Saturday Night College Football

#3 PENN STATE @ #11 OHIO STATE



THE SCORE:

Penn State, 13
Ohio State, 6

THE PLAYS:

11:03, 4^th Quarter

There was only one really significant play, the Pryor fumble. One of the quarterbacks had to make a mistake eventually, it just happened to be all-everything freshman.

On third and short from a little behind mid-field, Pryor ran right and instead of turning it upfield for the easy first down, attempting to string it out along the sideline for the long score.

Senior Mark Rubin didn’t even look like he was going for the ball. He filled the alley, got an angle on Pryor and the ball came out almost too easily. Navarro Bowman eventually ended up on top of the ball after a lengthy scrap for it.

This came on the heels of a missed field goal that sent all the momentum towards the Buckeyes. Clark had led the Nittany Lions into Buckeye territory on one of the games longest drives. Derrick Williams came down with Clark’s 3^rd down pass out of bounds, and Kevin Kelly pushed the ensuing 45 yard attempt wide left.

Now it was 6-3 Buckeyes from the 27. Chris Wells and Pryor runs a get the offense to the 45 after a two yard Pryor gain on 3^rd and one.

Déjà vu three plays later, only this time Pryor would try to make the highlight reel and all of sudden it’s Penn State’s ball from mid-field.

A 9-yard Royster run on a now tiring Buckeye defense followed by a pass interference on Donald Washington – his second of the game – and now it’s 1^st and 10 Nittany Lions from inside the red zone.

Pat Devlin, playing for the concussed and pissed off Clark, sneaks past the goal line for the first score of the game a few plays later.

Pryor turns the ball upfield instead of going for six and the Buckeyes have first and 10 from the Penn State 45 with a 6-3 lead in the 4^th quarter.

Instead, now it’s Penn State up 10-6 with seven minutes left in the game

THE STATS:

Buckeyes converted 8-15 third downs and did not score a TD. Pryor went 16-25 (64%) for 226 yards through the air, a career high and good for 9 yards per attempt. He only ran for 6 yards on 9 carries though. Beanie Wells only manages 55 yards on 22 carries, he average 6.1 coming into the game.

Dane Sanzenbacher caught 6 balls for 82 yards. His best effort of the season and better than the Nittany Lions top three receivers – Derrick Williams, Deon Butler, Jordan Norwood – combined – 6 receptions for 20 yards. Graham Zug had more than double that output and also more than double the second biggest play of the day for Penn State in terms of yardage on one 49 yard grab.

Penn State had 11 first downs rushing, Ohio State had 11 passing. Penn State had zero penalties to the Buckeyes’ 4 that netted 48 yards.

THE PLAYERS:

DARYLL CLARK

Tough to think of a more enigmatic player on a title contender than Daryll Clark. Nothing got solved on Saturday night either, as Clark was knocked out the game midway through the fourth quarter at the Horseshoe with an apparent mild concussion.

Clark didn’t play his freshman year in 2005, threw for just 116 yards as a sophomore and only managed 31 yards through the air last season, despite playing in eight games. Those sophomore and junior years Clark couldn’t beat out Anthony Morelli, but now he’s a Heisman Trophy candidate.

It’s really more about what Clark doesn’t do – turn the ball over – than what he does do. He’s never going to take control of a big game and win it by himself.

Most of the significant pass plays came off play-actions where Clark would roll out, including the Nittany Lions’ longest play of the day, a 49 completion to Graham Zug. As has been the case all season, just about every snap he took outside the red zone in Galen Hall’s new “Spread HD” offense was in the shotgun.

Clark directed one scoring drive, right before halftime, and finished with 121 yards passing on 12 of 20. He ran for 39 yards on 8 carries, although watching the game it seemed like more. Most of his runs were physical and up the middle, often taking defenders on his back a few yards down the field.

But this is Clark’s game. He offers nothing that defensive coordinators haven’t seen and dealt with before. Watching Clark, you could substitute him for any mobile, game managing quarterback since 1996.

He’s got 1,652 passing yards on the season, 11tds to only 2 picks and 229 on the ground with another 8 tds. Nice numbers and a decent signal caller, but you’d hardly say Clark’s one of even the ten best quarterbacks in the nation. Despite the fumble, I honestly might take Pryor right now over him. Clark won’t be playing on Sundays.

NAVARRO BOWMAN

Wouldn’t have predicted this game would be his coming out party.

The red-shirt sophomore was all over the field, playing sideline to sideline. He finished with 10 tackles, a pass defended and that key fumble recovery.

Best player on the field Saturday night. His lone pass deflection was a key play too. After a 23 yard completion to Roy Small, Bowman dropped into coverage, read Pryor’s eyes all the way, and tipped a pass that was almost deflected.

Two plays later Pryor was picked off in the end zone to end the game.

CAMERON HEYWARD

Ironhead’s 19-year old son in 6-3, 290, only a sophomore and made a great hit on Royster on 3^rd and 9 to force a field goal at the end of the second quarter.

THE OBSCURE:

LeBron James was all over college football this weekend, despite never having attended college. He was featured on College Gameday – where, it should be noted, he was considerably more tolerable than Lee Corso – making chalk picks for the most part.

Then he was on the sideline of the Horseshoe. Now he has something in common with Bill Murray, Will Ferrell and Snoop Dogg.

The game opened and closed with a touching Joe Pa’ montage, filled with pictures like this, this and this. They omitted vintage Joe Pa’ moments however, such as this, this and of course this.

It seemed like the ABC crew has had this on file for like 12 years and just keeps waiting for his last breath. If you just turned on the television I swear you would have thought that he died.

While on the topic of ABC trying there best to convince us Paterno has one foot in the garve, Brent Mussberger had some interesting comments. During the opening Mussberger said, “For the fourth straight game, Joe Paterno boards the golf cart. He’ll go to an elevator and he’ll coach from the press box again tonight.” And then, again references that Paterno needs a golf after the game while the final play of the game was being reviewed. Joe Paterno is old and about to die, thank you ABC.

Lisa Salters interviews backup quarterback Pat Devlin after the game. When prefacing her question about what happened to Clark she says to Devlin, “They wouldn’t let us talk to Clark,” Salters then awarded Devlin an honorary silver medal.

Why doesn’t ABC announce the full starting lineups anymore? They just list 3 “key players to the game.” Very annoying.

Mussberger mentions that Evan Royster was offered a full ride to John Hopkins to play lacrosse. Not only is does this make Evan Royster the whitest guy on the team, it also reiterates just how much more athletic football and basketball players are than every other sport. Royster is a normal football athlete, but would have been an elite talent in lacrosse.