That Puts a Whole New Paint Job on Things.......

Look, I'm not the kind of person to admit when I'm wrong. I've been known to argue points forever just to avoid the painful reality that is a mistake on my part.

Well, after this weekend, I think I might have made a major miscalculation about our Nittany Lions. Its actually kind of amazing how 1 afternoon will totally change your perspective on things. However, that's exactly what Saturday did to me. So, without further ado let's break down PSU vs. FIU.

First off, I had to watch this game at a local bar because of this ri-god-damn-diculous dispute between Comcast and the Big Ten Network. Long story short, each of these entities is a money-hungry whore who would do anything for a buck. Although this situation did have a silver lining (more on this in a second). I can't believe that I had to put this much effort into watching Penn State versus a 4th tier opponent.

Ok, onto the game. I am actually very optimistic about our offense. I thought that Morelli looked pretty good passing the ball. He needs to realize that all of our receivers aren't 7'1" though. There were a couple of passes that the receivers had to go up and grab. That works out well when you have the athletes that we do. Morelli also needs to works on hitting the receivers in stride. I am going to chalk this up to the early season rust, and that with a little bit of practice this problem will be eliminated. For instance, the long pass to Deon Butler in the first half would have been a touchdown if he didn't have to go back to the ball. A little bit more ummph on the ball, and Butler walks into the end zone standing up.

Next, our running game has me a little worried. Scott and Kinlaw both had flashes of brilliance in the game. However, we had a very slow start. Again, it's hard to make too many assumptions after 1 game against a team that didn't even exist a decade ago. I felt that Evan Royster looked as good as any of the backs that we had out there on Saturday. He looked the quickest to me. Not the fastest, but the quickest. There is a difference. Again, this was later in the game and he very well might have been playing against FIU's 2nd or 3rd string defense. Overall, I am a little anxious over these guys, but hopefully the offensive line will improve over the course of the season and our rushing game becomes a viable part of the offense.

Moving over to defense. We have some absolute beasts over here. I know that Dan Connor gets all of the hype, but Sean Lee is the real deal. I can't think of another linebacker that I have seen who has this kind of nose for the football. I haven't seen this much stripping since the VIP room at Delilah's Den. Also, I am calling the fact that Navorro Bowman is the next in the line of great PSU linebackers. He absolutely crushed one of the FIU players, blocked a punt, and recovered a fumble.

Ok, back to my Big Ten Network story. Since I had to go to a bar that was showing the game, they also happened to show the Michigan game since there was one Michigan fan in the house. The beautiful thing about this scenario is that as the afternoon progressed the PSU fan-base slowly rotated from watching the PSU game to the Michigan game. I thought it was going to be one of those games where you just absolutely knew that Michigan was going to pull it out in the end. But my boys from Appalachian State managed to pull off the biggest upset in the history of college football. The Michigan fan ended up throwing his cell phone against the table and breaking the back of it off. He was actually in his car and speeding away from the bar exactly 5 seconds after their game was over. He did not want to stick around and have to hear a bar full of PSU fans talk about how embarrassing it is to lose to a 1-AA team. But I think that as PSU fans we are missing the biggest benefit of this loss. Every time they talk about some sort of Cinderella story in sports they are going to talk about this game and show that kick being blocked at the end. It's going to be the gift that keeps on giving. I expect that we'll get at least a decade of replays out of this. So, if the Michigan faithful feel like this is going to blow over in a week or two, they are sorely mistaken. And, if that wasn't bad enough they have to play Oregon this week. Their quarterback displays many of the same qualities that Armanti Edwards from App. St did. And they play the same style of spread offense. So, Michigan could easily be looking at an 0-2 start to the season. It's this reason that I think that the Wolverines are definitely beatable at home. Now, our toughest game becomes Wisconsin at home. I really like our odds in that one.

So, that brings up Notre Dame this week. Is there any way that we don't absolutely destroy them this time around? I say this for a couple of reasons. First, the game is at home and I believe that they have declared the first ever "All Stadium Whiteout" for Beaver Stadium this week. I have a feeling that this is going to look amazing on TV and the crowd will be so loud that it'll be hard for the Notre Dame quarterback to run the offense. That brings me to my second point. Charlie Weis announced this afternoon (Tuesday) that true freshman Jimmy Clausen will be the starter this week. I really like a Tom Bradley led defense versus a true freshman quarterback starting his first ever game.

You know what? This game is so big that I might have to keep a running diary. It worked out pretty well last year, and this time around I have an actually laptop that will make the process infinitely easier as well. So, for the 5 or 6 of you out there who read this, feel free to check in during the game for my expert analysis.

Well, enough for this week. Talk to you all (or some) on Saturday during the game. Over and out.

~Kevin