The Outlook Moving Forward: Penn State

Coming off their 17-14 win Saturday over Ohio State, the Spartans return home to host the Penn State Nittany Lions in the regular season finale at 3:30 p.m. on ESPN.

Offense

Just when it looked like the Spartan Offense was doomed, they came together to do their most important work of the year. On the road in the regular season’s game of the year against the defending Big Ten and National Champions with two unproven backup Quarterbacks? No problem for the current day Quarterback-U. Any speculation that the Spartan Offense might struggle to move the ball beyond the Connor Cook era should now be gone.

“Really didn’t know if Connor would be able to go all the way up to game time,” Mark Dantonio said on his post game radio show. That meant Tyler O’Connor and Damion Terry got work in during the week and were ready for Ohio State. “We had a plan in place,” Dantonio confirmed. As a result of that plan both players looked prepared to play last Saturday, and therefore not overly nervous.

Behind the best performance of a healthier Offensive Line than we’ve seen in months, MSU did the unthinkable. The Spartans ran over and through the Buckeyes when Ohio State knew it was coming. MSU didn’t rack up 203 yards rushing by going run-first-stubborn, even in nasty weather, they threw the Buckeyes for a loop by mixing in the Option.

Most College Football Head Coaches would probably say the Option is the hardest scheme to prepare for on short notice. The Buckeyes had practically no notice that Terry and O’Connor would be running the Option for MSU, and it left them scrambling all night. With a need to shake the Buckeye Defense up a bit, the Spartans pulled a piece of magic out of their football hat and Ohio State could not figure out how to handle it. The Bucks looked confused about which gap to hit, who was responsible for what are, and did not know how to adapt well on the fly.

At one point in the 2nd Half MSU had run the ball 17 times and passed it just once. The weather in the 1st Half played an enormous factor in only 32 passes being thrown all night, and turned out to be the type of good fortune we discussed last would be needed for MSU to win. But make no mistake, the Spartans took it to Ohio State on the ground inside their beloved Horse Shoe in front of their biggest crowd in history. There was no luck in that part of the winning equation.

For as stale as the MSU Offense looked earlier this season, the loss of Cook and the timing of Saturday’s weather turned out to be exactly what they needed for a break out running game performance. It will go down as one of the all-time efforts in MSU history given the stage, circumstances, and adjustments that players and coaches made. In time, they will get the credit deserved as a group for pulling off such a big feat.

As great as last Saturday was, it won’t mean much if MSU doesn’t win the Land Grant game. If Cook can’t go, or doesn’t play the whole game, MSU need only follow the recipe used last week and work in the Option to throw PSU off balance. No, MSU doesn’t need to go all Option all the time, they just need to keep it a consistent part of their ground game and mix it in enough to loosen the Lions up. Penn State's Defense has had some success this year.

The Lions’ Offense looked pretty awful last week against Michigan and their Defense looked like they felt the weight of the world on their shoulders as a result. The Lions have the 14th ranked Total Defense though they have played a rather soft schedule to date. They’ve been decent against the run (42nd ranked Rush Defense) and very strong defending the pass (7th ranked in Passing Yards Allowed) in putting together the 18th ranked Scoring Defense in the land. They probably won’t show to East Lansing after a load of turkey and throw out an “oh-lay” (think bullfighter) Defense for the Spartans to wander through.

Yet, the Spartan Offense should be supremely confident coming off their success at Ohio State and highly motivated to send such a successful Senior Class out of Spartan Stadium on a high note. As long as this unit applies the spark of the Option and keeps the Offensive Line trending in a healthy direction, the unit should carry momentum over from Ohio State and put together their most complete offensive performance of the year. This unit's best games are probably still ahead of them.

Defense

The Spartan Dawgs effort at Ohio State will go down in the record books as one of the timeliest in MSU history. Facing an Offense that supposedly had more firepower than it could field at one time, the Spartans got the better of Ohio State up front and the Buckeyes attack was shut down. As the weather turned from wet to windy, damp, and cold, the MSU Defense got into the Buckeyes' collective heads and kept them to just five 1st Downs. "We knew what they were going to do for the most part,” Riley Bullough said on the Spartan Radio Network after the game.

