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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Mets send McHugh to mound, start series with Nationals.

Posted on September 10, 2012 by Aaron Yorke

Only 22 games remain on the slate for the 2012 Mets. It’s been a crazy year, filled with hope, despair, drama and heartbreak. At the very least, I know history will remember 2012 as the season Johan Santana finally gave the Mets a no-hitter. Hopefully it will also be remembered as the year the great Matt Harvey debuted, but we won’t know about that for a long time.

Tonight the Mets kick off a three-game series with the Washington Nationals. Collin McHugh will be making his third major league start for New York while Washington’s Gio Gonzalez is trying for his 19th win of the season. Gonzalez, who is left-handed, sports a mid-90s fastball as well as a devastating curve. With a 2.98 ERA in 175.1 innings pitched so far, he’s as much a Cy Young candidate as anyone in the National League.

McHugh had an excellent debut against the Rockies in late August, but his second start, in St. Louis last week, was a dud. The Mets are hoping the righty can boost his confidence with a solid start tonight and become a decent spot stater or long reliever for the 2013 team.

The Nationals just lost two of three to the Marlins, but overall their recent homestand went very well. They won eight of 11 games against St. Louis, Chicago and Miami and now lead the NL East by 5.5 games over Atlanta. However, the big news is that their ace pitcher Stephen Strasburg has just been shutdown for the season after having an innings limit loom over his head for the entire year. Losing Strasburg hurts, especially because of the self-inflicted nature of the move, but the Nats still have great pitchers like tonight’s starter and Jordan Zimmermann, who should at the very least ensure that the Nats hang on to make the playoffs.

Ike Davis is the only lefty in the Mets batting order tonight. Terry Collins announced today that he plans to tweak the team’s game preparation by moving batting practice closer to the start of the game. There’s really no way to tell if this will cause a difference in batting performance, but if the Mets score 10 runs tonight, you can bet the SNY analysts will bring it up.

Unlike Washington’s pitching staff, the lineup hasn’t been a strength all season. However, when Ryan Zimmerman and Michael Morse are both starting, the Nats average 5.2 runs per game. Thanks to stints on the disabled list for both players, that has only happened 83 times this season. Of course, all that matters is that both are healthy for the playoffs. If they can continue averaging more than five runs per game, the Nats won’t need to worry about the loss of Strasburg so much.

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Niese, Parnell get discussed in awful Mets weekend update

Posted on September 10, 2012 by Aaron Yorke

The Mets were swept by the Braves this weekend, but I didn’t catch a whole lot of it because of all the football on TV. Yesterday, the Mets tied the game at 2-2 on David Wright’s sixth inning RBI double, but ended up losing 3-2 in the 10th inning. Brian McCann hit a solo home run in the game, in addition to the game-winning sac fly.

Here’s my opinion on three fun topics of discussion from the weekend:

Niese on the trading block?

Back on Friday, Matt Cerrone of MetsBlog.com said that the Mets should consider trading Jon Niese for a good, young outfielder like Justin Upton. Upton’s team, the Arizona Diamondbacks were rumored to be trying to move Upton back in July, but nothing every came of it. The Mets actually have a good thing going with their pitching staff, but Upton’s upside is considerably higher than that of Niese.

That said, a trade involving the two players would also have to involve more Mets. I’m pretty sure the Diamondbacks would want a deal to start with Niese and either Matt Harvey or Zack Wheeler. If the Mets could swing a deal for Upton that somehow only involved one of those three pitchers, I would do it in a heartbeat, but I’m not sure that’s even in the realm of possibility.

It should be an interesting winter for the Mets, as they have a deep and very obvious need for outfield help.

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Penn State breaks fans’ hearts, loses 17-16 at Virginia

Posted on September 8, 2012 by Aaron Yorke

This was a tough one to swallow. Penn State took a 16-10 lead into the final eight minutes of today’s game at Virginia, but Cavaliers quarterback Michael Rocco drove his team down the field for the win. The series culminated with a six-yard touchdown pass to tight end Jack McGee with just 1:28 on the clock.

