The aftermath

I gave it a couple days off before writing anything about the Rose Bowl simply because I didn't want to write something that had less thinking and more emotion (who am I kidding I don't think hard about anything). After watching that effort I really had my fill of football, it just drained me. I've only caught a couple minutes here and there of the other games but I just am done with it for this year. I haven't read any articles on the intertubes because I don't want to read the lazy, rubber-stamped crap that the local beat reporters write. If we take a step back and look at this season and the end to it a couple things stand out to me.

-without a doubt this was a very good year for Penn State. 11-2 and a Big Ten championship is absolutely nothing to sneeze at, this team overachieved no matter what anyone says, they weren't even picked to finish in the top three in the Big Ten.

-the Big Ten was down this season and Penn State took advantage of it. I'm certainly not going to apologize for that nor should anyone else.

-Ohio State really screwed the Big Ten when they got their at-large bowl berth. That moved all the middle mush of the Big Ten up a bowl and put them in much more difficult games. This will only help to perpetrate the "Big Ten is weak" talk from the national media next season. Get ready for it.

-I picked my brain the day after the Rose Bowl but I cannot for the life of me remember a Joe Paterno-coached team that made as many mistakes as this team did. Crushing penalties at the most inopportune times and turnovers when they needed to hold onto the ball the most. I simply don't have an answer at all.

-there is no way I want Tom Bradley as the next head coach at Penn State. I cannot take the 'Bend and then Break our Hearts' defense he plays. The head coach sets the offensive and defensive philosophies and that is one I do not care to see anymore. Bradley relies on a good pass rush from his down four linemen to pressure quarterbacks into mistakes, when Penn State takes on a very good offensive line things break down really fast. Bradley doesn't blitz much and when he does it's painfully obvious he's going to before the ball is snapped. The moment that ended it for me was on a 3-2 with USC up 17-7. Penn State didn't blitz and their cornerbacks were 8 yards off the line of scrimmage and started backpedaling on the snap. Of course USC completed a 14-yard pass for a first down and scored later in the drive. A fellow Penn State fan argued with me (because I was hopelessly yelling at the TV), why would you want the corners to play up? Do you want them to get burned deep? My response was Hell Yes, I'd rather take a freakin' chance than let them sit there and methodically gash the defense with short passes. I just can't take that defense anymore.

So there you have it in a nutshell. Speaking of nuts, it's probably going to be the first time ever but I'm actually going to be rooting for Ohio State tonight because they need to salvage something for the Big Ten. That most definitely means they will lose badly because the universe hates me.