Weather was a bigger factor at Ohio State than in any MSU regular season game in quite a while. Bad weather was expected before the game (as discussed in this article last week) and started just prior to kickoff, but the Buckeyes didn't seem very prepared for it. Bullough felt that gave the Spartans Defense a little bit more of an edge. "With the weather we had, we also knew it was going to be hard to pass the ball.”

It almost looked like OSU was content with whatever production they could get from running the ball in the 1st Half while waiting out the rain to go to the air in the final two periods. The problem with that approach was at least twofold. It gave MSU a chance to get the edge at the line of scrimmage, and it suggested that OSU was over confident and didn't really think they needed their best for all 60 minutes to score enough to beat Michigan State.

The best Buckeye effort to go deep was a throw Braxton Miller's way. The former QB had his man beat and would've had a sure Touchdown if the ball was on target. As the game went on it seemed a sure thing that after the rain stopped, the Bucks would be looking deep at least a handful of times. But after the rain stopped, the wind didn't, and OSU didn't really go after MSU down the field much. For those in Scarlet and Grey that want to pick on the Buckeyes' play calling, maybe you should start there.

MSU stopped Ohio State more than the weather and more than the Buckeyes' play calling or chemistry issues. Those that watched the entire game know that at this point. They did so by winning the determinative battle of this rivalry that we all know is the battle for the line of scrimmage. Malik McDowell and Lawrence Thomas played like 5-Star recruits and future NFL players last Saturday. They provided the interior push needed for MSU to shut down the Buckeye ground game and for those around them to get in position to tackle ball carriers.

For as much as Ezekiel Elliot wanted to complain about their play calling, it's not like OSU was having much success running the ball. The Bucks ran it 29 times for 86 yards. That's only 2.97 yards per carry. They were fortunate to get 14-points out of 132 total yards of Offense, seven of which came about because of Macgarrett Kings punt fielding disaster that gave the Bucks the ball on the MSU 6-yard line. As much as people credit Michael Geiger for making the game wining kick and the Offense coming up with a plan to get them through the absence of Connor Cook, the Spartan Defense was the glue that held MSU together to beat Ohio State.

This week they will face an Offense that looks like it's been stuck in bad weather for a couple years now. Penn State has nowhere near the firepower of Ohio State or the other better offenses in the Big Ten. The Lions Offense has been dysfunctional this year, has looked divided, and does not have much of an identity. Their leader Christian Hackenberg was once considered a sure thing 1st Round NFL Draft pick, if not a high one. He hasn't played like one very much lately.

Hackenberg reminds some people of Jay Cutler, but not in a good way. Perhaps he should've transferred out of Penn State a couple years back, but that horse left the barn a long time ago now. Hackenberg would be best served to get past that decision for good and make the best of the situation he's in, but the problem is that it's not a very good one. If he ends up playing his final College regular season game this Saturday, how could you really blame him?

The Lions are ranked 111th in Total Offense out of 127 Division 1 teams. They're 97th in Scoring Offense, 105th in Rushing Offense, and 89th in Passing Offense. Those numbers are not Hackenberg's fault, they're on James Franklin and his staff. Forget about Ezekiel Elliot's gripes about play calling or schemes, Hackenberg's the one that hasn't been put in position to succeed by his Coaches since Bill O’Brien left State College.

Though Hackenberg should’ve avoided looking pouty as much as he has since his Freshman year, he can't call the plays. He can't dictate the protection scheme, and he isn't in charge of patching together a decent lineup that can execute a few basic plays. PSU is currently 121st in Sacks Allowed at 3.36 per game. That’s why they call him “Sackenberg” these days, and that's much more on the Penn State Coaches than anyone of the players.

