Blue and White Roundtable: Wolverine Edition
Thanks to Y.F. Yurasko for the questions this week.
The usually unusual suspects:
There is No Name on My Jersey
Tangled Up in White and Blue
Y. F. Yurasko
Happy Hour Valley
Black Shoe Diaries
The Nittany Line
We Want the Lion
Zombie Nation
Nittany Whiteout
| Penn State is undefeated and ranked #3 in both major polls. Have they been tested yet? |
|---|
Absolutely. Tested is a commonly used term tossed around by critics of the Lions this season. For them tested would most likely mean:
A) a final score where the Lions barely won, but won nonetheless
or
B) playing a highly ranked team on the road in a hostile environment
Unfortunately, addressing B first, no team in the nation gets to pick their conference opponents and their rankings when they play them. So that is just out of anyone’s control. They do get to pick their non conference opponents and Penn State chose to play an Oregon State team that has won 10 games consistently before this season. Who could predict the slump they are suddenly in now when we scheduled them last year after a 10 win season? But let’s not discount them being a quality win as of yet, let’s not forget that they took down the presumptive #1 team in the nation USC at home when Penn State demolished them just a few games earlier.
But if we address definition A, and use that to condemn the Lions for not haven been “tested”, aren’t we in fact punishing them for their style of play rather than the quality of the team itself? Penn State has been so effective on all 3 sides of the ball that the score as lopsided as it already seems does not even begin to show how quickly the game was over, most often by the beginning of the third quarter. Tell me playing at Purdue and at Wisconsin isn’t tough. Then you had the night showdown with an Illinois team that was a few plays away from beating Missouri in the season opener. Yes. I truly believe this Lions team is tested.
Don’t think it ends there? For those criticizing the Lions and the “supposed” weak schedule. Lets not forget this is a team that had the unanimously agreed on hardest conference schedule to navigate with away games (at night) at Wisconsin, at Ohio State, at Iowa and at Purdue. That in addition to a season ending showdown with what will most likely be a highly ranked Spartan team, this team will have earned its spot in a bowl game by seasons end wherever it might be.
| What unit or player is most responsible for the Nittany Lions success this season? |
|---|
The O-Line. No question. Daryll Clark has been lights out and deserves to be in the Heisman discussion, but it is the O-Line that gives him time to perform the way he has. If he scrambles out of the pocket, the O-line recognizes it and collapses inwards to give him sufficient space to run, if its a running play, the O-line punishes opposing D-lines for good yardage. It is almost rare to see such a well balanced O-line at Penn State, but without question, the Spread HD lives and dies with the O-line.
| How can Michigan beat Penn State on Saturday? |
|---|
If they manage to seal the door into Beaver Stadium on Saturday. There is no chance of a victory for the Wolverines. I expect a good opening and second drive by the Wolverines most likely resulting in points, but eventually the crowd noise in addition to the buzzsaw that is the Penn State offense will rip the Wolverines to shreds. The moment Penn State gets the lead, 12 years of frustration will erupt into an orgy of emotion that will surprise even the Penn State team.
Remember 2005? Everyone recalls the 05′ Ohio State game because it was the culmination of 2 years of frustration with Zack Mills. The crowd that night was so eager for a way to vent their frustrations it came out as one of the loudest crowds ever witnessed in college football. That was just 2 years, now imagine 12 years. You bet the crowd will show up and even the gray-hairs will be eager to dish out some pain to the team they just couldn’t beat in 12 years.
Bonus
| Going up for Homecoming? |
|---|
Hell yeah. I’m ready and have been saving my voice for a week now.
| What do you think is going through Maurice Evans head these days? |
|---|
“Will I be able to make Threet cry this Saturday?”
| Where were you the last time Penn State beat Michigan? |
|---|
Probably sitting on a couch screaming in front of the TV
| Will Joe Paterno be on the sidelines for any of the game? |
|---|
This game is just too emotional for Joe Pa to miss. He will be on the sideline for at least the first half. If things are going as well as it usually does, he will be up in the booth by the second.
Releated Posts:
- Blue/White Roundtable: Y’Town State Edition
- Blue White Roundtable: Blue White Edition
- Blue/White Roundtable: Blue/White Game Edition
- Blue White Round Table – Freakin’ Iowa Edition
I beg to differ. Michigan’s first two drives will net -3 yards on 2 three-and-outs. That happens nearly every game regardless of who is playing qb.
“Will I be able to make Sheridan cry this Saturday?” [-fixed]
“an Oregon State team that has won 10 games consistently before this season.”
They have only done this twice in their history, 2 & 8 years ago. 7 may have been acceptable. What we do have in our favor is that it was back to back 9 and 10 win seasons before we signed them to this game last december. and 3-3 doesn’t seem that far out of the realm of prediction for their “current slump.” Switch Stanford and USC, it looks exactly as I would suspect.
“For those criticizing the Lions and the “supposed” weak schedule. ”
It has been a weak schedule so far. Illinois is the closest thing to a test, but, really, how good are they? The closest thing to a team they’ve beat is Michigan. They suck bad. We know nothing about how good Illinois is. We won’t be tested until OSU. We must beat the “dominant” team to take away any doubt.
Oregon State came within 1 score of upsetting Utah away from home too.
That’s precisely what I was talking about. We write off alot of our competition because of the way we dominated in the games, don’t forget Purdue held Ohio State without a touchdown at Ohio State. We still beat them by 2 scores and would have been alot more had we not slipped in the end zone multiple times.
2 yrs of frustration with zack mills? if you recall Michael Robinson started a handful of those games. In 2004 the leading rec. were Robinson and Rubin, both of which were not playing that position the following year. and until 2005 many when he had guys to throw, many wanted anthony morelli in not robinsin
Yes, I still remember the Mo-Rel-Li chants when Mills was starting in 2004. That just shows me that the coaches knew what they were doing when they started Robinson in 2005 instead of Morelli. Unfortunately they made the same mistake of playing Morelli unconditionally ahead of Clark the last 2 years.