The coaching staff coming in with this game plan was either totally lazy and / or totally overconfident and / or totally disrespectful of MSU. It would work against Rutgers, period.
Coming off a bye week.....at home.....against a really beat-up team, well, there’s no way to spin it.
McSorley had an AWFUL game: missing our TE for a gift first down (a play we never went back to), badly missing Thompson on a crossing pattern (a play we never went back to), throwing the JJ fade out-of-bounds, way out-of-bounds. Way overthrowing a couple of deep attempts. Never looking back to see Sanders all alone in the flat at least 6-8 times in the game. Snapping the ball with 15 seconds left on the play clock late in the game, not staying in-bounds on the third down play.
But the game plan SUCKED, period. NOTHING new on O or D.
On O, no Lion (even if only a diversion). No stop, pump and go pass patterns. Very little motion, no toss sweeps or even a hint of a misdirection play. No bubble screens or screen passes. No designed QB rollouts. NOTHING different or creative.
On D, the only difference I saw was the tendency for the corners to play closer to the line-of-scrimmage. Same failure to contain the QB on his 3-4 rollout plays to the left and when pressured he always escaped to his right. OUR blitzes are always the same, always from off the line-of-scrimmage giving the QB the extra second or two to get rid of the pass. Our safeties don’t defend the center of the field and never provide cover on sideline go passes like the game winner. NOTHING different or creative.
Special teams, giving up the easy fake punt.
How about a fake punt of our own? Or how about a kickoff maybe to the right side of the field about the 20 yd line that we might have a chance to recover? Three special team giveaways on kicks in six games. Bet we lead the country in that category.
Kudos to MSU. They showed up, injured, and played hard and had a game plan that said we’re going to do everything we can to win this game. To their credit, they did.
They had no business even being in the game. But that’s why they play the game. For the second time in three weeks Penn State GAVE AWAY a game that they should have won easily. These games stay with you forever.
Coming off a bye week.....at home.....against a really beat-up team, well, there’s no way to spin it.
McSorley had an AWFUL game: missing our TE for a gift first down (a play we never went back to), badly missing Thompson on a crossing pattern (a play we never went back to), throwing the JJ fade out-of-bounds, way out-of-bounds. Way overthrowing a couple of deep attempts. Never looking back to see Sanders all alone in the flat at least 6-8 times in the game. Snapping the ball with 15 seconds left on the play clock late in the game, not staying in-bounds on the third down play.
But the game plan SUCKED, period. NOTHING new on O or D.
On O, no Lion (even if only a diversion). No stop, pump and go pass patterns. Very little motion, no toss sweeps or even a hint of a misdirection play. No bubble screens or screen passes. No designed QB rollouts. NOTHING different or creative.
On D, the only difference I saw was the tendency for the corners to play closer to the line-of-scrimmage. Same failure to contain the QB on his 3-4 rollout plays to the left and when pressured he always escaped to his right. OUR blitzes are always the same, always from off the line-of-scrimmage giving the QB the extra second or two to get rid of the pass. Our safeties don’t defend the center of the field and never provide cover on sideline go passes like the game winner. NOTHING different or creative.
Special teams, giving up the easy fake punt.
How about a fake punt of our own? Or how about a kickoff maybe to the right side of the field about the 20 yd line that we might have a chance to recover? Three special team giveaways on kicks in six games. Bet we lead the country in that category.
Kudos to MSU. They showed up, injured, and played hard and had a game plan that said we’re going to do everything we can to win this game. To their credit, they did.
They had no business even being in the game. But that’s why they play the game. For the second time in three weeks Penn State GAVE AWAY a game that they should have won easily. These games stay with you forever.
