- Pitt is the worst OOC opponent on the schedule, yet they still gashed PSU for 200 yards in the first half. Good news is adjustments were made and it did get better. I honestly thought after the first half it was going to be a repeat of 2 years ago...kudos to Pry and the defense for turning it up a few notches.
- Doozi is toast, don't think they win a single ACC game this year to be honest. You have to recruit at least decent in a P5 conference and he recruits at non P5 level. He really needs to STFU and learn how to recruit or else he will finish up his career as a DC...which seems likely.
- Hamler is just an insanely good football player. Sweeps, catches, Returns....does it all.
- Noticed Hansard and E. Jordan out there a ton in the second half getting a lot of reps. Good news is they were not getting gashed and seemed to be out there on quite a few of the 3 and outs with Miller and Matos.
- WR's for PSU need to have a gut check, all of them as a unit. If not you are going to see the younger guys sooner rather than later. JJ and Thompkins are supposed to be the leaders, but they continue to drop passes. I think it was around 7 drops last night...rough guess there.
- Sanders is a really good RB, but he needs to do what he does best...north and south. Glad he gashed Pitt in his hometown.
- Slade got a lesson last night...tough night with a wet ball...hopefully this makes him better down the line.
- By the time we play tOSU, Parsons and Luketa will be seeing the majority of snaps IMO.
- I love Franklin and the TD pass to Mac H was a big enough FU to Doozi who earned that one, no need at all for that last review though. I love he wants to compete on every play, but a 45 point lead and a minute to go...dial it back and look like you have been there before. No matter how much of a prick the opposing coach is, take the high road when possible.
- There is still a ton of room for improvement on this team. I'm hopeful that the light went on at halftime last night for that defense, but I honestly think Pitt folded halfway through the 3rd Q.
Disagree with your "first point" (and find it amusing that your "first thought" is so typically "Eeyore style" over-the-top negative even in a 51-6 win....quite the "PSU fan" lmfao!). Just as Blackledge pointed out - PSU's defense is "playing it's way" into being an outstanding defense - the defense played outstanding in the 2nd Half while ASWP was still in the game. IOW, the defense came out and executed on all cylinders and completely stuffed ASWP every way possible including having them going backwards on several drives such as the safety.
ASWP was not able to consistently run the ball as you claim in the first half - as evidenced by the fact that they could not get the ball in the endzone after their 1st TD drive on their 2nd possession of the game despite moving the ball deep into PSU territory on multiple drives off the back of big SINGLE plays given up by PSU. As Todd Blackledge also pointed out, PSU's defense features a lot of talent, but it is going to take them some time to "gel" and eliminate mistakes, missed-assignments, etc... because there are so many new starters on the defense (especially along the Front 7). This is especially true because of the lack of real-game action and preponderance of non-contact drills in preseason training. It means that PSU's defense is going to make exponential improvement as they see more-&-more action at true "game speed" (defense will gel, players will take better angles, players will have better synergy with one-another, etc....).
Again, ASWP continually stalling-out after big plays that took them deep into PSU territory is strong evidence that they COULD NOT run the ball consistently on PSU's Defense, but did gash them for some big plays which went for naught as ASWP's special teams are so bad they completely abandoned even attempting a FG from the 3 yard line! If ASWP was able to run the ball so easily and consistently as you claim, why didn't they simply pound the ball into the endzone on any of these drives deep into PSU territory???
The reality is that the vast majority of ASWP's 1st Half running yardage came off a couple plays - half of it came off of the long runs by ASWP's WR on ASWP's 2nd Drive and Ollisons long run on ASWP's 4th drive. Ollison 119 yards on 21 carries for the game (5.7 ypc) - however, 68 of those yards were on one carry during ASWP's 4th possession in the first half where he ran the ball from his own 4 yard line deep into PSU territory at the PSU 28 yard line (68 yard run). But importantly, he was easily caught from behind (i.e., slow) and ASWP's drive stalled specifically because they couldn't run the ball consistently or do anything with the great field position resulting from the big play (opposite of what you claim and try to imply that ASWP was running the ball at will on PSU in 1st Half and controlling LOS - they weren't, as their inability to score outside of their 2nd possession of the game PROVES quite dramatically!). Sans that one rush by Ollison that ended up resulting in zero points precisely because ASWP couldn't run the ball consistently, Ollison gained 50 yards on 20 carries (2.5 ypc), but this is strong evidence according to you of how dominating and consistent ASWP's running game was??? LMFAO, no I don't agree that we got dominated at the LOS in the 1st half - ASWP ripped off some big runs due to some "growing pains" on the defensive side of the ball, but was absolutely unable to consistently move the ball AFTER the big play outside of their 2nd possession (IOW, diameteic opposite of a dominating run game as evidenced by all the possessions flaming out after a big play took them into PSU territory - one of those big plays in 1st half being a turnover in PSU territory that ASWP was able to do nothing with! Why were they able to do nothing with this field position and got zero points if they were able to run at will on PSU??? Mighty strange - could you explain oh great sage of football??? LMFAO!).
More than anything else, the 2nd Half demonstrated that this PSU Defense is beginning to gel and "come of age" (i.e., playing their way into a good defense just as Todd Blackledge said), but you entirely skipped that part of the story - go figure! Again LMFAO!
