Oops, they almost did it again.
Penn State’s sub-par special teams nearly cost the Nittany Lions again on Saturday, but they overcame some huge gaffes to post a lackluster 31-20 win over Indiana to improve to 9-2 on the year.
In today’s edition of Morelli OnLion, we’ll take a closer look at PSU’s special teams, look back at the win over IU and look ahead to the season finale with Michigan State.
Let’s begin with the special teams.
Drew Astorino and the Penn State special teams have been a trouble spot for the
Nittany Lions.
(Photo courtesy of Blue White Illustrated).
Special Defects
Every couple of years, the subject comes up. After the Nov. 7 24-7 meltdown against Ohio State, you had to know that it would come up again.
The subject? Special teams, of course.
At his Tuesday news conference following the debacle against the Buckeyes, coach Joe Paterno walked into the Beaver Stadium Media Room as if he were getting ready to face a firing squad. As it turned out, that’s pretty much what happened.
The iconic coach was peppered with a series of questions about the Nittany Lions’ special teams. The special defects certainly aided the Buckeyes in their 17-point victory over the Nittany Lions. A crushing home loss? That was something we hadn’t seen since, well, the Iowa game back in September.
As usual, Paterno said that the fact that Penn State doesn’t have a special teams coach was not the problem. He also said that he’s not going to add a special teams coach anytime soon.
“We haven’t had that for years and years and years, if ever,” Paterno said. “We’ve always had one guy coach this, one guy coach that. Everybody helps out. But we’ve never had a specialty-teams coach.”
That’s not entirely true. But that’s a column for a different day.
Paterno admitted there were some breakdowns, some problems against the Buckeyes. He attributed those issues to the personnel that was on the field on Nov. 7.
His solution?
“We’re going to make a couple of personnel changes,” a testy Paterno said. “We went out (Monday) without pads, so on Mondays it’s tough to evaluate people. But (Tuesday) we’ll go out there and challenge a couple of guys a little bit so that we can find out whether we really have the right people in there.”
Let me clue you in coach. You don’t.
Across the board, the 2009 Nittany Lion special teams have been an unmitigated disaster.
From Jeremy Boone’s two blocked punts to A.J. Wallace’s lackadaisical kickoff returns to poor coverage on kickoffs and punts, this unit has failed. Coming into the season, areas of concern were the offensive line, the wide receivers and the secondary, not necessarily in that order.
Special teams wasn’t high on the list. Guess it should have been.
The two areas that have been extremely suspect are punt coverage and kickoff returns.
Heading into the Week 11 contest with Indiana, Penn State was allowing 16.5 yards per return — that was ranked 117th in the nation. That’s terrible. By comparison, Penn State was ranked 10th in 2006 (4.5 ypr), 10th in 2007 (5.4 ypr) and 15th in 2008 (5.3).
Ohio State return man Ray Small exposed the Lions, racking up 130 yards in punt returns and helped set up a pair of Buckeye scores. Those returns deflated the crowd, and sophomore QB Terrelle Pryor had no problem getting the Buckeyes to the end zone on a short field.
Daryll Clark wasn’t as lucky. In round numbers, the Nittany Lion punt return game had zero yards. That’s correct. Zero. In a game of field position, it’s hard to swing the momentum when your punt return “specialists” call for fair catches on just about every single punt.
Through 10 weeks, the Nittany Lion punt returners ranked 10th in the Big Ten, averaging a paltry 5.2 yards per return. Minnesota, the conference leader, is averaging 18.8 yards per return.
Clearly, the duo of Graham Zug and Drew Astorino isn’t working. Why not try Devon Smith and Justin Brown back there? Strike a little fear into the heart of your opponent. Zug and Astorino each fumbled against Indiana on Saturday.
Penn State’s kickoff returns aren’t much better. The Nittany Lions are averaging 18.2 yards per return — good for 114th in the nation. Again, by comparison, the 2006 Nittany Lions were 43rd (21.2 ypr), 64th in 2007 (21.02 ypr) and 10th in 2008 (24.5 ypr).
With all those facts and figures and the fact that both of Penn State’s losses can be attributed directly to the special teams, it’s hard to bury your head in the sand and ignore the facts.
Still, Paterno refuses to change the way he does things.
“We just got to do a little better job, get some better people in there,” he said. “It’s not the scheme, it’s not the coaching.”
Well, it’s something, coach. And until it gets fixed, expect the good teams to exploit the Nittany Lions.
They might make it through their final game at Michigan State without sustaining another body blow from the sub-par special teams, but a bowl game against a quality opponent could be the proverbial third strike against the 2009 Nittany Lions.
Looking Back: Indiana
The 11-point win over the Hoosiers was not by any means pretty, but the Lions got the job done. After falling behind 10-0, they bounced back to tie it by halftime and eventually took the lead on Navorro Bowman’s 73-yard interception return for a TD.
The Lions looked flat on Senior Day, but Bowman and fellow linebacker Sean Lee lifted PSU to the win.
With the win, PSU remained in contention for a BCS bowl bid. Those will be announced in early December.
Looking Ahead: Michigan State
The Nittany Lions always seem to struggle in East Lansing. Don’t expect this season to be any different. There will be a lot on the line for the Lions. If they win, they will likely get a BCS Bowl. If they lose, they will be spending New Years somewhere in Florida.
Michigan State has been up and down this season. While coach Mark Dantonio has Sparty headed in the right direction, there’s too much on the line for the Lions to lay an egg in East Lansing.
Gantdaily.com prediction: Penn State 28, Michigan State 23.
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.