The Spartans need not consider themselves with the Lions' issues this Saturday, however. All they need to worry about is bringing the same kind of intensity and effort up front for 60 minutes that shut the Buckeyes down last week. If MSU can win up front they will force Hackenberg into 3rd and long more often than not, and they will also get to the backfield to visit with him up close and personal many times during Saturday afternoon and early evening.

Special Teams

Given the weather in Ohio Stadium last week, every Special Teams play looked like a potential wildcard. As we discussed in this section last week, weather affects Special Teams in a pretty dramatic way. The weather was probably the second biggest story of the game behind the absence of Connor Cook, and definitely had an impact of the final outcome.

The runner up for Special Teams play of the year (so far) obviously goes to Michael Geiger’s game winning 41-yarder to beat the Buckeyes. Consider it a dream come true for the Toledo native. As Geiger exploded across the field into a Pete Townshend style “windmill” celebration, he clinched the best individual celebration of the Mark Dantonio era so far. What a moment of perseverance and redemption for the Spartans' 3-point specialist. “I’ve made that kick probably one-thousand times in my life,” he told the Spartan Radio Network during the post game show. “The fact that Urban called a Time-Out made it easier on me.”

Meyer probably didn’t count on Geiger getting a practice kick in but he called the Time-Out way too late in the play clock, which provided the opportunity. The practice try only made Geiger that much more confident that he had the swing and alignment to get the job done. It was not the only mistake Meyer made on the day and Geiger would’ve made the kick the first time, but calling that Time-Out that late in the play clock only made the final result even more likely. It was poor clock management. "I knew there was going to be no situation that was too big for me,” Geiger added.

Before Geiger's moment came a nightmare experience for Macgarrett Kings. After the MSU Defense stopped the Buckeyes on their second drive of the 3rd Quarter, Kings indecision led to a Special Teams disaster.  On that stage in those conditions, Kings looked unsure of whether to field the Punt, take a knee, or try to return it from deep in his own. It bounced off his hands and the Bucks fell on it at the MSU 6-yard line. One snap later it was 14-7 Bucks and Kings' mistake threatened to go down as one of the most painful in MSU history.

Thanks to the mental edge and team chemistry advantage the Spartans had over Ohio State they were able to overcome Kings’ mistake and finish like Spartan Football has become used to in recent years. “There’s a lot of heroes in this game, there’s a lot of guys that made plays today,” Dantonio said on his post game radio show. It’s rather ironic that the biggest of the day came from the Spartans most maligned unit of 2015. They've continued to move forward week by week and their strong and steady reaction to that let down did not come as a surprise.

Aside from Kings’ enormous mistake and Geiger’s game winner, this unit looked very solid in difficult conditions. The Spartans kickers look better than they have all year, the early season horrendous kick coverage looks much tighter, and there’s no reason to expect MSU won’t show up on Special Teams this Saturday. After the lows and highs of Ohio State there should be no question that these players appreciate the impact Special Teams plays can have on the final score.

Overall

Last week in this article we talked about the potential advantages MSU carried into Ohio State. A good part of that was the “underdog” role MSU assumed for the first time this year. “We were the guy hunting (for a change),” Dantonio pointed out Saturday night. We also talked about the effort and good fortune the Spartans would need to get out of the Horse Shoe with an improbable win. Not only did the Spartans bring a championship level effort, they overcame the loss of Connor Cook and took advantage of the opportunities the weather presented them.

Ohio State came into the game with a 23-game winning streak, but with chemistry cracks and distractions starting to mount as the season went on. They also came in relatively untested, which showed up loud and clear over the course of 60-minutes throughout the entire Ohio State roster of players and coaches. They didn’t appear prepared for the weather, they didn’t have an answer when the Spartans ran the Option, and couldn’t find the in-game adjustments needed to hold off the hard charging Spartans.

“This was one of the moments we had to do that,” Dantonio said Saturday night about the Spartans season long quest to “reach higher.” He wasn’t just talking about the players. The MSU Coaching Staff showed up to Columbus with an understanding of what they needed to do to put this team in position to pull off the upset. They knew they could be without Cook and instead of just trying to plug-and-play O’Connor or Damion Terry into his spot, they crafted a brilliant plan to adapt to those player’s abilities.

