Penn State crushes Illinois 35-7 in Big Ten opener

Posted on October 1, 2012 by Aaron Yorke

Woo. What a wild weekend. It seems like a long, long time since Penn State polished off a refreshingly comfortable win over Illinois on Saturday. I was having a good time with some PSU friends at Tonic East while simultaneously trying to keep track of the football game, and since “having a good time” involved drinking a tower of beer, things are a little bit hazy.

I seem to remember a lot of different halfbacks, and Michael Mauti running a long way. Matt McGloin ran backwards a lot and Sam Ficken missed a couple of field goals, but in the end, everything turned out better than expected. Let’s see what else we can learn from Saturday 35-7 Penn State win.

Zach Zwinak may be Bill O’Brien’s favorite halfback

Bill Belton was healthy, and Derek Day was healthy. Curtis Dukes had apparently gotten over his thigh issue from last week, as well, so it made less than perfect sense that supposed fourth string halfback Zack Zwinak got the majority of the carries in Champaign. Although Zwinak did score Penn State’s first touchdown on a one-yard plunge in the first quarter, he didn’t get his second carry of the game until Penn State’s fifth possession.

Once Zwinak got on a role, though, he didn’t relinquish his grip on the halfback role until the game was well in hand. Zwinak ran for 109 yards on 19 carries without having one carry longer than 14 yards. He just plowed ahead, gaining solid yardage on seemingly every trip through the line. Belton started the game and played reasonably well (16 carries, 67 yards), but O’Brien clearly favored Zwinak in the second and third quarters, when Penn State took over the game. It will be interesting to see who starts at halfback this week when Penn State plays Northwestern.

Michael Mauti nearly had a 100-yard interception return

With Penn State holding a 21-0 lead late in the first half, Illinois desperately needed a score to give the team some hope of a comeback. Starting the drive at the Illinois 22-yard line with just over three minutes remaining, quarterback Nate Scheelhaase drove the Illini down the field. Scheelhaase connected with wide receiver Ryan Lankford four times before the drive was grounded to a half at Penn State’s four yard line. It was fourth down and goal with 19 seconds remaining in the half when Scheelhaase tried to connected with Lankford in the endzone. However, Penn State linebacker Mauti stepped in front of the pass, snatched it out of the air and began sprinting the other way.

What began as a great defensive play soon turned into a chance to put an early dagger into Illinois. Mauti got to the left sideline with a cavalry of blockers and it certainly looked like he had a chance to score. Mauti was tracked down inside the five-yard line by Illinois quarterback Miles Osei (who I suppose was in the game as a wide receiver or halback; it was Scheelhasse with threw the pass). Although at first it seemed that Mauti had scored a ridiculous touchdown, the replay review showed that his knee hit the ground just before the ball crossed the goal line. However, the review also showed that one second was remaining on the clock…

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Podcast Interview with Illinois Blog “A Lion Eye”

Posted on September 28, 2012 by Aaron Yorke

I interviewed Robert from A Lion Eye about this Saturday’s Penn State vs. Illinois game. Also got his thoughts on the recruiting incident over the summer.

09-27-2012 AY Podcast with A Lion Eye

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Survivor XXV premiere thoughts

Posted on September 26, 2012 by Aaron Yorke

Yeah, I know this is a week late, but I’m going to squeeze it in anyway. Last week, the 25th season of Survivor premiered on CBS. After I missed the first 19 seasons, Survivor became my favorite show when I watched the Heroes vs. Villains season. Although its ratings have been sliding over the years, I’m not sure how Survivor will every go out of style completely. I feel like it’s become an actual sport at this point, and it’s not as though Major League Baseball is getting cancelled anytime soon.

For this season, the show is being shot in the Philippines, which host Jeff Probst explained were a great place to put the water challenges that recent seasons have been devoid of. They are also going back to a three-tribe format in order to keep alliances smaller, which should make for a more competitive game in the later stages. The last big game changer is the three veteran players being shipped in. Michael Skupin, Jonathan Penner and Russell Swan were all evacuated from previous seasons because of medical reasons and all three are hungry to get back in the game and bring home the title.

