Missed game today. Can someone please bottom line the play today?
- Thread starter psu00
- Start date
Zero sacks, zero turnovers, 200 yds rushing. With Palmer at LT the second half.
Everything was slightly better. Two 58 yard kick returns.
Offense once again struggled to pick up first downs for 2.5 quarters. It was not pretty and a good defense may have shut them out if people want to be honest. Barkley, Polk, and Reeder were pretty good. Nassib and the DL had another great day.
Overall, better than last week.....but need much work.---- They were intermittently explosive. 5 or 6 freshmen performed extremely well, and accounted for most of the big plays.
Fat kicker still pretty good so far. Barkly definitely sparked the O...line seemed to find it easier to block for a back who can plant a foot and be gone. Kid looks like he could be something special. Wish QB-2 could have seen a snap or two late.
The first three quarters the team was the same as the Temple game. In the 4th quarter they put in Barkley and they are a different offense. The OL, Hack, and play calling looked much better with Barkley in the game.
Actually no sacks was a positive all game. They ran the offense to prevent sacks which was smart. Even though they were not moving the ball Hack kept his head in the game.
It was a 'W' against Buffalo. C grade for Offense. B for Defense. Against Rutgers it could either way. If Rutgers packs it in because of tough loss and scandal fatigue we blow them away. On the other hand if Rutgers is fired up and has a couple of big return plays we will lose.
I would add:
- Hack seemed to focus on his primary for most of the game and forced in throws to receiver that were not open that resulted in incompletions
- Hack seemed to have more time once Barkley got into the game and showed speed at RB. He also made some better decisions, but the drives were keyed by Barkley's running.
- CJF would not just leave Barkley in the game, putting Lynch back in and it almost killed the drives.
- I agree that although the defense played pretty well, it was not their 'A' game, as the Bufs ran pretty well for much of the game.
- Zettel had a sweet deflection that Nassib on hand caught and ran with but didn't get it into the end zone. it would have been the play of the day in college football if Nassib had been able to get a step and get into the end zone.
- Barkley's run, on of his first touches, where he went up the middle and jumped over 2 defenders was as sweet a play as we have seen on offense since ARob left. He stumbled once he hit the ground again or he may have taken it to the house as he was ahead of the next two defenders but could not keep his balance. If he had that play may have been the play of the day (if we were playing a name opponent...). To me, Barkley is clearly the best RB and should be getting over 50% of the carries.
- Marcus Allen went out with a shoulder injury that initially looked bad. but he returned so it must not be too serious.
- Allen returned the first few punts and later some additional punts, but he looks out of place, sets up too deep, and does not catch the ball in the air unless it is right to him.
- Thompkins got his chance to return punts and looked like a vast improvement over allen, taking one a long ways and looking much quicker/faster. But he danced around on one, changing direction a couple of time, that resulted in a not too by the book run around and on the next punt was replaced by Allen. We need Thompkins (or Polk) to return punts.
- Allen also got a couple of carries at RB and looked indecisive, without the quickness to make defenders miss.
- LB's were all at new positions (Cabinda at MLB, and Walker and Reeder at OLB). For a new combination they played pretty well. Cabinda looks like he will be fine at MLB and Reeder is a hitter that should get better as he plays. Bell coming back will obviously help as well, but getting Walker some PT as well as Reeder is a good thing for the D.
- CJF had a chance to play McSorley with 4 minutes to play and up 13, but stuck with Hack. Some say that was the thing to do, but Hack just handed the ball off to keep the clock running and it would have been good to get the backup QB some reps even with the run game.
- Godwin made a great play on a long ball. He looked good and would have had another long catch but was interfered with and got a penalty called.
- Gesicki dropped 2 TD passes. The first was a streek on the sideline where he had 2 steps on the defender and Hack put it right in his hands. He seemed to slow up and then the ball bounced off his hands as he seemed to be sizing up running away from the defender. He would have had a long TD if he held on and is as fast as everyone believes. The second was near the 10?? yd line where he could have turned it up into the end zone. Hope this is the end of the drops. Carter played and made a catch or two, and we need him to work his way back into form.
- Early in the game Reid made a nice play but a B.S. call went against him for interference. A joke call. But he has to get used to getting hosed as that's what he will get for the next 4 years in the B10.
Sure, I'll bottom line it for you.
Buffalo is horrible, and we beat them by 13 points and it was in question the entire time.
We look like a 4 win team.
And SaQuon Barkley is far better than Akeel Lynch, but we'll lose another 3 games before he starts.
There ya go.
Buffalo is horrible, and we beat them by 13 points and it was in question the entire time.
We look like a 4 win team.
And SaQuon Barkley is far better than Akeel Lynch, but we'll lose another 3 games before he starts.
There ya go.
It was Buffalo and PSU didn't even come close to covering the spread. We might be able to beat Army, but that's about it.
wasn't the spread 19.5? weren't we up by 20 with under 5 to go? just sayin...
your last point, sadly, is likely to be true. funny how most of us know-nothings had Barkley pegged as the best RB on the team but clearly we're just fools.
the good news is that temple beat cincy at cincy. the bad news is cincy outgained them 2-1 and if they hadn't turned it over all night, they win handily. that said, temple did what it had to do to win (note to all that the coach chick from bucknell ranked cincy ahead of temple after the game... said temple had no style).
we have an awful long way to go, but if they play Barkley along with Polk we might just have enough pop in the cannon to give Hack time to throw without worrying from where and when and how hard he is going to get waxed.
Pretty good summary, La Jolla, but you forgot to mention Cabinda, who looked really good at LB, and I think Hack deserves some praise for the way he played and led the team today. Barkley was a lot better than good.
That's what I was afraid of (and my first thought on seeing the final score). Thanks to everyone who responded.
Oline adjustments other than putting Palmer on the bench and moving Nelson to LT was having 3 te's in for max protection alot. when Palmer came in during the 2nd hald he had a TE covering him and a few times a TE slotted behind him.
One telling play for me was PSU 3rd and goal from the 5 or 6 and we run a counter! I just get the feeling Franklin doesnt trust Hackenberg.
I would like to see a replay...didn't Buffalo watch the Temple film???? I dont recall seeing any stunts or delayed blitzes...so even though Hack stayed clean and wonder if Buffalo sent many blitzers at him....I can guarantee you Rutgers will send the house about 20 times..
One telling play for me was PSU 3rd and goal from the 5 or 6 and we run a counter! I just get the feeling Franklin doesnt trust Hackenberg.
I would like to see a replay...didn't Buffalo watch the Temple film???? I dont recall seeing any stunts or delayed blitzes...so even though Hack stayed clean and wonder if Buffalo sent many blitzers at him....I can guarantee you Rutgers will send the house about 20 times..
I'm not that pessimistic, Yet. Temple may be decent as they beat UC last night. Maryland *lost* to Bowling Green. Rutgers lost (but did score a fair number of points). SDSU was killed by Cal. There are opportunities there.
Last year Rutgers gave up 40 to Wazzu then shut us down. Same thing will happen this year.
Pay ZERO attention to what Wazzu did: We don't even HAVE those plays in our playbook, let alone run them.
Pay ZERO attention to what Wazzu did: We don't even HAVE those plays in our playbook, let alone run them.
ARe you confident in him? He was torched last year in limited play vs Umass. Since then I have zero confidence.