The Option’s worked very well for both Air Force and Navy as both academies are having fantastic seasons by any program’s standard. MSU began preparing for Air Force during the summer, and still had their hands full this September. The decision to run a good number of Option plays was the x-factor that flipped the OSU pre-game script of MSU as the struggling rushing team and the Buckeyes as a top end Rush Defense. Without running the Option as often as they did, MSU probably struggles much more to run the ball and maybe doesn’t have a shot to get the ball downfield with a chance to win the game at the buzzer.

“As the game continued on, we just got stronger mentally,” Dantonio said after it all ended. Over the course of the game you could see the Spartans gaining ground as the Buckeyes struggled to stay together. That’s how the Spartans overcame a rare minus-two (-2) turnover margin, one of them practically guaranteeing the Buckeyes a Touchdown. That’s why they closed out that final drive the way they did.

“We lost the line of scrimmage,” Urban Meyer laid out in his post game remarks. Though he admitted then that he was “not content” with the Buckeyes’ offensive play calling, he said again and again that their biggest issue was at the point of attack. “(There were) just so many people at the line of scrimmage, we couldn’t control it.” That’s why MSU had 17 1st Downs to Ohio State’s 5, and that’s why the Spartans won the Time of Possession battle 38:10 to 21:50.

This week the Spartans face a familiar end of season foe (Penn State) with yet another opportunity to clinch a piece of Big Ten hardware. This time we’re of course talking about the Big Ten East Division, so as great as last week was locking up their fifth 10-win season out of the last six, the Spartans know it’s not time to get stuck celebrating the win at Ohio State too long. It’s time to take the next step and reach a little bit higher.

That slogan has been the program’s theme all year as Spartan Nation reported first in May. Last week was the first major step in what is now a legitimate championship run. This week we’ll find out whether this team is content playing for just a division championship in 2015, or whether they’re just getting started with bigger goals ahead.

“We gotta ball out man, we gotta ball out,” Dantonio said about the challenge of Penn State in the moments after the Ohio State win. Nothing else would fulfill this program’s continuing commitment to “Reach Higher.” The players know it. The Seniors know it. Saturday afternoon it’s up to all of them, with the nation’s eyes upon them yet again, to go out to Spartan Stadium and show it.

@JPSpartan

P. A. T. (Perhaps Another Thought…)

1. It’s been the wildest season ever for coaching changes during the College Football season. Beginning in early October there were rumors of firings, Harbaugh to the NFL, Steve Spurrier quit on his team, and so on. Sadly, we may be lined up for some unfortunate dismissals in Mark Richt and Les Miles here shortly. Both coaches had extraordinary success but both men stayed in their respective positions too long and should’ve known that and moved on a while back. Now they’re that many years older, have lost some steam and probably some confidence, and will face a much tougher task of convincing other schools that they’re ready to start all over and dig in.
2. The Virginia Tech opening is an interesting one. VT was a non factor before Frank Beamer showed up, he established them onto the national scene, but they have started to slip and slide since having a Sugar Bowl victory take from them to end the 2011 season by that game’s Officials. The Hokies should feel immense pressure to get this hire right. If they don’t, watch out for a free fall, which won’t help their case to join the Big Ten if another round of expansion should fire up again.
3. Nobody overestimates the relevance of long term College Football history like the media. Very few fans, potential recruits, or current day players care much about what happened 20 years ago. Those statistics and storylines are sometimes nice and they do fill time, but stop acting like they actually matter in the present. The relevance for the vast majority of those kind of nuggets you hear battered around during the week is realistically about 5 years, not 50.
4. Hopefully they have a new trophy for the Land Grant Game by now. If not, there’s still time to get a new one made before Saturday. This time let’s drive past the shopping mall trophy store and have the new one custom made to fit the two land grant leaders.