Nothing too earth shattering here. Too many penalties, O'Korn was not good, but Higdon was excellent. I can't help but wonder how long the officiating is gonna call every single penalty they possibly can vs. Michigan while giving opponents the benefit of the doubt time after time after time. And I can't help but wonder how much worse can Peters possibly be.
I'm not going to break down too many plays, but I think the OL played much better. Higdon obviously helped them by making a few good reads and running hard. And nobody came clean on the pass rush. The defense was championship level again, but missed a few tackles. Indiana's first TD was right after Metellus had a chance to wrap up a receiver 4 yards short of the first, but gets flat footed and juked, giving Indiana a first down. Their other TD was after a long punt return that was well executed by Indiana (I didn't see a block in the back, though I read on here that some thought there was).
So right to the Penalties....a whopping 16 for 141 yards. Most were legit, some definitely were not. But if Indiana was wearing blue, they would have been called for at least 5 more. I try to be objective as possible, but it sure did seem like at least one of the officials was trying to make it very difficult on us. Here's the list (including one that was picked up, a sideline warning (???) and two that were not accepted due to multiple fouls).
1. Gary offside...clearly, but no harm on the 3rd and 15 mistake.
2. Hawkins block in back on punt return...picked up, but it was a penalty.
3. Hill PI...I thought it was a bad call. There was some clutching, but nothing to affect the route and he played the ball beautifully.
4. Furbush offside (called on McCray...Dwumfour may have been in the neutral zone, too)
5. Sideline warning? I still can't see it. Nobody was in the white. Ref marking his territory...yet later in the game a ref has to walk between like 6 Indiana guys to mark a punt and no call).
6. Furbush 12th man.
7. DPJ holding
8. JBB False start
9. Metellus Unsportsmanlike Conduct...(didn't see it off the screen) on a punt return.
10. Crawford Unsportsmanlike Conduct on Mcdoom jet sweep, blocking and chippy OOB.
11. Long Holding...ok call, but he doesn't move receiver, just doesn't get his hands off in time
12. Hudson Offside...legit, Hurst may have been too. Part of the 3 penalty/1 play special
13. Watson Holding...not legit. Not accepted. I didn't see a hold on a throw OOB.
14. Hurst Personal Foul Late Hit on QB...not legit. Way more benign than Cox hit last week.
15. OKorn Delay of Game.
That's just the first half folks...9 or 10 of the 15 were legit, IMO, including the one that was picked up. 5 legit on the defense, 4 arguable against the defense, 3 on offense, 2 on special teams, 1 warning against the bench. In the meantime, Indiana gets a targeting call reversed and evidently the refs screwed up by actually calling a ticky tack PI, which Allen goes nuts over and uses a timeout just to complain to the ref. (But Harbaugh...who has been a saint most of the year is the bad guy? Brohm acted the same way in the Purdue game...). Scales drove his shoulder through JOKs helmet on a bang bang play. I get that the slide/duck caused the high hit, but he DROVE his shoulder into a SLIDING QBs head...that's targeting.
The second half wasn't as bad, but still...
16. O'Korn Delay of Game on shovel pass to Hill that looked like it was going for good yardage, assuming Hill could run over the CB near the first down marker.
17. Hewlett Holding on a punt return because the C fell down...really quite ticky tack.
18. TWJ false start
19. Chessman Holding...seriously? That was a hold? C'mon Man.
20. Long PI in overtime. That can't be called. 2 guys hand fighting and a bad back shoulder throw.
BTW, there were at least 4 instances where Indiana gained another yard or THREE from bad spots. That last PI call was literally right at the 15 yard marker, yet the ball was spotted at the 12. When Walker ran out of bounds he almost stepped on the first down marker and it was spotted as an 8 yard gain. On a sack they got an extra 1.5 yards on the spot and on the Metellus missed tackle mentioned earlier they gave him an extra 1.5 yards. It was almost as bad as the Ohio St debacle.
