ADVERTISEMENT

Now what?

Coming off a bye week at home with a lot to play for and playing a beatable team, and Penn State completely shit the bed. Bad offense, bad defense, bad special teams, turnovers, penalties...

I am concerned that the team is not as good as many of us thought or hoped. However, I am more concerned that team chemistry is lacking and could get worse as a result of the last two close losses that could have or should have been wins. It is often hard to differentiate poor play from poor coaching since we aren't in the practices or on the sidelines, but it is certainly fair to be concerned about the coaching at this point.

So what happens next? We have learned a lot about this team, not what we had hoped to learn, but we will learn even more by the way the team responds to adversity. Do they mail it in? Is there finger pointing? Do they resolve themselves to get better, physically and mentally, and take their game to a new level?

What will we see against indiana? More of the same or a team determined to save their season? It's a steep hill to climb at this point.
Time to curl up in the fetal position.

61twx0kPM9L._SX353_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg
 
  • Like
Reactions: acg116
I dare say everyone understands the world doesn’t stop spinning. God forbid someone asks what’s next with respect to the football team on a football board without a perspective lecture.

And some of these “fans” need to step away. They are taking the loss harder then Franklin.
 
Tough loss but we had some bad breaks too. How many times did MSU fumble but got it back? The dropped INT's obviously were huge. We stopped MSU twice on 3rd down but had penalties called giving them a first down on their first two td drives. Lewerke was 24-52 passing. That's pretty good pass defense. 12 stops on d. Our offense and the play calling should be what's questioned. Why didn't we pass on first down more, especially in the second half after the run was established? MSU had one of the worst pass defenses in the country. It's like Trace has been told to be more conservative when throwing downfield. If the offense is going through him, he's gotta have the freedom to throw it around. Another thought is with all the runs for Trace he's a little beat up making him a little less accurate. Sparty looked like they figured our offense out and we had no answers. In the past the answer was to throw downfield and it looked like we were scared to do so for some reason. There's a lot of season left. I expect Trace and the other leaders on the team to do what's necessary to respond and to make the most of it.
 
What do we do? Try to win out and get program momentum back. We are not good and have not been most of season. We are undisciplined and dumb penalties are costing us games. Our OL is not dominant like expected but ok enough to move against most teams. Juwan Johnson is not stepping up like Dasean did last year so offense is struggling on critical downs. Pinegar is young and lacks confidence so that will be a sh*t show. Defense lacks ability to close down drives. We tackle poorly and don't create TOs when they are right there. Expect that we are good enough to keep most games close. Franklin needs to get team confidence back. We need some lucky breaks and now UM becomes make or break for recruiting. That is worries me as kids may back away if JF does not steady ship and gets doors blown off at Ann Arbor.
 
This regurgitates an argument I had last year, we seem to do whatever is necessary to lose. I love my Lions but this team is a mediocrity and not really very good. How many of you think we beat Wiscy and Michigan going forward.
Our offense is Trace McSorely. Period. If trace doesn't do it it doesn't get done.
That bothers me. The offense should be a communal effort with its centerpiece.
The two dropped interceptions had to be made and both were dropped. Game over. The rest of the game raised one simple question. Did Dantonio outcoach us to stay in the game so we could do an el-foldo in the fourth quarter. In any event, for the last two years (and this one too) we have been living off of TMS and that gig is about over. We do have offensive talent, however. There are tweaks we need to make and I don't know how to make them. I can't blame Franklin since he is, IMHO, a recruiter and cheerleader and other people made game day decisions. Well, I will enjoy the rest of season but now have low expectations.
 
The killer play was the stupid play by Thorpe after stopping MSU on the goal line. Stupid, stupid, undisciplined play. That was inexcusable.
Stupid play, but that was on third down...they likely would have gone for it on 4th and I’m not sure we would have stopped them.
 
  • Like
Reactions: acg116
I originally thought he took a swing at the MSU player, but someone who sat near there said he did kick the MSU player. It was clear as day he did something.

It was dumb and right in front of the ref. This team can’t get out of its way sometimes. I think they play better from behind than with a lead against good competition. Keeps them focused. Having to come back against Wisconsin in the big ten champ game was the best thing that happened in that game. Osu 2016 was a comeback. Rose bowl was a great comeback until it wasn’t.
 
What do we do? Try to win out and get program momentum back. We are not good and have not been most of season. We are undisciplined and dumb penalties are costing us games. Our OL is not dominant like expected but ok enough to move against most teams. Juwan Johnson is not stepping up like Dasean did last year so offense is struggling on critical downs. Pinegar is young and lacks confidence so that will be a sh*t show. Defense lacks ability to close down drives. We tackle poorly and don't create TOs when they are right there. Expect that we are good enough to keep most games close. Franklin needs to get team confidence back. We need some lucky breaks and now UM becomes make or break for recruiting. That is worries me as kids may back away if JF does not steady ship and gets doors blown off at Ann Arbor.
So recruits will only come if we win 10 games every year? Man, someone should have told franklin that four years ago so we wouldn’t be in this position of expecting to make the playoffs every year.
 
When you use your main passing weapon as a running back this is what you get. Eventually he gets beat up, if not flat out injured, and loses accuracy, sometimes velocity. Yesterday we saw Trace (and/or Rahne) try to put the game on the QB's shoulders, or should I say legs.

I am not a fan of this offense unless you're rotating quarterbacks like other positions and can just switch over to the hot passer. When you run the quarterback passing needs to be simplified. In this system it is not. Of course, I don't expect change, since Franklin is sold on the approach.

