Penn State -- Early Thoughts?
Just noticed that Mark Snyder has some comments about the upcoming game against PSU up at our friends the Free Press, and got to wondering what observations others have to make about the Nittany Lions.
It looks like Penn State's defense got exposed a little against Indiana, and we all know that they are down. But I assume a fairly stiff test and a pretty full house for a game between these two traditional powers this week.
Snyder notes that establishing Funchess makes us less one-dimensional in the passing game, but that the run game, while better, has yet to really establish itself as a serious threat. He also observers that Minnesota's QB showed we may be vulnerable up the middle on defense (though Leidner was tough, and only needed to fall forward a few yards to get positive yardage against us, from what I observed).
I have not watched PSU play, but am itching to start obtaining a fix on next Saturday. Any ideas about how we stack up in these areas against PSU, on how it may go more generally against them?
October 7th, 2013 at 4:50 PM ^
try and contain your optimism, it may be infectious
October 7th, 2013 at 1:32 PM ^
we should be fine. My convidence in playing like we can isn't all that high though. Also, I just looked it up, and Blake Countess is leading the country in INT return yards so far this year with 149 yards (tied for 1st in interceptions with 4). Pretty cool.
October 7th, 2013 at 1:37 PM ^
It's not a good idea to take any B1G game as a "gimme."
If I recall, a few years ago everyone predicted a win against them because they were starting a walk on QB and blah blah blah, and we got hosed.
But I think we are on an upswing and we win a tough game with superior talent.
October 7th, 2013 at 1:45 PM ^
October 7th, 2013 at 1:49 PM ^
as a Michigan fan, and I was a Rich Rod die-hard.
October 7th, 2013 at 3:26 PM ^
which means Matt McGloin is Oakland's full-fledged #2 quarterback right now.
One (inevitable) Terrelle Pryor injury, and the 2010 PSU loss can be explained as a loss to a future NFL starting quarterback!
October 8th, 2013 at 11:26 AM ^
I traveled to that game with my brother, thinking we'd see a revitalized defense and a Denard show. We pretty much got the latter but holy hell the former was the biggest no-show in the history of mankind.
I finally had it in the third quarter after yet another long, sustained drive by PSU. I lost my mind in the stands and just started wailing to no one in particular. I don't remember half of what I said but at some point the conversation I was having with MGoJen (ran into her at the game) turned to Nick Saban and me exclaming that he would go coach football on the moon if it paid enough.
I also went in 2008 and I'm going this weekend. I can haz good Happy Valley experience?!
October 7th, 2013 at 1:54 PM ^
But we are taking the same defense that made the QBs from Akron and UConn look very good.
October 7th, 2013 at 2:40 PM ^
Get off the ladder, turnovers had much more to do with those scoreboards than the defense, yeah, they have been frustrating bending a tad too much, but they haven't broken in any game.
October 7th, 2013 at 5:03 PM ^
Their QB did not have a great day against us.
October 7th, 2013 at 5:55 PM ^
October 7th, 2013 at 5:06 PM ^
The Akron QB had a rating of 42.1 in the game against Michigan. I don't know what the UConn QB rating was, but he completed only 50% of his passes for 5 YPA. When you have followed college football for a while, you'll realize that those are not good numbers, let alone "very good" ones.
October 8th, 2013 at 11:50 AM ^
Chandler Whitmer was absolutely terrible (ESPN QBR of 7.6) and Kyle Pohl, while he did make a few dead-on fly route strikes, only completed 51% of his passes with two picks, one of them being the worst pass you will ever see when he tossed the ball directly to Jarrod Wilson in the endzone.
October 7th, 2013 at 2:16 PM ^
Kick their asses..this is Hokes third year in an established program, while Penn St. is in year 2 with their guy in a program gutted with sanctions.
October 7th, 2013 at 2:18 PM ^
October 7th, 2013 at 7:35 PM ^
October 7th, 2013 at 9:32 PM ^
No, that would mean we are 6 points better in the bookie's eyes.
October 7th, 2013 at 2:21 PM ^
Yeah but Akron, a game that was a win. Yeah but UConn, also a win. How about this this yeah but Notre Dame and Yeah but Cental Michigan and I will raise you a yeah but Minnesota. I hope all of my "failure" are equally as successful. 5-0 is as good a start as they could have. If someone wants to show me how we could get another W out of those 5 games I'd sure like to know.
October 7th, 2013 at 2:25 PM ^
Give us a break with the oversimplification. There are 'W's and there are 'w's. Let's not pretend that how a team wins does not influence rankings. And rankings impact bowl games. A great deal of how successul a season is depends on one's bowl game. And that feeds into subsequent seasons in terms of recruiting.
October 7th, 2013 at 4:46 PM ^
October 7th, 2013 at 7:02 PM ^
Umm, I'm not sure we are the ones who need to chill....
October 7th, 2013 at 7:46 PM ^
October 7th, 2013 at 2:38 PM ^
that is all.
October 7th, 2013 at 3:59 PM ^
f'd us. But not forever.
October 7th, 2013 at 3:41 PM ^
General view is we will play the base Mattison defense - give up a good bit of yardage between the 20s, tighten up in the red zone, give up 20-27 pts and be required to score 28+ to win.
Really a lot (all?) of our games are going to be very similar go forward: 0 or 1 turnover, we win - albeit not in emphatic fashion and lots of angst. 2 or more turnover we lose.... with more angst.
I hope to see Funchess permanently moved out to WR to give the other Big 10 defenses something more to do than bracket Gallon and not respect Dileo or Chesson.
October 7th, 2013 at 3:45 PM ^
from a statistical point of view.