The premiere offered plenty of juicy material, so I summarized it for you. Enjoy.

Michael can’t stop hurting himself

Back in 2001 on Survivor: The Australian Outback, Michael Skupin was sitting by his tribe’s fire when he took in too much smoke, passed out, and fell into the flames. Although Michael was only out for a second or two, he suffered severe burns on his hands and was forced to be evacuated from the game. 11 years later, Michael finally has another shot, so you’d figure he’d be more cautious, but instead he’s been completely reckless.

So far, Michael has cut his finger with the giant, coconut-smashing machete and opened up a huge gash on his foot that somehow doesn’t need stitches. He also somehow cut himself on top of his head, but he basically just rubbed some dirt on it and went right on building his tribe’s shelter. I’m not sure if Michael is crazy or just a warrior, but he’s a very likable guy and someone who I won’t mind rooting for this season.

Russell says he doesn’t want to be the leader, nearly gets voted off as the leader

Russell was apparently doing a great job on Survivor: Samoa before he suffered severe dehydration and had to be carried off during a challenge. Now he’s back and looking forward to picking up where he left off. However, he says there’s one thing he’s going to do differently: He’s going to sit back and let some other fool lead the tribe. Russell knows from watching and playing Survivor that being the leader only invites unwanted attention as well as a lot of blame should the tribe lose an immunity challenge.

Well, he talked the talk, but when Russell actually got out in the field with his new tribe, he did exactly what he didn’t want to do. He bossed his tribe around, which actually made sense while they were trying to construct a shelter. However, when it came to the immunity challenge, he blundered spectacularly by putting Zane on the running portion despite the man having just quit smoking upon arriving in the Philippines. Meanwhile, Angie ended up having to attempt the puzzle at the end despite specifically volunteering that she was lousy at puzzles.

Not surprisingly, Russell’s tribe was crushed in the immunity challenge and it looked like Russell was going to pay for it with his Survivor life, but luckily someone intervened…

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Penn State dispatches Temple 24-13 behind McGloin’s 318

Posted on September 24, 2012 by Aaron Yorke

Despite being hampered by penalties all afternoon, Penn State defeated Temple once again on Saturday 24-13. Temple quarterback Chris Coyer was shaky all day, throwing for only 124 yards with a 50% completion rate. Meanwhile, Penn State’s Matt McGloin made all the plays he needed to in the passing game in addition to running for two touchdowns. The Lions led the game 24-6 until a late fourth quarter Temple drive resulted in the Owls scoring their only touchdown of the game.

This weekend’s Penn State win wasn’t the most exciting thing in the world, but victories can’t be taken for granted these days. Here’s what you should know about the Lions’ triumph:

Penn State committed nine penalties, resulting in 100 penalty yards

Ouch. That’s over 10 yards per penalty, so you know a bunch of them had to be major infractions. I’m not one to complain about officiating (that often), but I feel like Penn State got hit with a bunch of fringe calls that allowed Temple to stay in the game for longer than it should have. On one drive in the second quarter, Penn State had a big gain in Temple territory called back because of an off-the-ball offensive pass interference call. On the next play, the Lions appeared to gain most of the yardage back only to get hit by a dubious holding penalty. Instead of moving inside the opponent’s 20-yard line, Penn State was pushed back past midfield and forced to punt.

Early in the third quarter, Temple was able to get great field position because of a supposed late hit on a punt return that looked perfectly clean. Later in the third, kicker Sam Ficken got flagged for a late hit out of bounds when he barely got a piece of Temple kick returner Matt Brown. There was a specific point when I felt Penn State got away with illegal contact on a Coyer throw to the endzone, but when you add everything up, it seemed the Lions got the short end of the stick regarding the penalties that were called.

Matt McGloin threw for a career-high 318 passing yards

Yeah, I was also surprised that 318 was a career high for McGloin. Last season, his totals were low across the board because of the old administration’s insistence that the fans suffer through a handful of Bolden throws each game. In 2010, I remembered McGloin having big games against Michigan and Northwestern, but he only threw for 250 and 225 yards, respectively, in each of those games. Turns out that McGloin threw for 315 yards in the win over Indiana that season, which was his previous career high.

