PSU Review: Indiana

TNL Said: 27-10
Actual Score: 31-20

Take away the garbage TD for Indiana at the end of the game and I pretty much nailed that score, but more importantly I said this last week in my preview:

Expect Penn State to have a hangover and play poorly, particularly early in the contest, but the defense will keep the Lions in it until the offense decides to wake up. I expect Indiana to move the ball on Penn State but not get it in the endzone too often.

Wow, I'm like a prognosticator or something, actually anyone that has watched Penn State over the years would have seen that shittacular of an effort coming from a mile away. This was by far the worst effort of the season. It was a complete EPIC FAIL and had it been a team with a pulse PSU would have lost miserably.

But it was Indiana and they are so bad that Penn State can turn the ball over 4 times in the first half and still go to the locker room with a 10-10 tie. Thank God for really crappy schedules!

Offense

In a word: GARBAGE!

Clark threw two picks early and the offensive brain trust turned Beaver Stadium into a no-fly zone. They totally handcuffed Clark and started the brute force offense yet again. And yet again, it wasn't very effective but it was Indiana and they eked out enough offense to win. Evan Royster did manage 95 yards rushing but when your top two leading receivers are your running back and, worse yet, your fullback things have gone seriously, seriously wrong. A couple weeks ago people were actually using Heisman and Clark in the same sentence* how's that working out now? It certainly didn't help that Derek Moye played 'bouncy chesty' twice inside the five yard line dropping two easily catchable balls. It was a total team effort of suck.

Defense

In a word: GARBAGE!

Sure the defense kept Penn State in the game and sure Bowman scored on an interception return which vaulted him into Big Ten Defensive player of the week status but it was a half hearted effort and some really poor schemes. If Indiana would have kept attacking the middle of the field at about the 8 yard area where Penn State's defense feels it's totally unnecessary to cover they could have moved the ball all day. When PSU blitzes it's obvious, when Penn State fakes a blitz it's even more obvious and again, I'm one of them there bloggers that don't know nothin' about football so if I can call it imagine what the guys getting paid a million dollars can see. Again, I hate to "beat a dead dog**" but if it was anyone but Indiana they probably would have scored a lot more. But kudos to Bowman for taking the whole scoring thing into his own hands, hey if the offense isn't going to do it, you might as well.

Special Teams

In a word: GARBAGE!

The special teams get worse as the year goes on but it's just personnel, right? If Penn State is going to fumble every other punt return perhaps they shouldn't even put someone back there to field the punt. At least then we'll KNOW there's no chance for a turnover, in fact just put 11 guys at the line of scrimmage and make sure they don't fake. If you go after the punt I'm sure we'll get a running into the kicker penalty for a first down so don't even chance that. On kickoffs just catch it and take a knee at the 15 or 20. Is there a Div I football team in the country with worse special teams then Penn State? If there is, I'd like to see it.

Overall

This was one of the worst efforts I've seen and it was a complete failure in every aspect except the scoreboard. Offense, defense, special teams, coaching and I'm sure the cheerleaders messed some things up at halftime. Complete team lack of effort. Thank God it was Indiana.

*which made me literally laugh out loud

** NOT my quote that's what the geniuses on the Big Ten Network said