Both teams are equal at Pass Defense (PSU 3rd, UM 4th)
Michigan has a better rushing defense (UM 2nd, PSU 6th)
Both are equally unimpressive running the ball (UM 8th, PSU 11th)
PSU has a much better passing offense than Michigan (PSU 3rd, UM 7th), but PSU Hackenburg has a propensity to get sacked (11 sacks, -88 yrds)
Michigan has the mobile QB and the terror factor (which slices both ways sadly).
I predict PSU plays way above their average on defense and Hackenburg has a great night.
But I think Gardner, Gallon, Funchess and Toussaint have a huge night.
This has "close game" written all over it. Lots of passing, turnovers and lead changes.
Michigan 38, Penn State 34
October 7th, 2013 at 3:58 PM ^
"This has "close game" written all over it. Lots of passing, turnovers and lead changes.
Michigan 38, Penn State 34"
And then a steady diet of complaining about how our 6-0 team really didnt play that well, were lucky as hell to get out with a win and the overall team performance just didnt measure up to OUR expecations.
In short - another Bitchathon for Brady's kids......
October 7th, 2013 at 4:12 PM ^
The moving of Funchess (6'5", 235 lbs) outside is huge for Michigan's offense, and for opposing defenses.
Not just because of Funchess himself, but for Dileo and Chesson. And obviously Gallon.
PSU's CBs:
Jordan Lucas 6'0 (starter), 193 lbs.
Trevor Williams is 6'1 (starter), 187 lbs
Devin Pryor 5'10, 174 lbs
PSU's Safetys:
Malcolm Willis 5'11, 215 lbs
Adrian Amos 6'0, 215 lbs.
Stephen Obeng-Agyapong 5'10, 205 lbs.
October 7th, 2013 at 8:26 PM ^
catch(es)
October 7th, 2013 at 4:24 PM ^
Well, the media keeps shoveling UM fans year after year the notion that their team is loaded with Top 10 recruiting classes (and top 2 BIG10 recruiting classes), and then the football team does an OMG flaming Nascar crash barrel roll to the wall against nancies Akron and UConn in consecutive weeks. Then it takes the UM coaching staff the entire month of September to finally figure out that maybe the interior offensive line needs to be reshuffled?
Yeah, it's all horseshit.
The "a win is a win" works to placate, with a shelf life of maybe another two weeks. After that it's @MSU plus four more games of murderers row in BIG10 play for Michigan, so the real bitching hasn't even started IMO.
October 7th, 2013 at 4:50 PM ^
October 7th, 2013 at 5:46 PM ^
Well, the media keeps shoveling UM fans year after year the notion that their team is loaded with Top 10 recruiting classes (and top 2 BIG10 recruiting classes),
Only our current freshmen and (true) sophomores could be considered part of top 10-level classes. The classes above them were never ranked that highly - at least, once you removed all the guys who never made it to campus.
October 8th, 2013 at 10:05 AM ^
But I think Markus might be referencing the media's ignorance when discussing our recruiting classes. Bryant's injury screwed up the coaching staff's preferred OL lineup; it's clear he would have been starting if healthy, which means Glasgow would very probably have been at center.
He's totally right that whatever bitching we're hearing now pales in comparison to what we'll be hearing and reading if we stumble during the stretch run against MSU and in November. It's telling how the Akron and UConn games seem to have brought the previously silent Mattison and Hoke critics out of the woodwork, and it will be ugly if we lose to MSU and OSU, let alone any of the other supposed lesser conference rivals.
October 8th, 2013 at 10:56 AM ^
Did we experience growth from Game one through Game 5? It would appear that we have regressed since our first two games, but appearances often are deceiving. The one thing, more important than all others is learning to win. This team has done that effectively although only against one team considered to be among the best 30-35 in cfb. It is, however, very telling that we played probably our best game against that team, the only one clearly possessing more future NFL talent on the field that particular Saturday than we had on that particular day. I'm glad Al dummied down the offense Saturday past because it played a large part in Devin not having his first T.O. since he became a starter. We're riding this kid's shirttails the remainder of the season and I think the playbook is opened wider when competition calls for it. Against ND we had to use much more so we did. When it's time for blitzes, Greg calls them. He tries not to which in itself is a teaching tool and supplies him with a ton of missed assignments by the DL for teaching during the week. This should be another ugly win for us with PSU's qb throwing for a lot, but with us eventually blitzing late to slow him down, and I don't expect to see much more of the offnesive playbook until MSU because as bad as we look, we are good enough to beat most teams on our roster while still teaching these young men who are still learning the fine art of winning. Once that sinks it, it kind of becomes contagious and players learn what is necessary to win by wider and wider margins because confidence in yourself and teammates goes along way in this game. We'll be fine. Hold on tightly and hope for some non-ABC televised games so we don't have to devote four hours instead of the three that should be sufficient.
October 7th, 2013 at 5:34 PM ^
5:00 pm kick time + Canadian Thanksgiving weekend = FFFFFFUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU
October 7th, 2013 at 6:46 PM ^
If we don't bring our 'A' game, we will not win.
October 7th, 2013 at 7:37 PM ^
So, if you're Mattison, do you move away from our more vanilla defensive plan and use aggressive blitzing to force some young Hackenberg mistakes?
October 7th, 2013 at 8:02 PM ^
I think we will win, but I say that before every game, regardless, so...
October 8th, 2013 at 12:19 AM ^
Then we're not a good team and this season could turn into a real tire fire! I would say we then go on to lose to IA, MSU, NE and OSU and may be Indiana.
However, I think we are a good team and have been playing below our potential. I'm not saying it will be an easy win but I think we win by 10 or more point.