Rutgers vs. Penn State Recap Thoughts

Rather than my usual long-form recap post, I'm just going to throw out some observations after witnessing Senior Night and what became a 39-0 lopsided win by Penn State.

1) The Rutgers defense played well. I say this with the full realization that they gave up 39 points and close to 550 yards. For three quarters, the D kept the game close. Even after the blocked punt they almost held at the goal line. They had made another fourth down stop backed up in their own end. The defensive unit could only play so many snaps before the fatigue and Penn State's running game wore them down.

2) The first offensive play from scrimmage was the worst play call of the year. Even worse than the goal line play against Iowa. Rutgers was home. The crowd was going crazy Saturday night. We just recovered a muffed kickoff. At that point I think you either have to throw a quick strike to the end zone or run the ball hard up the middle to try to hit Penn State in the mouth and own the line of scrimmage. To essentially try an end around is baffling in that situation. Losing 7 yards on that first down immediately took the wind out of the fans' sails and made the field goal much tougher. Then the miss on the field goal was the icing on the cake.

3) The students were into the game. I was standing on the pavilion in the midst of the student section for much of the game and they were into it. Pretty much until midway through the third quarter they were into it. Once the score hit 25 and the sleet started falling it became a different story. But you can't blame the student section turnout.

4) The pregame festivities in the athlete's glen were fun. I think they need to get the word out about that. The drumline, dance team, and a cover band all performed and it was a good warm-up for the game.

5) Penn State brought a good contingent but it was nothing like I feared. There were plenty of white and navy but there was much, much more red. Despite the team's records, a lot of Rutgers fans showed up and were enthusiastic. The PSU fans were really only able to get vocal once the score started getting out of hand and the RU fans were leaving.

6) The quote of the day was Chris Ash saying that the offense is "not even one dimensional." "We can't run the ball and can't protect the quarterback."

7) People calling for Drew Mehringer to be removed are not in the right mind. I'm upset about the season, too. Not overly upset because my expectations were fairly low. But let's at least give Mehringer an opportunity to run his system for a couple years with guys who were actually recruited to play in the system. And let's give the guys who weren't recruited by this staff an opportunity to have more than a year to learn the system. I can't help but think that a lot of the O-line's struggles have been with making the proper protection calls, and another year in the system would drastically help that.

8) Giovanni Rescigno is still not healthy. He's been playing hurt since the Minnesota game. So, I think it's tough to evaluate him knowing that he's been hobbled for the past three and a half games.

9) I'm torn between believing Tylin Oden would've benefitted more from a redshirt year, or whether this experience now is better in terms of preparing him for the future. But he certainly has good instincts rushing the ball.

10) Julian Pinnix-Odrick, assuming he remains healthy, will play himself onto an NFL roster sometime next year.