked and in so doing returned the favor with a shanked, 18-yard punt.

Oregon State’s running game stayed grounded against the depleted Penn State front four, which would become more depleted as the day progressed. Still, star rusher Jacquizz Rogers mustered 91 yards and two touchdowns.

The Nittany Lions ran at will against what was last year’s #1 rush defense. However, the Beavers had to replace the entire front seven, so the defense did not resemble what they had on the field last year.

Penn State lost the ball only once, a heartbreaker for Evan Royster as he fumbled close to the goal line. Otherwise, the Lions were perfect.

Close to perfect, that is. Alas, they were not perfect on the injury front, losing Jerome Hayes for the season with a torn ACL in his right knee on a punt return in the fourth quarter. Hayes just returned from rehabbing his left knee, which was injured last season.

We TV viewing fans did not get to witness the Hayes injury, as ABC decided to cut away in the fourth quarter to the Oklahoma game, which also wound up not close. I expressed my discontent over this travesty of TV coverage in a prior post.

So, was this the Spread HD? I think we saw some of what it has to offer. Joe and Jay seemed to open it up a bit after the Coastal Carolina game. There was a big difference in one area—using Daryll Clark in the running game.

What was Jay Paterno doing down in the coaches’ huddle on the sideline close to the end of the first half? In the second half, the camera found him in his usual position upstairs in the booth.

We promised you a guest reporter, and you will have a guest reporter. You’ll recall that Sacajawea, a Shoshone, was one of the first and foremost Oregonians. She was an indispensable helper for Lewis & Clark in their search for the Northwest Passage. Sacajawea spoke English, French, and Shoshone and she wore cool looking buckskin dresses. Clark affectionately named her “Janey.”

Sacajawea was said to have died in 1812, but then a woman died in 1884 in Wyoming who many people believed was the real Sacajawea. Well, we probed a bit and found the elderly Janey actually still living amongst the Seminoles at the Micosukee Reservation behind the casino in Hollywood, Florida. She is getting a little old, slightly over 220, but she still sparkles with the determination and humor that got her through those many thousands of miles with the Lewis & Clark expedition and made her an icon for the Women’s Suffrage Movement in the early 20th century. She gave us some Sacajawea dollars as souvenirs of our visit.

Janey’s sense of humor is evident in her report. This Turkey asked her what she thought of her fellow Oregonians’ first 18-yard punt, and she replied with the following, which I’ve printed in red. We thought the modern day National Organization for Women (NOW) might particularly like it.

Punts? You want to hear about punts? Oy, I’ll give you already a story about punts!

It was the cold winter of 1804 and I was in the service of Meri and Bill on the Oregon Trail. Being fluent in English, French, and Shoshone, I was tasked with carrying a note containing the supply order to M. Carbonneau’s trading post, many miles away. All those languages—so confusing at times for a Shoshone girl. The order said, “Please have three punts and a canoe ready for us on Tuesday.”

Unfortunately, along the way, a beaver ate the note and I had to hastily scrawl out a copy of the order when I got to my destination. As nightfall was nigh, I quickly dropped off the rewritten order and beat a hasty path back to the boys’ camp. I had a close encounter with a bear, but I was able to rejoin the party, which left the next day for the trading post.

Upon our reaching the trading post the proprietor greeted Lewis & Clark. “Welcome, Lewis and Clark! I was pleased to receive your order, but there is one problem, mes amis. I got you the girls, but what the hell is a ‘panoe’?”

Um, thank you, Janey.

This Turkey will be back with a hopefully relevant write up about the Syracuse game later in the week, possibly, maybe.

Perhaps.

Water over the dam…

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Last week’s 66-10 victory over the overmatched FCS (I-AA) Coastal Carolina Chanticleers was like shooting chickens in a barrel for the #19 Penn State Nittany Lions (1-0, 0-0 Big Ten). We learned little about this year’s Lions viability against quality FBS (I-A) opposition. So, last week’s win is water over the dam.

This week, some rodents from Oregon come to Beaver Stadium thinking that it was named after them and not Col. Beaver. They aim to dam up the Nittany Lions’ offense with sticks, leaves, mud, and some underclassmen. The Nittany Lions have other ideas.

This is the first time the two schools have met, a matchup that replaced the Arkansas State game, which was originally scheduled for this date. For one reason or another, the schedule changed last December.

Last year, the Oregon State Beavers were 9-4, including a win over Maryland in the Emerald peanut bowl. They were credited with the best rush defense in the nation, allowing only 70.62 yards per game. They ranked 8th in total defense.  This compares quite favorably with the Penn State defense last year, which was 7th against the rush (93.77 yds) and 11th overall. Both teams have lost starters on defense, but Oregon State is in the unenviable position of having lost its entire front seven. So take their last year’s stats with a grain of salt.