Quarterback Matt McGloin and the Nittany Lions countered with a drive of their own. McGloin completed a pass to Kyle Carter to get Penn State into field goal range and then centered the ball on the 42-yard line to set up a potential game-winning field goal. However, Sam Ficken, who struggled with his kicking all day, hooked the ball left and Penn State left the field defeated once again.

Here’s the five most important things for Penn State fans to take away from the loss.

Penn State forced four turnovers while committing none of their own

I’d love to know the last time Penn State had four more takeaways than giveaways and still managed to lose the game. Part of the problem was that the Lions had trouble punching the ball into the end zone, but it’s hard to imagine PSU losing if Ficken had made just one more field goal. Tight end Paul Freedman’s fumble on Virginia’s first possession led to a missed field goal. Likewise with Jordan Hill’s incredible interception in the second quarter. Penn State went three and out and punted after a third quarter Virginia fumbled snap. The last turnover, caused by Deion Barnes’ sack of backup quarterback Phillips Sims, resulted in Ficken’s only made field goal of the game.

Three points off of four turnovers is no way to go through life. Also, if you count missed field goals as equal to turnovers (they pretty much are), then Penn State also turned the ball over four times. No wonder this one came down to the wire.

Sam Ficken made only one of five field goals and one of two extra points

Penn State had five more first downs than Virginia (19-14) and gained 35 more yards (330-295) in addition to the aforementioned turnovers advantage. Of course, a big reason why Penn State fell short was Sam Ficken’s inability to kick a football through the uprights. Ficken missed from 40 yards, 38 yards, 20 yards and 42 yards. He did hit on a 32-yard field goal that put Penn State up 16-10 in the fourth quarter, but Virginia ended up winning by one in part because Ficken had an extra point blocked earlier in the game. I’m not sure what Ficken looked like in practice, but I can’t imagine he was this bad. I also don’t know where Penn State goes from here in regards to the kicking situation. Hopefully we’ll learn more during the week.

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The Trenches: Penn State vs. Virginia

Posted on September 8, 2012 by Aaron Yorke

American football is a glorious, gritty game played by tough, strong me. Unfortunately the only players we usually hear about are the pretty boys who wear special practice jerseys and the glory hogging “skill” players. I’m going to try to change that a little bit.

A lot has been said already about Virginia’s three-headed running monster of Perry Jones, Kevin Parks and Clifton Richardson. We know Penn State will face challenges in the secondary because of inexperience, a lack of depth, and the questionable status of Stephen Morris. There’s also the story of UVA quarterback John Rocco, who grew up dreaming of becoming a Nittany Lion, having a chance to deal a serious blow to Penn State morale.

However, A big part of why football games are won and lost takes place on the line of scrimmage, where the most beast-like players do battle. Welcome to the trenches.

When Virginia has the ball

Perhaps the two most talented players on the entire Cavaliers team are the starting tackles, Oday Aboushi and Morgan Moses. Penn State might want to think about some up-the-middle blitzes because it will be tough sledding trying to get pressure off the edge against the Hoos. They only allowed 1.23 sacks per game last season and PSU only had one last week against Ohio.

Aboushi was named a preseason All-American by ESPN this season after he returned to school despite being projected as a second round NFL draft pick. More amazingly is the fact that Aboushi is a devout Muslim who fasted through Ramadan despite the month-long holiday occurring during summer practice.

Protein shakes? Training table spreads? Not for Aboushi. Not during daylight. He’s up at 5 a.m. to eat a large breakfast, and then he’s done for more than 12 hours, some of which are spent in calorie-burning, sweat-inducing workouts.

It will probably take more than a few bull rushes to tire out Aboushi this season. Meanwhile, Moses is has reportedly switched away from fatty foods and is down 30 pounds from last season.

“When a big guy loses [30] pounds and can drive by McDonald’s and not order a No. 6 and super-size it,” London said, “I think he’s really getting it.”

I don’t usually buy into the “best shape of his life” stories, but this one was great because Virginia head coach Mike London talked about a No. 6 like it was the most common thing in the world. He also apparently knows of a secret McDonald’s where you can still super-size your meal. Nobody tell Michelle Obama.

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