We can always point to plays not made that could have been made in every loss. With that system of logic the coaches are never on the hook. We've seen this play out a lot, and not just with this staff. HC's routinely say they're responsible and that the buck stops with them, right before they cite where the players failed. The OSU post-game pressor left a bad taste with me. I don't see how that was a message for recruits to see unless you cherry-pick the "elite" quote. I wonder how it affected team morale. The MSU result would suggest it backfired.
 
  • Like
Reactions: jimjim47
Stupid play, but that was on third down...they likely would have gone for it on 4th and I’m not sure we would have stopped them.
We stopped them three times in a row. Regardless, it was a lack of discipline. This team has had penalties at bad times this year. That is coachable.
On a side note, was Paraon suspended for the first quarter or something? I don’t think I saw him out there until the second quarter.
 
So recruits will only come if we win 10 games every year? Man, someone should have told franklin that four years ago so we wouldn’t be in this position of expecting to make the playoffs every year.

Not sure what you mean but we are competing for elite talent like Brandon Smith or Devyn Ford. If you think losing to OSU, MSU and UM every year will keep getting us conversations with 5 stars then not sure what age of football you think we are in.
 
I originally thought he took a swing at the MSU player, but someone who sat near there said he did kick the MSU player. It was clear as day he did something.

How about the "holding call" on Windsor which still mind boggling. They showed the replay, and there was nothing to warrant that call. Not even close to being holding on a DT. MSU got another 1st down and continued their drive.

Anyone have knowledge that would verify that call?
 
No, right now we are not even a good program, but a mediocre program. Talent level wise we are a good to great program, but we are not playing up to that talent level. That is on the coaches. Offensive and defensive schemes, figuring out the right personnel packages, making in game adjustments, getting fooled time and again on trick plays, appearing unprepared, etc. are primarily coaching issues. Going into this season I thought we had a fairly talented, but somewhat young and inexperienced coaching staff, but their inability to get things done and really not correcting or minimizing deficiencies makes me think otherwise now.

We aren’t a “good” program? We’re coming off back to back Rose and Fiesta Bowls with top 10 finishes. We’ve lost our last 5 games by 12 total points. And 3 of those were top 10 opponents. We led all 5 in the fourth quarter. This year’s two losses we were behind by a total of about 2 minutes.

I get frustration, but if you define all that as a “mediocre” program, I can’t imagine how you’d define us if we truly were.
 
Not sure what you mean but we are competing for elite talent like Brandon Smith or Devyn Ford. If you think losing to OSU, MSU and UM every year will keep getting us conversations with 5 stars then not sure what age of football you think we are in.
Recruits don’t just look at wins and losses. I know because my son was recruited. Losing close games like that may motivate a recruit thinking we’re o ky a player or two from winning those games and they could be that player. It’s not like we’re a sub 500 team.
 
I’m more disappointed after reports came out that they had the best practice of the season earlier in the week. I’d hate to see how they would play after bad practices.

That was nothing more than a James Franklin special. It was bullshit. Franklin had better learn that if he stands in front of people and bullshits like he does he'd better back it up because frankly I'm tired of the lip service.

Franklin is a good overall coach (when you take recruiting into account). We aren't going to fire him and find somebody better so he's the guy. I've had it with the lip service from him, though. Best practice of the season? Yeah. Right. The team laid an egg yesterday.
 
If only we had recent history to look back and see how they will do after losing back to back to OSU and MSU.
Yeah, the difference is last year we had Rutgers, Maryland, and Nebraska to close out the season. This year we still have Iowa, Wisconsin, and Michigan.
 
We're wounded. The team is caught between their expectations, glimpses the type of quality team they could be, and real world performance like yesterday. We talked about Indiana possibly being a trap game before MSU when we thought we'd walk into their stadium on a high. Now we're at our lowest point facing a team that's not very good, but smelling blood in the water. The team and coaches are going to have to fight like hell to come out there with a win. I'm hopeful, but depending on the mindset of the team after two straight losses, nothing would surprise me. Unlike many posters on this board I have to learn to keep my expectations in check.
 
Truth be told, this is no longer a top tier program. It hasn't been since the mid 90's. Franklin indicated after the OSU loss that we were great, but not elite. News flash: We aren't anywhere near being great. What Penn State has become, despite having one of the best fan bases and traditions in college football, is the equivalent of Michigan State, Wisconsin, West Virginia, etc. That is, we will occasionally compete at a top ten level, but not consistently. And rarely will we win the big, big games. As much as that hurts, this is what we are. Twenty plus years is a large enough sample size to draw this conclusion.
Even when he said it, I was sorry he called us "great." We certainly weren't playing great, dropping numerous passes and not tackling well. Not sure what the team thinks about being called great when they missed tackles, drop balls, and blow big leads.
 
We're wounded. The team is caught between their expectations, glimpses the type of quality team they could be, and real world performance like yesterday. We talked about Indiana possibly being a trap game before MSU when we thought we'd walk into their stadium on a high. Now we're at our lowest point facing a team that's not very good, but smelling blood in the water. The team and coaches are going to have to fight like hell to come out there with a win. I'm hopeful, but depending on the mindset of the team after two straight losses, nothing would surprise me. Unlike many posters on this board I have to learn to keep my expectations in check.
And then there's Michigan, Wisky, and Iowa. I hate to even think about those.
 
The Indiana game will be telling early IMO. If the team comes out on fire and takes full control of the game by half then there’s hope the team rebounds well the rest of the season.

If they continue to sleep walk and give away 2-3 quarters where they just sluggishly go through the motions then nothing has changed and the rest of the season could get ugly......including a possible loss to the Hoosiers.

It will be interesting to see how the team responds Saturday.
 
ADVERTISEMENT