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Grading the Penn State Defense Against Eastern Illinois

BSD — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 18:00:39 -0000

More photos » by Carolyn Kaster - AP

Penn State defenders Jack Crawford, right, and Jared Odrick, celebrate Odrick's sack of Eastern Illinois quarterback Jake Christensen by hugging as grown men do during the first half of an NCAA college football game in State College, Pa., Saturday, Oct. 10, 2009. Penn State won 52-3. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

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This is going to be short and sweet because, well, it's Eastern Illinois.

Defensive Line

The defensive line dominated as you expect against an opponent like this. The Panthers only managed 59 yards rushing on 32 attempts. Crawford, Ogbu, and Odrick combined for 4 sacks, 6 TFL, and 9 tackles. Odrick was particularly dominating, and Ogbu forced the fumble Navorro Bowman returned for the touchdown.

A bunch of the younger guys like James Terry, Sean Stanley, Chima Okoli, Jordan Hill, and Kevion Latham all got significant playing time.

Final Grade: A

Linebackers

Josh Hull and Navorro Bowman looked good. Hull had 11 tackles while Bowman had five. But Eastern Illinois really tried to run away from Bowman (wouldn't you?). Still he managed to get 2 TFL and of course he had fumble return for the touchdown. Bani Gbadyuand Nate Stupar did nothing to impress me.

A lot of the younger guys got in the game late, but to be honest I lost interest at that point and didn't see anything remarkable in their performance. I was glad to see Chris Colasanti get in there and get a sack. He's a good kid that just hasn't had his Penn State career go the way I'm sure he pictured it.

Final Grade: B

Secondary

I felt like the secondary took a step back in this game. Christensen only threw for 137 yards, but they just didn't look very tight. A.J. Wallace was making a lot of tackles 10-15 yards down field. He did have the interception, but I credit that to Ogbu who pressured Christensen forcing him to lob a ball up for grabs. It's not like Wallace baited him or read the play perfectly and anticipated it was going there.

I was really disappointed with Drew Astorino and Nick Sukay. They both just looked slow in getting to the ball, and Astorino flat out dropped a pick. Maybe it's time we give Gerald Hodges a look or two in the backfield. I was disappointed to not notice him in the game until late in the fourth quarter, and that was at outside linebacker. I guess we need the depth there right now, but I'm worried that the coaches' knee-jerk reaction to some linebacker injuries is going to stunt his development at safety. He had a really nice teeth-rattling hit on his lone tackle.

But once again I thought D'Anton Lynn and Stephon Morris played really well. Add Knowledge Timmons to that list as well. I'm not at all worried about our cornerback situation next year.

Final Grade: C

Special Teams

Penn State only punted twice all day which is an indicator of just how dominant they were. Boone only punted once for 37 yards which you would think dooms the special teams for a failing grade this week. Ryan had the other punt for 43 yards. Breen also got a shot at a kickoff, and nailed it in the endzone for a touchback. I think he deserves another shot, and Wagner needs to be put on notice that just getting it past the ten yard line isn't going to cut it anymore. The real season is starting, so if he can't get the job done, we'll give it to someone else who can.

But overall the special teams actually wasn't that bad this week. The kick off return coverage still looks a little soft. There were too many returns getting out to the 30 yard line, but I don't recall any kicks where we were a shoe string tackle away from giving up six points. For the most part they did a good job of filtering the play into the middle and containing it. Now they just have to get more aggressive at it. Maybe it's time to put Stupar back out there and let him destroy the wedge like he did last year. Curse you, Penn State linebacker knee hating God for putting us in the depth situation.

Both of Penn State's kick off returns went for touchbacks, so we can't evaluate the kick return game this week.

But the punt return game may have a new star. Justin Brown caught three punts on Saturday and his 20 yard return was the longest play Penn State has had all year.

Final Grade: B

Defensive Coaching

Nothing special to report here. They were fast and aggressive in the beginning until the game was in hand. Then they called off the dogs and put the younger guys in. Kudos to the coaches for keeping the intensity up against a lesser opponent. I was also glad to see a few cornerback blitzes in the package. This is a welcome new wrinkle.

Final Grade: A

Joe Paterno Press Conference Recap

BSD — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 20:30:03 -0000

More photos » by Carolyn Kaster - AP

3 months ago: Penn State coach Joe Paterno waves to the crowd as he takes to the field before an NCAA college football game against Syracuse, Saturday, Sept. 12, 2009, in State College, Pa. Penn State won 28-7. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

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The folks at BWI were kind enough to post the transcript of Joe Paterno's press conference today. Since they were the first to put it out, they get the link. Here are some bullet points of interest.