McGloin looked pretty sharp all afternoon. He used a lot of crossing routes to extend drives and spread the ball around better than he has done in his previous starts this season. Favorite targets Allen Robinson and Kyle Carter caught five balls each, while Mike Zordich, Alex Kenney, Matt Lehman and Brandon Moseby-Felder all caught between two and four passes each. The biggest play of the game for McGloin came on a 4th and 5 from the Temple 41-yard line late in the first quarter. He patiently waited for Robinson to lose his man and then hit the sophomore wide receiver 15 yards down the field just as a defender closed in for the sack. Robinson evaded a pair of defenders to reach the endzone and give Penn State a 7-0 lead.

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Giants do everything right, stomp Panthers 36-7

Posted on September 21, 2012 by Aaron Yorke

I feel like the Giants enjoy teasing their fans with mistake-filled games against inferior opponents followed by almost perfect games against stalwart opponents. Maybe it’s just the randomness of the NFL, but the team’s ability to look great one week and play terribly the next week is mildly infuriating.

Last night, the Giants shocked the league — this time in a good way — with a 36-7 pasting of the Carolina Panthers in Charlotte. The main story line going into the game was that the Giants were missing starting offensive players Ahmad Bradshaw, David Diehl and Hakeem Nicks, but none of that seemed to be a problem. Backup players Andre Brown and Ramses Barden had by far the best games of their respective careers and the offensive line was dominant throughout the night. Furthermore, the Giants handed in their most thorough defensive performance of the season.

The only thing that’s not to like is that New York probably won’t be able to play like this every week. Here’s the five most important takeaways from Thursday night’s romp.

David Wilson “gained” -2 yards rushing

Oops. There was one other thing not to like about New York’s win last night. Highly-touted rookie David Wilson, who looked fantastic in the preseason and training camp, only touched the ball twice and gained a total of one yard. With Wilson’s obvious speed and athleticism, and considering Ahmad Bradshaw was on the shelf with a neck injury, you had to figure he would see at least a share of the carries, but instead Thursday night was the Andre Brown show.

Brown, who upset incumbent D.J. Ware for a roster spot in August, ran 20 times for 113 yards and two touchdowns. He showed great power and patience and gave the Giants a legitimate running back for the first time in what has seemed like ages. I noted in my NFC East report on ProFootballRosters.com that Brown should see at least half the carries if Bradshaw comes back next week. If not, he’ll probably see all of them again. Also worth noting is that with the game out of reach, Tom Coughlin opted to give Da’Rel Scott garbage time carries instead of Wilson.

The Panthers only gained 3.0 yards per carry on the ground

Going into this game, I was afraid that the Giants would be shredded by Carolina’s read option attack, but those fears went unfounded. Last week against New Orleans, the Panthers rushed for 219 yards on 41 carries, but this week they struggled to get any consistency and plodded along for 60 yards on 20 carries. The defensive effort was made even more impressive by the fact that the Giants only had three days to prepare for Carolina, but that appeared to be enough.

New York showed great discipline in attacking the option. At a couple points, Newton seemed unsure if he wanted to hand the ball off or keep it, and this almost led to a pair of fumbles. Justin Tuck in particular was impressive, shutting down a couple of plays with solo tackles right at the line of scrimmage. While DeAngelo Williams broke loose once for a 16-yard gain and ended up with 50 yards rushing on 11 carries, Newton’s biggest gain for the night was a measly three yards long.

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O’Brien discusses not kicking field goals in weekly presser

Posted on September 19, 2012 by Aaron Yorke

Last Saturday with a 20-0 lead over Navy, Penn State faced a 4th-and-goal from the eight-yard line towards in the end of the second quarter. Common sense would seem to dictate a field goal attempt here, especially considering that Penn State’s current kicker, Sam Ficken, was in apparent need of a confidence boost.

Instead of rolling out the special teams squad for a low pressure field goal attempt, O’Brien stuck with the offense and went for the touchdown. The try failed, but the important part was that O’Brien made an unorthodox decision and in doing so, he denied his struggling kicker a chip shot field goal. Here’s what he had to say about the decision:

I felt like we had a play that’s been a bread and butter play for us for a long time. We’ve thrown it for two touchdowns over the first two games against Virginia, and we had basically the same type of play against Ohio.

