Penn State Observations
ESPN recap is available, as is official box score with full stats.
There was a lot of anxiety among Buckeye fans entering this game, and with good reason. You may have noticed my tone wasn’t entirely optimistic in the preview post. I thought we could certainly beat Penn State, and that we certainly should. I just wasn’t sure if we would. I was in the majority this game. My friend Ben and I were talking and he informed that the only two people he heard call a Buckeye victory were the Common Man from The Common Man and the Torg1 and, my favorite ESPN personality, Lou Holtz. For all that pessimism, the Buckeyes delivered what my friend Ben appropriately referred to as a “paddlin’”. It wasn’t quite a beatdown, nor was it domination. But it was a paddlin’, the kind you get for not minding your manners, or speaking out of turn or paddlin’ the school canoe. Oh you better believe that’s a paddlin’.
The story of this game, before the game, was Terrelle Pryor. We know what he’s capable of, for better and worse. Yet on this stage, he played a whale of a game. His footwork still invites problems. There were a few throws in the first half where he was off the mark. I’d like to see a bit quicker release as well. Aside from that, he was flawless, if unspectacular. 8/17, 125yds and 2 TDs while adding 50 more on the ground got the job done. Stats notwithstanding, he showed much better poise in the pocket, showed greater poise in taking off if his first and second options weren’t open and made no decisions that had Buckeye fans wondering “what was he thinking?”. That’s kind of what I think fans wanted from him this game. He took no dumb sacks (none period) from the nation’s no. 1 ranked scoring defense either. Further, he’s not responsible for some first half dropsies from Duron and DeVier, nor can he really be faulted for Penn State bringing an extra guy that the Buckeyes couldn’t block2. Very good, young man. I liked his performance so much that I’d like to see it again. There’s room for improvement and some reason to wonder if he’s turned a corner. Nevertheless, let’s see it again.
The offensive line came out mostly clicking this game. Jake Ballard can be exciting (not always in a good way) when he blocks and our tackles are essentially the weak links in the line. All considered, they performed superbly as a unit handling Penn State’s fierce front 7. I hate that it comes as a response to Kirk Hebstreit being a douchebag, but I like that it’s come. Bryant Browning in particular wowed me this game. He’s a much, much better guard than tackle. The difference is night and day. He and Boren are the anchors of the unit in my opinion and I see Brewster coming along nicely as well. I do remember a play or two where Andy Miller whiffed on a cut block. Still, the bad stuff always sticks out. Overall, I thought Andy Miller played very well. Marcus Hall gets a thumbs up for filling for Shugarts late in the game. Brandon Saine is not a Dave runner, but on counters, and bounce outs our line sealed the edges expertly. I still think Jordan Hall may be our best tailback for what Tressel would like to do under ideal circumstances, but no one can say that Boom and Saine didn’t play tough.
It was also very good to see us run a WR screen, not once… but twice… consecutively. You knew Penn State didn’t see that coming. That last TD drive was expertly done as well… lots of tendency breakers there.
I think I may be in the minority on this, but the player that wowed me the most was Zach Boren. That one play where he flattened his block and then received his pass in the flats was a work of art. I was having to yell at my friend Ben: “no, forget the catch, watch the hit before the pass”. Matt Millen made a lot of him whiffing on Navorro Bowman on Terrelle Pryor’s TD scramble, but it’s natural for the young’ns to struggle with pass pro. Zach is but a true freshman who missed a lot of winter drills. A true freshman. He doesn’t just kick out his block on the Dave plays, he evicts him from the line of scrimmage. Often times against Penn State, that was Sean Lee. The only thing I can ask of him is to keep getting at it. He may turn out to be the best fullback Tressel ever had if this keeps up.
