History Almost Repeated Itself
The last two years the Penn State football teams had big leads against a tough opponent the week before Michigan State only to see those leads drift away into what would eventually be heartbreaking losses. Late in the fourth quarter memories of this started to creep into my head and I felt like fans may be headed to a similar fate. A dropped pass later, and it was safe to exhale.
Penn State finally held onto one. This does not change the fact that James Franklin does not know how to play with a lead. The playcalling in this game was mind-numbingly bad at times and some of the clock management issues that have plagued earlier seasons also came into play at times as well.
Make no mistake about it, this is a great football team, but moving to move to elite, its going take a coaching staff to look in the mirror and make some changes. They don’t all have to be personnel changes but strategic changes to play the game the way the flow and score dictate.
Noah Cain
Let’s start with the obvious. Why is our most consistent back getting the least amount of carries? Cain is a bruising type back that always falls forward. Why is a back that is averaging 5.3 yards per carry not in the game when we have a lead and can eat some clock? Is there something we, as fans, are missing? Franklin seems content with the four-back rotation. In my opinion, if you have four running backs you don’t have any. I fear that, in an effort to make everyone happy, nobody is going to be. In-game where Penn State rushed the ball 29 times the running backs only had 13 combined carries.
Slade: 3 for 48
Brown: 4 for 19
Cain: 5 for 19
Ford: 1 for 2
I know it’s tough in a time where players can transfer but we have seemingly wasted a season for Ford as well.
Championship Caliber Defense
I have read and heard a few times that this is a championship-caliber defense. I have even had some thoughts of grander in this regard. However, I am afraid it’s time to back that up a little, at least in my mind. Why? Two reasons really. One is the obvious third-down scenarios. If you look at the stats it's actually not as bad as it seems, but Penn State just does not seem to be able to get off the field on third downs, and in particular third in long which is honestly when they should be at their best.
The biggest reason for me, though, is that they keep making average quarterbacks look great. In a way, the defense reminds me of the Steelers under Mike Tomlin where a struggling QB comes in and has the game of his life. I am seeing that over and over again against this defense so sooner or later I have to recognize the common denominator. This team struggles against the pass.
Offense Feast or Famine
This offense reminds me a bit of the Yankees. When you are hitting homeruns the game seems easy but when they face good pitching suddenly things get complicated. Penn State has faced some good defenses the last couple of weeks and they have done pretty well against them overall, but there have been long stretches where it seems like the offense can’t get a first down to save their lives. This is putting pressure on the defense and you could see, last night, them tiring as the game went on because the offense could not sustain drives.
As discussed earlier why are we not mixing in more run especially on first and second down to get into more manageable third-down scenarios? Do not get me wrong, it’s a great asset to have a team that can score quick but there will come a time when weather or opponent will take away that homerun threat and it will be up to the offense to methodically march down the field over and over again to win. Outside of a series here and there throughout the season, I am not confident they could do that.
I do not think this is a lack of talent, but a mix of execution and coaching. From an execution standpoint, Sean Clifford has to start getting other receivers involved. He just doesn’t seem to go through his progressions. Maybe it is a lack of trust, or maybe the receivers not getting separation, but it seems to me its KJ, Pat and then run. Getting the ball to other guys will make the whole game easier for him. Only two receivers caught balls yesterday. KJ, Dotson. If you want to say a TE is a receiver I will give you three in Freiermuth. The rest of the passes were all thrown to running backs.
We have lots of deep balls and when Clifford is on he throws a great one. We have lots of swing passes but where are the intermediate throws. We seem to do a couple of slants each game and they work but then are abandoned. I’d love to see more 8-15 yard passing routes to complement the deep and short stuff.
Coaching
James Franklin continues to improve but still has some work to do. Many of my issues have already been discussed but I’d still like to seem him do better with clock management as well. Harbaugh gifted him with an opportunity to end the half when he tried a long field goal. With 50 seconds left and in a decent position to get into field goal range the first play was. Nice 8-yard pass to Freiermuth. He was tackled with 45 seconds left on the clock and PSU had 3 timeouts to work with. Instead of taking a timeout they semi-rushed to the line and snapped the ball with 33 seconds left for an incompletion. That’s 12 valuable seconds that they could have used and evaluated the situation to make a better strategic play call since they did have all three timeouts left.
I know this seems a little nitpicky but its plays like this that can decide the outcome of a game. If we even get three points there we go into halftime with more momentum and get the ball to start the second half.
Officials
I have learned that Michigan never holds. Ever. Jim Harbaugh mentioned in his press conference that the calls were one-sided in a way that benefitted Penn State. We will have to agree to disagree.
Honestly, both teams benefitted from bad calls last night. BIG officials are just bad. Period.
