Well, that certainly was a letdown.
On Saturday afternoon at Beaver
Stadium, the Penn State football team laid an absolute egg. The Nittany Lions
came out flat and let the Buckeyes push them around in their own
house.
In today’s edition of Morelli OnLion, we’ll take a closer look at
Saturday’s debacle and look ahead to this week’s home finale with
Indiana.
Daryll Clark and the Nittany Lions were exposed against the Buckeyes on
Saturday.
(Photo courtesy of Blue White Illustrated).
BCS Fraud
The Nittany Lions were exposed in Saturday’s 24-7
loss to Ohio State at Beaver Stadium. Their senior quarterback got outplayed by
a true sophomore, their iconic coach got out-schemed by Sweater Vest and their
defense was as flat as a pancake.
In the loss, the Lions were exposed as
a fraud. They don’t deserve to get a sniff of a BCS game.
There were
plenty of lowlights in the 17-point loss, but let us take a closer look at five
trouble spots.
1. Offensive Line — Just when it appeared that the
offensive line was jelling, it got blown apart by the Buckeyes. QB Daryll Clark
had no time to throw and it opened few holes for running backs Evan Royster,
Stephfon Green and Brandon Beachum.
Other than Stefen Wisniewski, there
isn’t anyone on the line who will be playing on Sundays. The O-Line was a
disaster on Saturday and it clearly has a lot of work to do over the final two
weeks of the season before the bowl arrives.
2. QB Play — As hard as it
is to believe, Terrelle Pryor outplayed Clark. The youngster came into a hostile
environment and threw for a pair of TDs and rushed for another. He was the No. 1
reason the Buckeyes left Happy Valley with a victory.
Once again, Clark
failed to deliver in a big game. For those of you keeping score at home, that’s
two losses to Iowa, one to USC and one to Ohio State. As good as he’s been, he
really doesn’t have a signature win during his two seasons as a starter for the
Nittany Lions.
He’s got three more games to get such a win.
3.
Special Teams — This is all you need to know: Ohio State’s punt returners racked
up 130 yards. Penn State’s punt returners had zero. Graham Zug and Drew Astorino
strike fear into no one, especially when they are taking fair catches on every
punt.
Why not put Devon Smith back there? Chaz Powell? Heck, how about
Stephfon Green? He’s never been used properly, in this writer’s
opinion.
Ultimately, Penn State will need to put more emphasis on special
teams or it will continue to haunt the Lions.
4. Joe Paterno — Once
again, JoePa got conservative in a big game. But what is most disturbing is his
nonchalant attitude about the loss. In the postgame news conference, Paterno
didn’t appear surprised by the fact his team loss. Instead, he acted like he
expected it, and that’s a shame.
The loss all but eliminated the Lions
from a BCS Bowl Game. It certainly wiped them out of the national championship
picture. It’s been 23 years since Paterno has delivered a national championship
to Happy Valley.
5. Non-conference schedule — We hate to beat a dead
horse, but Penn State’s non-conference schedule has once again come back to
haunt it. By playing Akron, Temple, Syracuse and Eastern Illinois in the
non-conference slate, it didn’t ready the Lions for the likes of Iowa and Ohio
State.
And that is why the Lions sit behind those teams in the
standings.
Looking Ahead: Indiana
The Nittany Lions will have to
bounce back against the Hoosiers, a team that had Iowa on the ropes a few weeks
back.
It will be interesting to see how the Lions bounce back from
Saturday’s devastating loss. The guess is that they will respond well. After
all, IU is under .500. That’s the type of opponent the Lions have been feasting
on all season long.
Look for Clark and Sean Lee to have big days on
Senior Day.
Gantdaily.com prediction: Penn State 35, Indiana
21.
Chris Morelli is the award-winning editor of Blue White Illustrated,
a weekly publication devoted to Penn State athletics. He is also a regular on
“Sports Central,” which airs on ESPN Radio in Altoona and State College. E-mail
him at morellionlion@gmail.com. This column
does not necessarily reflect the views or opinions of BWI’s writers or
publisher.