King Ottos Konclusion

I was very very happy with the score but I wasnt happy with the way we played. It really reminded me of a GRobesque game from both the players and coaching. The final score was not as close as the game actually was.

I am going to start off talking about pre and post game. PSU is the only real CFB experience in the NE. So to take this in me and me amigos rented out an RV and headed there Friday night. My buddys were all drunk by the time we showed up at PSU. Which is right next to a prison BTW. When we got there the park was packed. And people were a partying well into the night despite the noon game. There was one row which was the happening row. Music was blaring. Huge tents were set up. And projectors showing TVs on big screens. It was great. As we explored we meet one group who was sponsored by Yuengling. Here are their websites (2thelion.com, dieseltailgate.no-ip.org). They said that they were on a line to get into the park 5pm on Thursday. Yes there is a line to get onto the cool RV row on Thursday night! They also had a donut maker, which just needed to be said. We later stumbled onto a tailgate where they had a dinosaur race, dice game for money. Dean the Sax Machine won 3 of 5 races. Although it was a buck each so he only won $5 a race.

We started Sat off with a breakfast of beer, hotdogs, and sausages. Our neighbors had egg sandwhiches and thought we were weird. The stadium looks bare bones. Not nice on the outside, crappy concessions, and bathrooms which have a trough/sink hybrid. It didnt look like 110k either. The student section was huuuge though. It stretched a long long way. Almost from the entire endzone to the 30 on the home side. They started a wave early, then did a super slow mo wave, followed by a super fast wave. I hate the wave but it was cool.

After the game everyone went back to their RVs and got drunk. When we left early Sunday morning there were still a ton of RVs there. Insane. Now to the game:


Marrone
I thought he had a very poor game. At halftime I thought he was playing to keep the game close so people would show up vs NW. He was as conservative as one can be. He played to keep it close and not to win. Why on 4th and 2 from the PSU 35 are you faking a FG and punting? You are down 14-0 at that point. This isnt a D battle where it is all about field position. Then at the end of the half with it 2nd and 3 at the 50, we ran 5 plays in the last 2:15 of the half. Not only that we called a TO after a first down to stop the clock. Why? We just seem disorganized out there and that is suppossedly Marrones strong suit. Twice in the first game we were disorganized and 3 times in the PSU game. The first was the opening play of the season. The other 4 all resulted in TOs. Off the field Marrone has been great. But on the field not so much. Which is why I didnt want a rookie HC. Thank god he has a great staff around him.

Spence
What was the gameplan here? We mainly pounded the ball up the middle against a physically superior team, whose weakness is their DBs. Why did we never challenge them? Also why pound it away and never run a play fake off of it? Why did we have as many one WR sets as three WR sets in the first half? Why did we not spread them out? Why when we did go trips and PSU had a CB, a LB, and a S over the top, did we not exploit this mismatch? Not even once? Instead we tried a bubble which they were expecting? Why did we not open up the play book until it was 21-0 with 7:30 left in the 3rd?

Shafer
I think he did ok. The first drive and a half we wouldnt come out of the 4-3 and they exploited mismatches. Finally he went to the Okie and we slowed them down. Not only that, on key third downs we only rushed a few guys and sat in a zone, which helped extend drives. I hate 3rd down zones. They got a big 3rd down in drive #2 that made it first and goal, where we rushed 3 GUYS and played Zone. Made no sense but we would stop them anyway. I was not a fan of that start. I guess he was worried about the run but if you watched the Akron game you should know that stopping PSUs passing game was key. For some reason we went back to the 4-3 to start the second half and PSU scored. After that it was garbage time so not much can be taken. What can be said is that we have a good goaline D.

Paulus/Nassib
I am not sure what advantage you get by playing Nassib at QB. He isnt going to keep a D honest. As to Paulus I think he played ok. In fainess he wasnt given a chance to succeed with the play calling. When we opened things up in the 2nd half he looked much better. He still has happy feet though. The first two pressures were more on him than the OL. And he had some WRs open that he never saw. But he is still learning the game at this level and hopefully will improve. I think the USF game will be a big game for him. If he doesnt have it by then, he wont get it.

Carter/Bailey
Besides his first run DC3 couldnt get a thing going. Bailey did ok again in the Stallion.

WRs
Williams had a big drop killing his TD streak. Lemon had two big drops. One on 3rd and one resulting in an INT. He is only a Frosh so he gets a pass, for now. Davis had a nice TD catch.

Owen/Catalina
Both made catches. Both were also beaten by a blitz on the same play. Where did all those play actions to Cody from the Spring game go?

OL
Run blocking looks worse. Then again we played two big DLs. Pass blocking seems better than last year. Still not great but good enough to move the ball.

DL
They did a good job stuffing the run. Chandler lost contain on the 2nd PSU TD. Marinovich made a nice sack and fumble recovery in garbage time.

LBs
Smith made some nice plays and in other plays he was out of position. He needs to get consistant. Same can be said of Hogue. He got nice pressure on a few blitzes. And he shoulda had two INTs. One he was out of position on a slant to Royster, that went for a TD. The other was high and he dropped it. I really did not notice Carter out there.

DBs
Poor game for this group. Kev was picked on the first half. But he did make a nice INT. Nico was picked on in the second half. On the first TD Suter and later Holmes missed chances at tackles. And on the second TD, Holmes took a bad angle.

Long/Jones
Long had some nice punts but shanked one deep in our territory, and missed badly trying to put one in the corner. Jones can return, fun to watch.