With all the wailing regarding the PSU Offensive Line.
- Thread starter stormingnorm
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Very surprising to not see any commentary on Saturday regarding the performance of the O Line
FWIW, Will Fries was near perfect on the day.
Which begs the question: Does anyone still do that "scoring of who had the best performances in the conference at each position", that was posted from time to time last year?
Also, a couple of notable points from the BigTen Team Performance vault:
Remember the most common bitch/gripes from 2016?
Here are a couple of them:
1) "Penn State can't convert third downs" (Which was one of the dumber gripes of 2016 to begin with.)
2017 Penn State - 42%
(And, much more importantly, has faced Third Down LESS than any team in the conference. They also have - defensively - forced their opponent to face MORE Third Downs than anyone in the conference. Both are stats that are far more meaningful than the Third Down percentage.)
2) "Why can't Penn State ever return a kick for a TD? It seems like 50 years since we've seen one."
We could lump in the "It would be insane to allow Barkley to return kicks" commentaries here as well
2017 Penn State - 3 Kick Return Touchdowns, to lead the conference (plus another one called back on a questionable penalty)
3) "Without a power running game (and a fullback) it makes it harder to score touchdowns in the Red Zone."
2017 Penn State - Averages 5 3/4 points per Red Zone opportunity, best in the conference
77% of Red Zone trips yielding Touchdowns, best in the conference - and better than any conference team in the last 4 years.
And some of THIS year's beauties:
1) "The run game sucks"
2017 Penn State - Third highest YPC in the Conference (behind OSU and Wisconsin). Second most Touchdowns rushing (1 behind OSU)
2) "The pass defense makes every QB look like Joe Montana"
2017 Penn State - Fifth best pass defense efficiency in the Conference. Third fewest touchdowns allowed. (Despite NOT having Minnesota or Illinois on the schedule)
And, just for fun:
Fewest turnovers allowed in the Conference
(And only two lost fumbles - one on a strip sack of McSorley, the other last week's kicked punt return.
How do you NOT LOSE A SINGLE FUMBLE fumble all year - while running all that RPO stuff with all that ball-handling? That is really an amazing feat. Tremendous job by McSorley and Barkley.)
And
Second most turnovers created (1 behind Wisconsin)
Amazing how crappy this team is every Saturday afternoon.
I feel like our OL is just fine baring injuries. They performed pretty well until Bates went down. And this means we have depth issues. For whatever reason, the staff chose to move kids around rather than start second teamers. My gut tells me that moving from G to T is tough. Moving from the left to the right is tough. I saw a lot of missed assignments (exacerbated by the lack of a blocking TE, but helped that we've got one of the best blocking RB's in the league).
we didn't see much Gellerstedt, Thorpe, Miranda, Menet or Homes. Not seeing practices, it is impossible to make a decision disagreeing with what the staff did so have to believe they did the right thing. But when Bates went down, it really hurt.
It's amazing the unrealistic expectations. W to L record is truly amazing and you can see that Franklin is building a strong program. Next year will be tough as if you look at the group exiting the program it is a loss of a lot of talent. But the future is bright. A couple injuries this year prevented us from the playoffs. As depth comes back, we will be great. This year when a player went down ex (Bucholz), the young guns were put in with little experience. Our coaches are impressive to keep us in all games with a chance to win.
Optimistic about the future. But be realistic.
Optimistic about the future. But be realistic.
I think the reason is clear as to why they moved people around, they were trying to get the best 5 on the field. And were they missed assignments or were they impossible assignments that got missed? Trying to man block the backside 2 technique (or 1) is setting the OG up for failure, it happened time and time again. That needs fixed.
Agree....to be the best of the best, you have to have work ethic, God-given talent and a little bit of luck.
Assuming we beat MD, we lost two games:
- We lost to tOSU because they were a better program with better overall talent. They lost Bosa, we lost a DE and a LT. They persevered and we didn't. I can't bemoan that game too much.
- We lost to MSU because of a lack of talent and a little bit of bad luck. The weather played a part, the scheduling played a part, and the injuries played a part. We also didn't make a play when it counted.
- You also have to count Iowa, were we did get a little lucky (player just missed deflecting the winning TD pass)
But to your point, it is a grind as CJF and the staff continues to build a program. I see three losses next year, but who knows? We have the tools to be very good on offense and young talent to bolster the defense. Overall, a stronger program and consistent success is here.
Ohio State didn’t lose Bosa against us, he dominated once Bates left the game. He was disruptive before that, we had no answers after. Ohio State lost Bosa early vs Iowa due to a targeting penalty and the Buckeyes got smoked in that game.
Where do they rank in tackles for losses?Very surprising to not see any commentary on Saturday regarding the performance of the O Line
FWIW, Will Fries was near perfect on the day.