Bottom Line
We escaped with a victory last night in what should have been a blowout. In previous years this would have been a loss so the team is improving year over year. Wisconsin would trade that kind of win over their game any day. It’s never easy in College football to go undefeated and that is where our team stands after 7 games. So, while we have much to improve, there is also much to celebrate. At the end of the day, we are still in a position to have our team meet or exceed its goals for the season. We Are!!!! 7 and 0!!!
A Michigan coach whinnying about the refs lol
Well said
That certainly was a long but well-written narrative! I was looking for something to disagree with but failed to really find anything! So instead, I'll throw this hypothetical out. Just wondering what Franklin would be doing if Cain wasn't on the team but instead another freshman was playing in his stead. Say, someone named Barkley. Would Franklin still be in favor of his four back rotation? Now there's a scary thought!
I think play calling is over emphasized. Defenses today are smart and athletic. It much more about execution. I do agree that clock management continues to be an issue. Maybe Franklin should get someone from the statistics department to be close and whisper in his ear when to call a timeout.
Last week PSU fans took complaining about the officials to a new level. Online petitions, and social media bashing were humongous. Now we ridicule Michigan fans and coaches for being critical of the officiating. I think the word for that is hypocrisy.
Regarding the running backs, TRUST.
I think play calling is over emphasized. Defenses today are smart and athletic. It much more about execution. I do agree that clock management continues to be an issue. Maybe Franklin should get someone from the statistics department to be close and whisper in his ear when to call a timeout.
Last week PSU fans took complaining about the officials to a new level. Online petitions, and social media bashing were humongous. Now we ridicule Michigan fans and coaches for being critical of the officiating. I think the word for that is hypocrisy.
Regarding the running backs, TRUST.
Like people "trusted" the LB rotation last year, and watched as Koa Farmer got beaten time and time again leading to losses in big games?
No thanks, I certain wish someone would get in Franklin's ear and convince him he should scuttle this rotation. Franklin is a great coach IMO, but no one is above criticism. Elite coaches realize when they are doing something wrong and change. Franklin needs to get better in certain areas, this is one of them.
Trust what?? why not get someone in the statistics dept to to whisper into JF's ear and tell him that a four back rotation isnt cutting it and will soon come back to bite him in the butt??
In all honesty, I dont see our secondary as being good enough to hang with the "Big Dawgs" as Mr SPF calls them. Like Mr Cave said, we've been giving up too many 3rd and longs; shoot we've been seeing that since day one and there has been no improvement at all. Michigan had all the momentum going for it last night and for all intents and purposes, we're a dropped ball away from being a one loss team. Our coaching staff had no answer to anything Mich did in the second half last night, nothing. If we dont settle in on one RB, gain some consistency in our offense, and keep our defense off the field, OSU is going to hand us our butts next month.
And that gentlemen, is the honest to God's truth.
Trust what?? why not get someone in the statistics dept to to whisper into JF's ear and tell him that a four back rotation isnt cutting it and will soon come back to bite him in the butt??
In all honesty, I dont see our secondary as being good enough to hang with the "Big Dawgs" as Mr SPF calls them. Like Mr Cave said, we've been giving up too many 3rd and longs; shoot we've been seeing that since day one and there has been no improvement at all. Michigan had all the momentum going for it last night and for all intents and purposes, we're a dropped ball away from being a one loss team. Our coaching staff had no answer to anything Mich did in the second half last night, nothing. If we dont settle in on one RB, gain some consistency in our offense, and keep our defense off the field, OSU is going to hand us our butts next month.
And that gentlemen, is the honest to God's truth.
Agreed.
Great post cavensprawl.
I think play calling is over emphasized. Defenses today are smart and athletic. It much more about execution. I do agree that clock management continues to be an issue. Maybe Franklin should get someone from the statistics department to be close and whisper in his ear when to call a timeout.
Last week PSU fans took complaining about the officials to a new level. Online petitions, and social media bashing were humongous. Now we ridicule Michigan fans and coaches for being critical of the officiating. I think the word for that is hypocrisy.
Regarding the running backs, TRUST.
Actually, I never said he was wrong for criticizing the officials. I said I disagreed with him that they favored Penn State. The officials were bad for both teams last night and it continues to be a problem in the BIG.
What's hypocritical about that?
Michigan State REALLY bothers me next week. As of late they tend have our number and manage to play their best football of the year against us. Their strength is defense and I can see them stifling us in the same way Michigan did to our unimaginative, 1/2 half only offense. Given that MSU’s offense stinks, they still have veteran Brian Lewerke who always plays tough against us and let’s face it, our defense played way too many minutes in a very physical game last night. And then there is the home field advantage. Let’s hope the coaches have a winning game plan and the players are feeling a bit of a “revenge tour” themselves.
I think play calling is over emphasized. Defenses today are smart and athletic. It much more about execution. I do agree that clock management continues to be an issue. Maybe Franklin should get someone from the statistics department to be close and whisper in his ear when to call a timeout.