The first question came from some reporter who must be on his first day covering Penn State football. He asked Joe if the team had a sense of urgency about the Big Ten opener against Iowa coming up next week. I'll give ten BSD bucks to anyone who can guess the answer Joe gave without peeking at the link.
Navorro Bowman has not practiced this week and probably will not play on Saturday unless he practices today. Evidently Bowman is still having pain in McGloin.
Joe is comfortable with a pass heavy offense if that's what they need to do to win. He would rather see more balance with the running game.
Syracuse stacked the safeties and brought a lot of blitzes while stiffled the running game. Joe was stubborn and kept running the ball because he felt they needed the work. He says Temple runs a different scheme on defense, so we'll see what happens.
Johnnie Troutman has improved. He has lost about 20 lbs since the summer and he's getting better. He'll probably see some playing time on Saturday.
Joe likes the poise of the team outside of the fumble on the goal line. He wishes the defense could force more turnovers. He's disappointed in that.
Great question about Penn State's approach to walk ons. Joe says there are two types of walk ons. There are the kids they recruit, but just don't have room for so they ask them to walk on and promise to try to get them a scholarship if one opens up. Then there are the kids nobody knows about where the high school coach sends them some tape and asks them to take a look at the kid because he really loves Penn State. Then when the semester starts they have two days where anyone in the student body can come try out for the team. They usually get one or two kids that way.
Joe says that Andrew Quarless has "grown up" and he's a good football player on the verge of being very good.
Joe doesn't think shifting Wisniewski to center and Landolt to left tackle have contributed to the offensive line woes. It's more to do with three new guys who haven't played much.
Joe is not pleased with the kickoff coverage team in allowing two big runbacks against Syracuse. He says they had a freshman on the outside who did not do his job in containing the play and let it get outside. They have to do better.
Joe was asked if switching personnel around on the offensive line is keeping it from coming together. He says they switch personnel all the time in practice. You have to be ready if a guy goes down so you can plug in the backup and keep going.
Joe thinks the offensive line has a lot of good players who are pretty even in talent. Things will work out if they just stop listening to the media.
Ollie Ogbu is a solid player. Joe calls him his "Staten Island Ferry"...whatever that means. (He's big as a boat? I really don't know.)
Chima Okoli is playing well. Tom McEowen is hurt. Joe says he will probably redshirt (but I'm pretty sure he already had a redshirt year.)
A.J. Wallace and Knowledge Timmons are even at the top of the depth chart, and both are going to play for awhile. (BSD - I find it interesting that D'Anton Lynn appears to be the only corner that has locked down a starting position.)
There was a question on Hull's mustache which is quickly approaching legend status.

I was curious what your take on Josh Hull's mustache was, facial hair?

Paterno: Has he got a mustache?

You haven't seen it?

Paterno: I guess I've seen it but I haven't noticed it. As long as it's not coming down to his neck, is it?

No.

Paterno: Then he's all right. Geez, you guys must think I go around...it's like that old Nash guy, the guy that was a major mash, call him out and have him review every morning. No. Good kid. Great kid. Doing great. Playing well. Heck of a student. He's an engineer, 3.5 grade point average. If he wants a mustache, that's okay.

They always had passing plays to Royster in the system, but it's hard to send him out in the passing game when the opponent is blitzing a lot. They need to keep him back there to help protect. Says Royster has good hands. Green does not, but when he catches the ball he's as fast as anyone on the team.
Another rookie reporter asked Joe how his team compared to the other teams ranked in the top five. Which prompted this hilarious monologue.

I imagine you don't pay attention to rankings too much, national rankings, but being No. 5 in the country do you ever compare your team's development to other teams?

Paterno: No, don't get me into that. I don't know what we are, for crying out loud. Geez, that's the same thing -- hey, I honest to God, are we No. 5 is that what you're telling me?

Yes.

Paterno: I don't know that we're No. 5. You guys don't seem to understand, I don't pay -- I don't read anything about us. I get the paper. I go to the bathroom. I take the paper in there and I scan it. I look at it. The first thing I do is look at who died. All right. Second thing I look at are headliners, something that says Paterno is the greatest, I read it. (Laughter) If it says I'm a bum, I don't even look at it.

Penn State's Reason For Hope #4 - Larry Johnson Sr.

BSD — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 12:00:23 -0000

via blog.pennlive.com

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I can remember a few years ago looking ahead to 2009 and thinking Penn State was going to be absolutely loaded on the defensive line. But a funny thing happened between then and now. Phil Taylor and Chris Baker were dismissed from the team. Maurice Evans and Aaron Maybin decided to go pro early. Josh Gaines had the audacity to graduate. And JoePa decided to throw Abe Koroma in the doghouse for a year and throw away the key.

Normally this kind of attrition would be devastating to any average defense. But I'm not worried, and I don't have the sense Nittany Lion fans are worried either. That's because we know that no matter how bad things get with dismissals and injuries, as long as we have Larry Johnson Sr. everything will be okay on the defensive line.

