Congrats on the win (the resident PSU fan ...)

Submitted by NittanyFan on November 4th, 2018 at 9:24 AM

I was there, Row 81 Section 8.  Wish I had brought my gloves - it was chilly.

Anyway, U-M was clearly better Saturday.  And U-M has a CFP-level type team in 2018.  Good luck completing that journey: the game in Columbus will be a tough one but U-M is definitely capable of winning it.  

Jaque From Space

November 4th, 2018 at 12:52 PM ^

"You seem to be fairly objective and level headed."

It's a relief that someone commenting on this board was able to see this. There's so many hicks commenting on here.

I'm just wondering how this Penn St fan hasn't been labeled a troll and gotten run off by the moderators. Amazing he's still here.

saveferris

November 4th, 2018 at 9:33 AM ^

I was there, Row 81 Section 8.  Wish I had brought my gloves - it was chilly.

Especially when you’re sitting that high up in one of the end zones; if there’s any wind you’re catching all of it.

Z

November 4th, 2018 at 10:23 AM ^

McSorley clearly isn’t the same which is too bad for PSU

I keep hearing this and I wonder how much is last week really impacting him?  I mean, have we seen a single opposing quarterback this season who's "the same" as their normal selves?  This defense is in their head before the first snap.  It only gets worse after the first series confirms their next 4 hours will be worse than they imagined.

 

I want Tagavoiola (or however it's spelled)

TrueBlue2003

November 4th, 2018 at 12:33 PM ^

Passer rating is an incomplete stat and doesn't count what McSorley does best: running the ball.  His injury probably impacted that part of his game which makes the passing part more difficult.

I do think M's defense gets most of the credity though.  And McSorley wasn't that bad.  His WRs had a couple drops on plays that could have been nice chunks.  M's defense was really good, but PSU played a bad game too, and made several unforced errors (the drops, the missed guy wide open for the TD, the fumble on the handoff).

M-Dog

November 4th, 2018 at 2:35 PM ^

Alabama eats offenses like ours for lunch. 

You have to be able to tempo them, make them defend every inch of the field, and score points.

Shea's old offense at Ole Miss was actually better at this than his new offense at Michigan.  If we made it that far, we would need to take some notes.

NittanyFan

November 4th, 2018 at 10:30 AM ^

Yeah, the OL needs to be tougher.  I sometimes wonder if the RPO induces some of that (RPO being a bit more finesse of an offense).

McSorley needs to be tougher himself.  In honesty, this year is the first year he has truly faced adversity in his entire career.  Won 4 (!!!) state titles in High School, then a B1G Title his 1st year as the starter, then was on a very very good team last year.  He hasn't rallied well since the disappointing 4th-and-5 call against OSU.  Franklin lost McSorley to a degree.

Chaco

November 4th, 2018 at 12:13 PM ^

Thanks for the kind words/observations.  I hope our fans were decent to you.  Also, I agree with the RPO/toughness point.  RPO teamstend to struggle most (at least this was my RichRod observation) when they go against really physical lines.  And because of that - D Lines of teams that run Heavy option seem a little softer too because that’s what they face in practice.  I could be wrong and my observations could be more from a “RichRod just always has sucky defenses” situation but on balance is much rather have the physicality of UMs lines on both sides of the ball than most option teams.  The again - I grew up during Bo so that’s my mental blueprint.

Good luck the rest of the way out and I hope McSorley heals to help you the rest of the way.

bdneely4

November 4th, 2018 at 12:46 PM ^

Saw the title of the thread and knew it was you that made the post. I just wanted to come on here and tell you that I always appreciate your input on this blog. I believe you are the most unbiased of any person from a competitor fan base and provide good insight on all your posts. 

Good luck the rest of the season!

NittanyFan

November 4th, 2018 at 10:25 AM ^

Fans were fine.  I've never had problems w/ fans anywhere, outside of one fat drunk Purdue fan back in 2012 who decided to go all-in on the child abuser stuff (I complemented her on her moustache).

Besides .... I was driving to the Denver airport on Friday and realized I was wearing my Cincinnati Reds ballcap instead of my PSU ballcap.  Too late to go back.  So I was basically disguised as "a Cincinnati Reds fan wearing a black windbreaker who for some reason decided to go to a game at the Big House."  :-)

NittanyFan

November 4th, 2018 at 11:05 AM ^

Yep, I'm a Reds fan.  Did you know the Brewers won only 4 games more than the Reds in 2015?  Ugh!

And there are certainly some commonalities between James Franklin and Dusty Baker!  A post I made on BWI in 2017 below.  This post actually got onto SBNation's "this week in Schadenfreude" weekly summary.

https://bwi.forums.rivals.com/threads/as-a-reds-fan-and-a-psu-fb-fan-a-question-thats-bugging-me.189765/

Winchester Wolverine

November 4th, 2018 at 11:39 AM ^

You know, I can absolutely agree with that comparison. Someone who knows how to get their team this close in some big games, but just can't seem to close it out. Sometimes just completely whiffing mentally.

Despite Baker's shortcomings, I absolutely liked him more than Price. BP was pretty much the major league version of Brady Hoke. Good character guy, great positional coach, just not built for the head job. 

That and Walt Jocketty doesn't help.

I also had a post I made here make it on SB Nation, but we wont talk about that lol

xtramelanin

November 4th, 2018 at 9:51 AM ^

thank you.  i expect nothing less from you.

question:  your team having played both ohio and sparty, how do you think that game will go this coming weekend, in EL? 

NittanyFan

November 4th, 2018 at 10:20 AM ^

I didn't see OSU yesterday --- but from reading things that team seems to be missing that "je nes sais quoi" in 2018.  Might be too late for them to put it all together.

And I respect Dantonio --- when you think about it, that team could be 8-1 right now.  Just a few plays away.  Which is remarkable given they have, IMO, the 4th highest amount of raw talent in the B1G East.  They're tough.

And they tend to always be tough.  In 2016, MSU was 3-9 but they really should have beaten OSU on that cloudy snowy day in East Lansing.  S&P+ put MSU's odds at winning that day at 90%!

I like MSU's chances.  Admittedly, I'm reading things from the "emotional side" vs. the "pure Xs and Os football side" here.