Last week PSU fans took complaining about the officials to a new level. Online petitions, and social media bashing were humongous. Now we ridicule Michigan fans and coaches for being critical of the officiating. I think the word for that is hypocrisy.
Regarding the running backs, TRUST.
Like people "trusted" the LB rotation last year, and watched as Koa Farmer got beaten time and time again leading to losses in big games?
No thanks, I certain wish someone would get in Franklin's ear and convince him he should scuttle this rotation. Franklin is a great coach IMO, but no one is above criticism. Elite coaches realize when they are doing something wrong and change. Franklin needs to get better in certain areas, this is one of them.
Well, here's what a couple of PL writers mused; "Did Franklin actually hold out Noah Cain to spite everyone who’s trying to tell him what to do? C’mon." Is it really that far fetched?
Michigan State REALLY bothers me next week. As of late they tend have our number and manage to play their best football of the year against us. Their strength is defense and I can see them stifling us in the same way Michigan did to our unimaginative, 1/2 half only offense. Given that MSU’s offense stinks, they still have veteran Brian Lewerke who always plays tough against us and let’s face it, our defense played way too many minutes in a very physical game last night. And then there is the home field advantage. Let’s hope the coaches have a winning game plan and the players are feeling a bit of a “revenge tour” themselves.
Home field must be worth something in Vegas! UM was ranked 16th and a +8.5 at PS. PS is a -4.5 at an unranked MSU!
Lake, you make some excellent points. I just want to make sure we include another variable ?(actually maybe two variables as the weather was bad). The last two years they had the benefit of playing us after a tough loss. And not just a loss, but the way the team lost... I honestly believe had Penn State beat OSU the previous two years as they should have, they would have mopped the floor with Michigan State.
I thought yesterday's game counted as two wins or two losses. Hopefully, the coaches give them a little extra time to rest this week the weather is decent. If thats the case I think PSU is in a really good position to beat win this game.
Great post cavensprawl.
Michigan is a big dawg bulldawgs lol that just went together. What I seen is our starters are almost as good as Michigan’s but as for depth Michigan has better players and it showed late in the game. We just don’t quite have the players that Ohio st and Michigan have but the gap has closed and closed a lot. Michigan’s team has some veterans on it when we have a very young team but James Franklin found a way to compete and win the game.
Michigan State REALLY bothers me next week. As of late they tend have our number and manage to play their best football of the year against us. Their strength is defense and I can see them stifling us in the same way Michigan did to our unimaginative, 1/2 half only offense. Given that MSU’s offense stinks, they still have veteran Brian Lewerke who always plays tough against us and let’s face it, our defense played way too many minutes in a very physical game last night. And then there is the home field advantage. Let’s hope the coaches have a winning game plan and the players are feeling a bit of a “revenge tour” themselves.
Home field must be worth something in Vegas! UM was ranked 16th and a +8.5 at PS. PS is a -4.5 at an unranked MSU!
If I was a betting man I think I'd take that bet.
Yup, I agree with your point that coming off tough losses weigh against the phsychie of especially 18-22 year olds. It’s hard to get motivated after that. The weather is bad on both teams though.
You’re right on the weather. I think it just happen to negate some of our strengths in that it neutralized our speed and played more into their strength. That’s all just my two cents thought and I’m perfectly fine if you want to give me change. Haha
I also wish someone would teach Clifford the art of sliding, he goes down just a little to soon and we end up with 2-3 yards to go instead of picking up the first down. Craven is right on target. My post for the year now I will sit back and read all of you's guys .
I didn't like when he went deep incomplete on second down when he could have run for 10 and got a new set of downs. I wish he would just take the easy first downs when they are there. I think he is a good qb, I'm just more conservative and like getting easy first downs when they are there. Also, him running to get some first downs might open things ups down field.
Not sure how my comment got posted 2x, obviously operator error by me 🙄
Not sure how my comment got posted 2x, obviously operator error by me 🙄
Duh! That’s because we didn’t hear you the first time.
I think play calling is over emphasized. Defenses today are smart and athletic. It much more about execution. I do agree that clock management continues to be an issue. Maybe Franklin should get someone from the statistics department to be close and whisper in his ear when to call a timeout.
Last week PSU fans took complaining about the officials to a new level. Online petitions, and social media bashing were humongous. Now we ridicule Michigan fans and coaches for being critical of the officiating. I think the word for that is hypocrisy.
Regarding the running backs, TRUST.
Like people "trusted" the LB rotation last year, and watched as Koa Farmer got beaten time and time again leading to losses in big games?
No thanks, I certain wish someone would get in Franklin's ear and convince him he should scuttle this rotation. Franklin is a great coach IMO, but no one is above criticism. Elite coaches realize when they are doing something wrong and change. Franklin needs to get better in certain areas, this is one of them.
Roam,
I think you should stop bun Franklin’s office and give him your feedback b