Was this Jim Heacock’s best game as a defensive coordinator? Maybe. He accomplished all he wanted this game. The Buckeyes didn’t stack the box this game and kept themselves well guarded against Penn State’s receivers. They invited Penn State to run the ball. There was a stretch in the second quarter where it looked as if Penn State would oblige but, important for Heacock’s approach, they could not sustain their drives. It helps when Cam Heyward is abusing anyone and everyone Penn State puts on him. A defensive tackle who leads the team in tackles for the game (11) for a unit that held the opposing offense to 7 points (more on that later) is a sign of dominance. I still believe Penn State’s offensive line is better now than they were for the last time they were cannibalized (against Iowa), but it was the same result. Doug Worthington and Thad Gibson played well too. Once the Buckeyes got the breakthrough (DeVier Posey’s TD), you could tell that Penn State’s offense was in serious trouble. They at least had mixed results rushing the ball, but no success in avoiding the pass rush. Where Penn State gained yards passing, they found Graham Zug on a quick route. After Posey’s TD, they had to start looking downfield… to the delight of our defensive line.
A few other observations.
- Graham Zug really impressed me this game. Penn State’s receiver corp includes one junior and two sophomores. The sky is the limit for them.
- I love the bravado some of the players had entering this game, if their tweets are any indication: Jonathan Newsome, Duron Carter, Jake Stoneburner. Newsome should get a few Buckeye stickers on his helmet for his tweet.
- It’s good to finally see the good Ray Small this game.
- I don’t like being a negative nancy, but I’m still not sure why Anderson Russell gets on the field as often as he does. There were a few face plants from him this game. Further, Austin Spitler didn’t have a great individual performance either at first glance.
- On Penn State’s first TD: they can have it. It wasn’t a touchdown. I know it, you know it and the American people know it. I was upset when I saw it live, but I’m thrilled they got it. Why? Well, the one touchdown they were able to get against our defense? Yeah, they didn’t even get that. Enjoy it.
Highlights, courtesy of MLBIndian.
- It may have been Torg, but one of those guys called it though gave no reason why. [↩]
- This is still a schematic problem that the Buckeyes could do a better job recognizing and neutralizing. Pryor isn’t allowed to audible yet, though. [↩]
Great recap. What a game. BSD won’t even post their review of the ‘game’, you know it was a humiliation in their own backyard…
Paddlin’ FTW tho
Okay, one more time:
Not sure who The Common Man is, but I raised an eyebrow when only Desmond Howard on gameday called for a Buckeye win, stating that Pryor would finally have a great game. Good call on that one.
I’m happy as hell, but I have read some disturbing comments from Pryor about how much pain he is in from his ankle. Iowa’s offense is underwhelming, but don’t sleep on their defensive line. One well timed pass rush from the Iowa front-four could knock Pryor out of the game this weekend. In my opinion, a match-up between two dominant defenses respectively quarterbacked by James Vandenberg and Joe Bauserman is 50-50 and pick-em. The Buckeye O-line will be the key as to whether we smell the roses.
Matt: I caught the same comment by Howard. I also saw Herbie recoil and roll his eyes as well after Des’ comments. I am still waiting to hear the same type of criticism leveled by Herbie at the Bucks regarding the debacle that took place between his beloved Trojans and Oregon. But I digress……
Off topic, but the Simpsons reference is awesome
The Torg picked the Buckeyes. Not the Common Man.
I was infuriated by not only the final call made on PSU’s TD, but also on the way the review was handled, both by the officiating crew and the TV crew (allowing the kicking of the PAT and then going to commercial).
And one thing that no one seems to have mentioned is that Sabino attempted to call timeout before the play started!!!! See minute mark 3:15 in the above video.
First things first: I’m w/ Dave N. on the Jasper reference being awesome, V., but I’m sad to say that it only comes in 2nd in the category of “OSU-PSU ’09 Simpsons References” – BSD wins that w/ “And Here Come the Pretzels” (http://www.blackshoediaries.com/2009/11/8/1121355/and-here-come-the-pretzels). Sorry, but I’ve gotta call ‘em as I see ‘em.