Of course nobody is worried about Jared Odrick, a first team All-BIg Ten selection a year ago who probably could have entered the NFL draft and done quite well for himself last spring. And we know his defensive tackle counterpart Ollie Ogbu is a proven commodity who I think is poised for a breakout season in 2009. With Devon Still, Chima Okoli, and Brandon Ware to back these guys up there's plenty of talent and depth to work with at the defensive tackle position.

But then nobody I read mentionsthe defensive tackles as a concern. The defensive ends are a different story. Penn State has to replace their top three guys on the outside this year. Maybin, Evans, and Gaines accounted for 19 sacks and 31.5 TFL. That's a lot of production to replace, but if there's one area Penn State has proven it can reload, it's on the defensive line.

Jack Crawford is Larry Johnson's latest project this summer. Standing an imposing six-foot-five and 256 lbs. with tremendous explosiveness due to years of playing basketball in England, Crawford has drawn comparisons to Aaron Maybin. I'll go one better than that. I'll go out on a limb and say Crawford will be better than Maybin before it's all said and done. Maybin, as good as he was, was really a one dimensional player. He was an outside pass rushing specialist, but he wasn't really that great against the running game, and he never really developed a bull rush due to the fact he couldn't put on weight. Crawford has explosiveness, but he also has the size Maybin could never obtain which I think will make him an even more dominant player.

On the other side it's going to be interesting to watch Johnson work his magic. It looks like Jerome Hayes is penciled in as the starter at weak side defensive end after two reconstructive knee surgeries in the past two years. It has me a bit concerned that he's our best option, but if he can show the same speed he did before his injuries he'll be a force to wreckon with coming off the edge on third and long.

He'll have to platoon with Kevion Latham on the weak side. Latham saw considerable action last year as a redshirt freshman. He reminds me a lot of Josh Gaines in his physique and his motor. This will be his third year under Johnson's tutelage, so I expect him to be a solid player.

Grading The Defense: Ohio State

Run Up The Score — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 03:09:34 -0000

Beanie's favorite meal.

It's been well-documented already, but the amount of holding by Ohio State's offensive line was beyond comical. Aaron Maybin was held practically all night, and the interior linemen didn't fare much better. We're talking blatant stuff here -- grabbing fistfuls of jerseys and whipping defensive linemen to the ground. It was happening in the very plain view of multiple officials, and guess what? Not one holding flag against Ohio State all night. Sometimes, it truly does feel like 11 vs. 18 on the field in this conference.

Need an unbiased opinion? Allow me to quote Mr. Orson Swindle, during Ohio State's final drive:

And then there's this picture.

Anyway.

Defensive Line: A

Okay, one last example as long as we're on the subject. On Pryor's first scramble, no less than three Penn State defensive linemen (Odrick, Okoli, and Evans) were clearly held. The good news? If holding is such a widespread problem throughout a game, at least defensive line is raising hell. The PSU defensive line was in the right place virtually all night. Beanie Wells ate spoonful after heaping spoonful of stuffing. Pryor made a few plays with his feet but didn't change the game in any meaningful way. Maybin and Odrick were the stars of this unit.

Linebackers: A-

Josh Hull and Tyrell Sales got the starts, and both played rather well. Hull was getting a little more downhill than in previous efforts, and was more than eager to take on Beanie Wells. Still, he keeps getting stoned on blitzes. The defense may as well play with ten players instead of forcing Hull to awkwardly dance with a random offensive lineman.

Sales made two especially great plays. The first was sniffing out a screen pass to Robiskie and making a great open field tackle. The second was throwing Beanie Wells to the ground after Mark Rubin knocked the ball away from Terrelle Pryor. Oh, and then he poked the ball toward his teammates.

Navorro Bowman, as always, was everywhere. In the backfield taking down Wells, deflecting passes. Truly awesome. Now, imagine him and Sean Lee on the field together next year.

Secondary: A-

They all played pretty well, but let's face it. This is about Mark Rubin, who was tough from the very beginning. He fought off a block on the first screen pass and stuck his nose between Beanie's numbers. Then made the next tackle. After a while, you expected Mark Rubin to always be the last guy in the dogpile to be peeled off Beanie Wells. Rubin was occasionally lost in pass coverage, but against such a run-heavy, one-dimensional offense, he was outstanding.

Coaching: A+

Stop Beanie Wells and let the chips fall where they may. Not the most complicated gameplan you'll ever see, but it didn't have to be exotic. Just effective.

Oh, and waaaaaaaah, holding!

Poll

The defensive player of the game was...

Jared Odrick

39 votes

Mark Rubin

355 votes

Navorro Bowman

213 votes

Aaron Maybin

43 votes

650 votes | Poll has closed