Being the alma mater of two perennial NFL leading wide receivers, T J Housmanzadeh and Chad Ocho Cinco (formerly Chad Johnson), both of the Cincinnati Bengals, you would expect that the Beavers would be strong in this area. They are. In last week’s heartbreaking 36-28 loss to Stanford, senior wide receivers Sammy Stroughter and Wade Morales cranked out over 150 yards each, with three touchdowns. Stroughter, a co-captain, is back after sitting out most of last season with a kidney injury. In all, junior quarterback Lyle Moevao went 34-54 for 404 yards, 3 TDs, and 2 INTs. You might say that this is a passing team. I mean, 54 attempts and all!

But wait! The Castor canadensis boys can run when they need to. They have a couple of Rogers brothers, Jacquizz (freshman) and James (sophomore) who rang up a over 100 yards on 19 carries against Stanford.  James is listed as a slotback, and gained his ground yardage primarily on end-arounds. So, although the play mix was 54-19, pass over run, the run remains a threat. And we haven’t even mentioned the starting tailback, freshman Ryan McCants, who impressed in spring practice but only had four carries for 11 yards in this game.

In that Stanford game, Oregon State had 29 first downs to Stanford’s 18, and 490 total yards to Stanford’s 301—yet they still lost. What really beat them was turnovers, three of them, two interceptions and a fumble. If you don’t take care of the ball, you lose. Although last week’s Coastal Carolina scrimmage can not be much of an indication of anything, inasmuch as the McCabe Sisters hit harder than the Chanticleers’ linebackers, the fact that the Nittany Lions took care of the ball—unlike last year—is an encouraging sign. But it’s early.

Another thing about the Cardinal’s performance against the Beavers that portends well for Penn State is that the Stanford running game worked well against the green front seven of OSU. Toby Gerhart ran 19 times for 147 yards and Anthony Kimble was 18-49. Penn State is primarily a running team (duh!), so the Nittany Lions should be able to pick up a couple hundred on the ground.

What worries this Turkey is whether PSU’s back seven on defense will be up to the pass protection task against a team that throws on three out of every four downs. Last week, the secondary allowed a kindergarten receiver to beat them while they stood around beating the meat. But these Beavers are not Chanticleers. DANGER! WARNING! These wide receivers are good! The Beavers used mostly short sideline passes against the Cardinal, which was largely effective, until the interceptions happened. Tight end Howard Croom is the Beavers’ second-leading receiver. Our linebackers must be fully engaged in pass coverage.

The Penn State defense must learn how to pressure the quarterback while simultaneously covering the short pass routes and dump-offs, against which they didn’t impress last week. The Chanticleers adjusted to the overaggressive defense, but the defense did not adjust to the Chants’ adjustments. Thus, they were beaten by screens and outlet passes. They’ve got to do better this week. It helps that the center and right side of the Oregon State offensive line are all newbies.

At this point, one can only speculate on what might happen to the defense if Small-quantity-of-marijuana-gate results in suspensions. For now, head coach Joe Paterno has adopted a wait and see attitude. The police have sent away the contents of the stash for analysis, which can take a couple of weeks. If it is found to be a THC-containing herb, some citations could be issued. None of the four players were allowed to practice Wednesday, and at this point it is unknown what their status will be for Saturday’s game. One thing that IS certain is that if Evans, Koroma, and Wallace are lost, the defense is in serious jeopardy. Quarless is another story.

Assuming that they’re at full strength, the Nittany Lion defense will be subjected to its first big test of the year. It will be interesting to watch.

I suspect that we’ll see a predominately rushing attack from Penn State. (So much for the Spread HD.) Tropical Storm Hanna is expected to produce some copious precipitation of the liquid sunshine variety in State College and environs, presently forecast at 0.35″. With brand spanking new baby boy quarterbacks in such conditions, the pass is a risky proposition, but you would think that the Beavers, being from Corvallis, are used to playing wet.

Interesting factoid: Oregon State sophomore starting linebacker Keith Pankey and freshman tight end Kevin Pankey are the twin sons (Kevin delayed enrollment by 1 year) of Penn State second team All-American guard Irv Pankey (1977-79). Irv will be in the stands Saturday.

And now, that moment you’ve all been waiting for: The Official Turkey Poop Prediction. This will be a dicey one, because of the potential for a major weather effect and possible suspensions of starters. I feel that the PSU defense will give up significant passing yards. On the other hand, until it matures quite a bit, the Beaver defense is vulnerable. The Nittany Lions are favored by 16 with an over/under of 46, suggesting a final score of 30-14. This Turkey thinks it will be closer. With weather and suspensions still a question mark, Penn State 36, Oregon State 24.

We’ll be back on the weekend with a game synopsis and an analysis by this week’s guest reporter, Sacajawea.

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