So it’s a play that I think has really been a bread and butter play. I went with it. We blew the protection on it. I think if we got the protection picked up we had a play there, but Matt (McGloin) had to scramble.

O’Brien went on to say that the decision to go for it had nothing to do with confidence in Ficken. I actually believe him in this instance. If O’Brien really had no confidence in Ficken, he’d be fine with him kicking a field goal in a 20-0 game. Instead, O’Brien decided to forgo the potential confidence booster and do what he felt gave his team the best chance to win.

Other might be skeptical because Ficken had missed an extra point earlier in the half and maybe O’Brien didn’t want the fans to see him miss another short try. I think we’ll have to reserve judgement for a situation in which Penn State is down by three or up by four (or in another obvious field goal situation) and faced with a fourth down in field goal range.

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Adam Rubin causes trouble for Mets with Ike Davis report

Posted on September 19, 2012 by Aaron Yorke

Adam Rubin of ESPNNewYork.com is generally a very good reporter who makes following the Mets easier thanks to his frequent updates on the team. However, yesterday morning, Rubin caused a huge distraction with a report that the Mets were looking into trading their first baseman Ike Davis.

The problem wasn’t exactly that a “baseball source” said that the Mets were open to trading Davis. The Mets have very little talent in the outfield and they should be open to anything that helps solve that problem. The problem was the following comments on why the Mets would specifically want to get rid of Davis.

The Mets are disappointed with Davis’ unwillingness to make changes based on coaching advice. Although he is personable and by no means a troublemaker, they also worry — fairly or unfairly — he is out too late after games, and that could influence other young players.

Yesterday afternoon, Davis responded to the report and basically said that he is very open to coaching advice and has never been talked to about how late he stays up after games. To me, a fan who follows the team closely until football season starts, it has never been apparent that there is any problem with Ike’s approach to the game or his off-the-field conduct.

Of course, Rubin is much more likely to have inside information than me, but when he only references a “baseball source” and the player in question denies any problems, it looks like Rubin is trying to cause trouble.

Why would Rubin comment about Davis’ supposed problems with coaching and curfews if they’re not true? It doesn’t make a lot of sense to me. The facts that the Mets need outfield help and that Lucas Duda can play first base are enough of a reason to put Davis on the trading block. The other, more controversial stuff is just window dressing. The most sinister motive I can think of is that maybe Rubin is trying to push a trade because he believes it’s good for the franchise.

Whatever reason Rubin had for coming after Davis’ work ethic is not an excuse for poor journalism. However, that’s not something I’m accusing Rubin of… yet. His source might actually be someone with inside information of the New York front office and Davis could be lying to protect himself from negative opinion. However, if the claims remain unfounded, that makes Rubin a big time troublemaker in this case, and the Mets have enough problems as it is.

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Shawney Kersey has left the Penn State football team

Posted on September 12, 2012 by Aaron Yorke

Penn State’s shallow pool of wide receivers just got a little more shallow. According to the tweet above, Shawney Kersey is no longer going to play football for Penn State. I wish him all the best.

Kersey had six catches for 44 yards in two games this season. According to Josh Moyer at ESPN’s NittanyNation, true freshman Trevor Williams is “expected” to take Kerey’s place in the starting lineup. Williams may be right under Kersey on Penn State’s depth chart, but he’s right now at best the fourth target behind Allen Robinson, Alex Kenney and tight end Kyle Carter.

That’s all for now. Hopefully Kersey has made the right decision for himself and his family. The rest of the Penn State football team should be able to step up. I know I was impressed by Kenney’s play on Saturday, so hopefully we get more of that in the future.

Follow me on twitter @apy5000

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O’Brien likes to gamble and other football presser fun

Posted on September 12, 2012 by Aaron Yorke

Probably the biggest positive thing I’ve seen from Bill O’Brien so far in his Penn State coaching career is his willingness to not punt on fourth down. So far this season, Penn State has already gone for it on fourth down seven times and picked up the first down five times. O’Brien said in his Tuesday press conference that the fourth down success was due in part to proper planning.