Which begs the question: Does anyone still do that "scoring of who had the best performances in the conference at each position", that was posted from time to time last year?
Also, a couple of notable points from the BigTen Team Performance vault:
Remember the most common bitch/gripes from 2016?
Here are a couple of them:
1) "Penn State can't convert third downs" (Which was one of the dumber gripes of 2016 to begin with.)
2017 Penn State - 42%
(And, much more importantly, has faced Third Down LESS than any team in the conference. They also have - defensively - forced their opponent to face MORE Third Downs than anyone in the conference. Both are stats that are far more meaningful than the Third Down percentage.)
2) "Why can't Penn State ever return a kick for a TD? It seems like 50 years since we've seen one."
We could lump in the "It would be insane to allow Barkley to return kicks" commentaries here as well
2017 Penn State - 3 Kick Return Touchdowns, to lead the conference (plus another one called back on a questionable penalty)
3) "Without a power running game (and a fullback
2017 Penn State - Averages 5 3/4 points per Red Zone opportunity, best in the conference
77% of Red Zone trips yielding Touchdowns, best in the conference - and better than any conference team in the last 4 years.
But, yea, lets get under center, and get a fullback in there, and run "Power I"
And some of THIS year's beauties:
1) "The run game sucks"
2017 Penn State - Third highest YPC in the Conference (behind OSU and Wisconsin). Second most Touchdowns rushing (1 behind OSU)
2) "The pass defense makes every QB look like Joe Montana"
2017 Penn State - Fifth best pass defense efficiency in the Conference. Third fewest touchdowns allowed. (Despite NOT having Minnesota or Illinois on the schedule)
And, just for fun:
Fewest turnovers allowed in the Conference
(And only two lost fumbles - one on a strip sack of McSorley, the other last week's kicked punt return.
How do you NOT LOSE A SINGLE FUMBLE fumble all year - while running all that RPO stuff with all that ball-handling? That is really an amazing feat. Tremendous job by McSorley and Barkley.)
And
Second most turnovers created (1 behind Wisconsin)
Amazing how crappy this team is every Saturday afternoon.
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This season boils down to 2 areas of disappointment....
The first one is having a once-in-a-generation running back and Heisman candidate, who is consistently bottled up because of bad play-calling and an ineffective O-line.
The second one is getting rallied on in the 4th quarter of must-win games, with the defense absolutely shredded at will by QBs that couldn't start for Penn State.
Which adds up to a disappointing season where 10-2 could have easily been 12-0.
The first one is having a once-in-a-generation running back and Heisman candidate, who is consistently bottled up because of bad play-calling and an ineffective O-line.
The second one is getting rallied on in the 4th quarter of must-win games, with the defense absolutely shredded at will by QBs that couldn't start for Penn State.
Which adds up to a disappointing season where 10-2 could have easily been 12-0.
Very surprising to not see any commentary on Saturday regarding the performance of the O Line
Just in case you missed it...............Minnesota rushed for 400+ yards against Nebraska. We blew leads vs USC, Ohio State and Michigan State. Bottom line is we could not rush the ball when we needed to rush the ball. It cost Johnson the Heisman in 2002 and it will cost Barkley the Heisman in 2017.
Sterling Jenkins is the "next man up" at LT behind Bates. i noticed the same thing = 2 moves for one injury. Menet is MIA compared to the fact he may be the highest rated OL we have recruited out of HS. if he was in the 4/5* category you would almost think he could have replaced Mahon who has had a bad year.
Sterling Jenkins is not even listed on the depth chart. Menet is 2nd team RG.
https://www.blackshoediaries.com/20...eek-13-at-maryland-nick-bowers-james-franklin
i am looking at the BWI magazine page 30 Nov 20th. same result on Oct 23rd edition.
LT - Bates, Fries, Jenkins
but Fries was already moved to RT to replace Chaz Wright. so that would make Jenkins the next man up after Bates with Fries moved. Nelson was the #2 behind Wright but we saw the disaster that was at Iowa - TM almost killed. Gellerstedt listed as 3rd team RT behind Nelson and Wright.
it is possible that several of these players were just a bit over rated out of HS.
we have lots of variables including system, OL coaching and talent. the way this OL looks most of time, it does not appear we have many or any players who could start elsewhere in the BIG.
Jenkins was demoted abruptly a couple of weeks ago and we will most likely not be seeing him.
take a breath, man; try and enjoy Thanksgiving, if you can't enjoy a good football season.
we hardly have a full accounting of Menet's college career; he may well be a starter next year as a redshirt Soph, and could be a very good player; let's see
the OL situation has been discussed all year; we're still not quite where the coaches would like to be, but we understand the developmental process and see the impact some key injuries have had; I'd guess the OL will be quite good next year and even very good in our bowl game this year, even though you seem to think we're behind other conference teams
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