Sunday, September 10, 2006

Game Recap

*rant on*
I’d like to take the time to completely recap the Penn State – Notre Dame game but unfortunately I stopped watching the train wreck right after the fumble to open the second half. Mike takes the high road by pointing out that this is a young team and the season is not over, but I’m a loud mouth jerk and do no such thing. This was a complete disaster in every sense of the word. I hate losing but when you prepare well, play your best and the other guy just beats you, you tip your hat and move on realizing you don’t always win. When you fumble the ball, drop multiple interceptions, screw up chip shot field goals, and play an unbelievable stupid defensive scheme, well… it makes me sick in my stomach.

Now I’ve coached a total of 0 games in my life but everyone including me, Penn State fans, analysts, and the retarded kid that lives down the street and spends his free time smelling car exhaust fumes knew that Georgia Tech gave Penn State the blueprint to shutting down Notre Dame: bring lots of pressure and force Quinn out of rhythm. What did Tom Bradley think? Fuck no we’re going to blitz three guys for the better part of the game. Wonderful. Simply astounding. Genius plan; let the Heisman Trophy candidate quarterback sit back in the pocket for as long as he needs until somebody gets completely open. Oh, but the defensive genius did really throw Notre Dame off by blitzing a forth guy every now and then, that will show ‘em. If Penn State plays that scheme of defense against Ohio State who has a better quarterback, faster receivers and better offensive line they will get absolutely obliterated like never before.
*rant off*

More bad news for Penn State fans is the play of Paul Posluszny the first two games. It’s apparent he hasn’t fully recovered from his injury because he is just not himself. He was a step behind plays, couldn’t run people down and looked very ordinary. I thought it was just a coincidence against Akron, but it’s apparent that something is still wrong because he played poorly against Notre Dame as well. Now if I ever run into him at a State College restaurant I will completely deny every saying that for fear of being twisted into a pretzel.

The only bright spot for Penn State was the continued maturation of Anthony Morelli who was 21-33 for 189 yards a touchdown and his first interception. He did a good job and really should have had better numbers if Williams didn’t drop the ball that hit him in stride while running down the sideline. The offensive line also continues to improve as Tony Hunt had some more running room this week gaining 74 yards. They aren’t there yet, but they are improving.

Now I'm off to watch my Fantasy players and continue drowning my sorrows.

12 comments:

JB said...

If the D wants to get better we have to have more POZ! He is a team leader and needs to step it up if Penn State is going to have success. I GOTTA HAVE MORE POZ!

P.S. I LOVE YOU POZ!

Greg said...

I could not believe the defensive scheme. What were the coaches doing all week? They weren't watching game film of Georgia Tech/Notre Dame, I can tell you. Whenever they brought even four rushers, they put some pressure on Quinn, and when they brought five, they really did a good job.

Lots to bash about the gameplan, because it went wrong from the beginning, when JoePa decided to give the ball to the Notre Dame offense to start the game. WTF? And although I hate to blame officials and PSU probably would have lost anyway, that phantom clipping call near the end of the half was HUGE. At least a 10-point swing, if not 14.

Anonymous said...

Tough game to watch all around. I completely agree on the defensive game planning. Awful. Not only that but the defense looked very flat and didn't seem to ever be into the game or excited at all.
But the mistakes just made things too tough. Another botched field goal is 3 points gone. Hunt's fumble was a huge giveaway. And the clipping call was a killer. Throw in some dropped passes by Derrick Williams and we made ND look even better than they really are.
Also Charlie Weis going for it on 4th down up 34 to 3 was insulting, I hope the players remember that next year and run the score up on them.

Galen said...

I'm glad I stopped watching it because if I had I would have broke something when Fat Boy went for it on 4th down. I gave Weis the benefit of the doubt and had respect for him after his first year, but running up the score puts him in the same place as John L. Smith when he did the same to Penn State a couple years ago. Fake punts and 4th down tries when up big puts you somewhere above jerkoff and just below jackass in my book. The sad thing is that Paterno would never do that in return becuase he has more class.

Anonymous said...

You guys crack me up. ND could've put 50+ on you easily if they really wanted to run it up. They went away from their pass-heavy attack that had completely destroyed your D in order to kill the clock with a relatively ineffective running game, and they pulled their star players with plenty of time left.
Hell, if ND hadn't scored that final TD to get the point across, you delusional PSU fans would be saying how the game coulda gone the other way if the officials hadn't "jobbed" you. I look forward to seeing you in the 'Shoe for payback-- it's gonna be ugly.

Galen said...

Hey, I think this is a milestone, Anon is my first angry Ohio State troll! I feel loved.

Anonymous said...

Congrats on getting the OSUer to take time from his library porn to insult you. He's a little off his game though, no f-bombs or poo flinging.

Galen said...

Library porn... classic, billybob!

I consider my first Ohio State F-bomb to be a milestone as well, that's when you really know you've made it.

Greg said...

Well, anonymous OSU fan is right - unless Troy Smith breaks something or PSU gets a lot better very quickly, it's going to be ugly. Still - what's the point of being all grumpy about it? What a tool. And I don't really care if Weis faked the punt - Joe wouldn't have done it, true, but it wasn't as if they were throwing all half trying to score. That's minor.

What bothers me is the same thing that always bothers me about polls - people see the final score and think it was a blowout. Anyone who watched the game and then watched OSU-Texas knows that OSU dominated MUCH more than Notre Dame did, but voters won't drop Texas as much as they do Penn State. And the Lions were on the road - the Longhorns were at home.

I have a feeling Michigan is going to beat Notre Dame. I hate both teams, so I don't care, but I wouldn't mind seeing the Wolverines smack them around a bit.

Anonymous said...

Woah, woah, woah:

Voters are going to look at that final score of the Penn State/Notre Dame game and think less of you? What if voters knew you accumulated nearly half of your first downs and total offense in the fourth quarter? Ohio State may have handled Texas, but I wouldn't say it was significantly more dominant than how soundly Notre Dame took care of business against PSU Saturday.

Speaking of classless, let's call a timeout with twenty-five seconds in the game down by a thirty-one just to make the score look a little more respectable.

Galen said...

If calling a timeout with your second team players knocking on the doorstep late in a game is classless then every team in the NCAA is classless because everyone has done that at one time or another. Most teams would have still had their first stringers in there. Paterno and Co. have never done anything to make themselves look respectable or make themselves look anything, if they cared about how they are perceived they would have hung 80 points on just about everyone they played in 94. That timeout was about getting the backups some much needed playing experience.

Mike Didonna said...

I was at the game and if you guys could have gotten some points on the board in the first half I think you could have pulled it out.

I was inmpressed by Morelli. He showe d a lot of poise and boy does he have a big time arm.

I sat next to a couple of Penn State guys and had a good time talking college football with them.

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