“So once we get really close to the 50, I’m pretty much not going to punt it. I’m just going to tell you that. Like we’re going to go for it, unless it’s fourth and forever — probably punt it. But if it’s a manageable fourth down, we’re going to go for it and we have some third down/second down calls on fourth downs depending on the distances that we’re prepared for.”

This is good to hear, because it drives me crazy when a team throws the ball incomplete on 3rd-and-2 or 3rd-and-3 and then ends up going for it on fourth down. Why not just run the ball on third down to create an easier fourth down situation? O’Brien seems to have the right mindset for this style of play.

How is Donovan Smith feeling?

Penn State’s starting left tackle hasn’t finished a football game this season, so O’Brien was asked in the presser about Smith’s health.

“He’s a left tackle that’s athletic and big and tough, and you know he’s had some bumps and bruises over the last couple of games. He’s day to day right now. You know, hopefully he can play, and we’ll know better as the week goes on, but we want our best players out there for four quarters, and that’s important.”

It sounds like Smith is just a bit cramp prone or something and hopefully he’ll play a full game this week against Navy.

Is Paul Jones really going to play tight end?

Yes, O’Brien reiterated that Jones is going to work out at the tight end position. Apparently, the “F” position that O’Brien wants Jones to play is more of a hybrid between the tight end and wide receiver positions. It even involves some plays out of the backfield.

“He’s also still a quarterback. So we’re asking him to do a lot of different things. He’s got a package of plays at quarterback, so if we needed him, he can do that, too. So we’re just trying to get our best players on the field and he’s certainly a guy that we’ve got to play and that’s on me to get him into the game.”

It certainly sounds like O’Brien likes Jones as and athlete, but it also sounds like the coach has no idea what to do with him. It’s clear that whatever talents Jones possesses are being wasted at third string quarterback, so I don’t see any harm in this. The fact that O’Brien is letting Jones hold onto a “package” of quarterback plays shows how little depth the Lions have behind center.

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Jones to play tight end and other Penn State notes

Posted on September 11, 2012 by Aaron Yorke

The other day I wondered how bad Paul Jones had to be at quarterback to be passed on the depth chart by true freshman Steven Bench, who didn’t inspire confidence with his play on Saturday. Well, it turns out that Jones is so bad at quarterback that Bill O’Brien is going to have him practice as a tight end.

“Bench was the number two quarterback. Jones is going to play some F-tight end for us and he’ll still play quarterback. We do that at practice and next week we’ll keep playing Paul at both positions. He is doing a heck of a job and that’s why I went with Bench as the No. 2 quarterback.”

With Kyle Carter, Matt Lehman and Gary Gilliam, Penn State is not lacking depth at the tight end position. If O’Brien is going to play Jones at a position that I’ve never heard him associated with before, why not defensive end? You can never have too many pass rushers! The team could also use help at safety…

It’s hard to blame O’Brien for moving Jones. He didn’t recruit the kid, so I suppose he can do what he sees fit. This does imply that the previous regime missed big time on both Bolden and Jones, who were both hyped quarterbacks in the 2010 recruiting class.

Sam Ficken is still the Penn State kicker

Despite his awful 1-for-5 field goal performance on Saturday (not to mention the blocked point after), O’Brien insists that Sam Ficken is still Penn State’s field goal kicker.

“We’ll have to go back as a staff and talk about it but Sam (Ficken) is our kicker. We need to see what things we can do to help Sam get better. Again, it’s not all on the kicker; we had some plays in the red area we could have called better, I could have called better plays, we could have executed better, so it’s never always on the kicker. It’s a team sport and we have to figure out other ways to improve.”

Yeah, O’Brien said what the head coach has to say in this situation. I’m just hoping that this was more of a fluke and that Ficken has been kicking better in practice. Remember, the Saturday before against Ohio, O’Brien opted to go for it on fourth down from the 30-yard line. That doesn’t show a ton of confidence in Ficken, but then again, O’Brien has been very aggressive with his fourth down play-calling even in situations that wouldn’t call for a field goal.

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