|
Temple
Sept 19, 2008 20:35:51 GMT -5
Post by el_duderino on Sept 19, 2008 20:35:51 GMT -5
In what has slowly become Penn State's "regular Saturday night" thing, Temple finds itself rolling into State College on a low of lows. After a strong opening win over Army, they lost heartbreakers to UConn (in OT) and Buffalo (on a last play Hail Mary).
Interesting stat - Temple has only been losing in it's first 3 games for a total of 1 minute and 49 seconds.
More important stas - Temple has the 100th ranked run offense, 92nd ranked overall offense, and 103rd ranked run defense. At the end of the day, Temple is still a shoddy team. Yes, they return a ton (I believe I heard all 22, but I'm too lazy to check) of starters, but it apparently hasn't meant much.
So how does this game play out? Well, Temple should finally score something this year. And they'll probably keep it close for a bit, maybe even for the entire first half. But at the end of the day, the game won't be close - Temple just doesn't have the talent all around to really hang with the top teams. Penn State rolls again, 52-13
Perhaps the biggest news that I'm now hearing is that (reportedly) JoePa will not be on the sidelines for this one - he'll be up in the boxes. Apparently he's tweaked something in his leg, and hasn't been feeling his best. Just something to keep an eye on in the coming weeks.
|
|
|
Temple
Sept 23, 2008 20:16:29 GMT -5
Post by el_duderino on Sept 23, 2008 20:16:29 GMT -5
For those wondering, Syracuse did in fact slip past Northeastern this past weekend, 30-21. While a valiant effort, this does mean that the Northeastern football program will be shipped to the great white north to finish out the season facing high school cheerleaders. Yes Northeastern - be ashamed of this loss.
So for the first time this season, Penn State had a football game on their hands for more than 5 minutes. As anticipated, Temple gave us a run for a bit. On the plus side for Temple, they bumped their average points per game against Penn State (since the start of this current series) from 0 to 1. While it wasn't as pretty as normal, it still was a dominating win. And with Penn State continues to be one of the few teams that easily wins the easy games, we've earned a #12 ranking in both polls.
Ratings will be kept to a large "summary" for this - another large blowout still didn't show us much. We have some issues, but how many of the issues are caused by either lack of caring or over-thinking - trying too much to not let a crappy team beat you. And that leads us to the ratings...
The QBs continue to be decent, but showed some serious lapses. Temple was Clark's worst game by far - holding onto the ball too long, continuing to overthrow receivers, and an INT to boot. Illinois will be a huge game for the rest of this season for him - if he can keep properly harness the energy of his first Big Ten home opener under the lights, it'll set him up very well for the rest of the season. The backs look good, as Royster did well for the short time he was in there (injury wasn't/isn't serious), and finally Stephfon Green was able to show up and shine. For the WRs, no complaints ultimately. The top 3 were held fairly quiet, but that just allowed 2 of the backups to find the endzone (former HS QB Brett Brackett, and Graham Zug). Never bad to have a 4th and 5th receiving option, to go along with a crazy-good run game and a TE or two. Oh, and that offensive line isn't half shabby.
(Oh, and some love to Dan Lawlor. Because the poor fullback is gonna struggle to get some love this season.)
Defensively speaking, the d-line continues to look d**n impressive. The addition of Evans and Koroma will at the very least add depth and some extra rest to our current lineup of starters. Based upon play alone, the LBs weren't that strong. Well, outside of Bowman, but we all saw this coming. The real problem is that we lived in a dime package for much of the game, relegating Tyrell Sales to a bench role for significant portions of the day. While Hull isn't horrible, he still has some work to do. And for the most part, the secondary looked fine. Astorino has made some serious strides these past couple of weeks, while Davis and Scirrotto are solid as experienced senior starters should be. Hopefully A.J. Wallace will get to 100% one of these weeks.
Yes, special teams struggled, but this is a talented return unit for Temple. In fact, it's probably their best offense (especially with QB DiMichael out). But it will allow us to see our flaws and work on them for Illinois and Aurelius Benn. No complaints from Kelly (and yes - that first kickoff was planned as such, and worked as well as it does in the NFL...), and I think Boone is trying to not out-kick the coverage. Trying too hard at times, perhaps, but we all know the he is capable of those 50+ yarders consistently.
While the offense struggled at times, they settled down and got the job done. More importantly, when called upon, the defense stepped up huge. Starting the Big Ten schedule against a ranked opponent, at home, under the lights - well, it will definitely shed some light on what of what this Penn State team is truly capable.
(Illinois preview may come early, seeing how I'll be in State College on Thursday night, but might not have a regular internet connection.) ;D
|
|