Bonus link: http://www.theonion.com/content/news/suicide_letter_full_of_simpsons
On Pryor: could it, just possibly, be the case that his being a little dinged up is a blessing in disguise? That it’s constrained him to take what’s there (like EVERYBODY has been screaming for him to do) rather than succumb to his natural tendency to try and do “too much”? I don’t know – this is pure conjecture on my part (which, along w/ hearsay, is a KIND of evidence – sorry, once I get on a Simpsons jag it’s kind of hard for me to stop), but: the gameplan seemed awfully light on options, included NO (if memory serves) QB draws, etc. Of course, a gimpy Pryor is still capable of being a deadly weapon – that 12-yard scramble on 3rd-and-11 on the last TD drive was notable for both the dagger-like quality of it AND for its further confirmation that if you lose contain on Terrelle you’re pretty much effed. I mean, on that particular play it’s not like the PSU guy took a bad angle so much as there just was no angle to take that could have possibly BEEN good – how do you attack a guy that looks like he’s running in slow motion when you’re running as fast as you can?
On Spitler: I don’t know that he performed badly; he made at least one great play in the backfield – but on that first big gainer of Zug’s (the swing pass to the left) he looked like he was running in cement, as he has on a few other occasions this year. Not to mention that Small almost broke both of his legs, his pelvis, and his back on that TD in the Spring Game. He’s an extremely solid assignment player, a leader, and a badass vs. the run; he just lacks speed. The danger is that since he seems to be a situational guy, that lack can be exposed as it was on that play by the teams we’re going to face from here on out – competent playcallers (like, for example, DickRod and Chip Kelly) can suss out that a given down-and-distance means that Spitler’s likely to be on the field and plan accordingly.
I second the observation that the plays on the last TD drive were expertly called by whoever it was that called them – the end-around to The Ghost was genius. Wasn’t the aforementioned Boren-flattens-Lee-then-catches-a-pass-for-a-1st-down play on that drive as well? And on 3rd down, no less? And finally, the TD play was also a thing of beauty – I don’t know if I’ve seen us do that yet this year, or whether we’ve tried to and it just wasn’t executed, but holy cow – talk about putting the defense in a bind. There isn’t a LB in the country that could’ve done anything on that play.
On Clark’s “TD”: I just don’t know – I think reasonable people can disagree about whether it was a score or not. The replay we viewers saw – sadly – was in fact inconclusive: ABC’s “goal-line” camera was quite obviously NOT set up EXACTLY ON the goal line, but a little skewed toward the field. The analogy here is the infuriatingly offset view that baseball viewers get on pretty much every pitch. A better question, now that the question of whether it was a score has been rendered moot, is: How in the world is this possible? I know that the replay officials have access to views that the TV viewers don’t, but how can there not be two (to cover both sides of the field) network cameras set up EXACTLY on the goal line to give the TV viewers an accurate picture of what’s happening on the field? Ugh.
The geometry of a field-skewed camera would enhance the TD perspective: making a non-TD look more like a real TD. If skewed to the end zone, a real TD would look more like a non-TD. Seeing the field skew, and also noting that this view did not look like it crossed the goal line, makes it a non-TD for sure. Even if it looked like it “touched” the plane of the goal line, given the perspective, it didn’t. That TD was a gift, based on the ref’s call (it was a really, really fast call too), and the “ambiguity” of the playback couldn’t over-rule it.
Draw a few lines on a piece of paper, one from lower-left to upper-right (field-skewed goal line), then bisect that line with a vertical line (the plane of the goal line), then draw a football that almost touches the right side of vertical line, but is above the slanted (goal) line. The perspective shows a football that is past the painted goal line, but not quite reaching the plane of the goal line, given it’s vertical height from the ground. Conclusion: another TD gift from the Refs.
Ben doesn’t understand football, so you yelling at him isn’t that surprising.
Vico,
On Z. Boren: you aren’t the only one who noticed. I was driving home after the game and had the pleasure of listening to the 610 wrap-up show. Coach Bruce was raving about Boren’s play. I believe the quote from him was something along the lines of: “when I go into Jim’s office on Monday, I’m going to tell him, as hard as this kid is playing in his blocks, you should reward him by giving him the ball. Perhaps he’ll run over some guys then too.”
Heh, ol’ Earle’s got my back on Zach Boren. Thanks BED.