Indiana had 278 yards of offense. We gave them 141 yards in penalties, half of those penalty yards were not legitimate. And they gave them at least 5 yards in favorable spots.
Indiana got away with at least one pick play and a block below the waist that sent McCray out for a play. Officials almost let them get away with a 62 yard pass play when the guy stepped out of bounds. Again, I try to be as objective as possible, but there were some really questionable calls and they all went against us except the PI on Indiana. (Allen also complained vigorously about a spot on a punt that I have no idea what his argument was).
The bottom line is we cannot expect ANY help from the refs in this conference. It's a pattern. The league apologizes to OSU for a questionable targeting call. I don't think the play was targeting, but I don't think it was so egregious that it deserved an apology. Speight gets his neck broken and we hear nothing....
Anyways, moving on. We didn't turn the ball over, partially because the officials made a questionable call against Indiana. We forced 2 (3) TOs. Lavert Hill is playing outstanding football right now, btw. So that's a big change from last week and probably why we won.
They beat us in the punt game. The IU punt returner turned around Robbins longest punt for a 53 yard return that was well executed. They flipped the field on us a couple of times. DPJ bobbled one or two of his returns, so that needs to be tightened up. It seems like we have at least one 25 yard punt every game. Our kickoff coverage was very good, we didn't take any kicks out of the end zone (which is improvement), and Nordin has been outstanding.
QB play...
I actually liked the game plan. We took the air out of the ball for the most part. We still dropped back to pass 21 times. O'Korn scrambled twice...once for a 4 yard gain and once to buy time to hit DPJ for the longest pass play of the game (a whopping 18 yards). He completed 10 passes...mostly quick hitters, missed 10 passes (anytime we asked him to read a play), avoided turnovers (aided by a questionable call), and had one bad exchange with Evans (which I presume was Evans fault since he was not noticed for the next quarter or so).
The completions...
1. 9 yards to Gentry on the first play...a timing route/no read/out pattern.
2. 6 yards to Gentry on slant...first receiver squeezed it in.
3. 3 yards to TWJ on quick out.
4. 2 yards to DPJ on tunnel screen. TWJ gets out late, DPJ too far in backfield?
5. 18 yards to DPJ on scramble. Nice job avoiding sack
6. 2 yards to McKeon
7. 13 yards to DPJ on screen
8. 6 yards to Crawford on a quick throw
9. -2 yards to Crawford on a quick throw
10 2 yards to DPJ on a tunnel screen.
I'll give JOK the benefit of the doubt on the first pass dropped by Perry in the redzone that was a little high, but needs to be caught. McKeon dropped a pass in the flat that was behind and going nowhere anyway. He missed 2 long balls (one was PI on Indiana in double coverage when Gentry was open for 15). He threw 3 OOBs and wasn't quite able to execute a screen to HIgdon due to pressure. He tried to force one that was broken up and missed on one other downfield attempt.
There are not a lot of positives to take out of this game, or the last, with JOK. Nothing was completed downfield in a traditional drop back, read the defense, make a throw.
Other observations...
In the first half, we ran on first down 8 times and dropped back to pass 6 times. The 6 runs went for 7,9,3,16,12, 12 (taken back by Crawford penalty on McDoom sweep), -5 (bad exchange with Evans), and 3. On the passes we went 9, inc, 2, inc, 4 (scramble), 2. Evidently realizing that throwing the ball on first down was a bad idea, we only did it twice in the second half...the incomplete bomb to Crawford into double coverage (with and armbar/PI), and a -2 yard quick pass to Crawford (I think Gentry was late getting out to block the man covering Crawford).
The tunnel screen looks a little wonky, but with a little better timing could have gone for big yardage. I don't know if DPJ is coming back too far for the ball or if the TEs are a little slow getting out to block the guy covering him, but the two plays to him that only went for 2 yards were very close to being off to the races.
As Balas noted, that shovel pass negated by a delay of game looked like it was good for at least a first down and may be more if Hill can break a tackle.
I know it's coachspeak, but we are competing...We're having a hard time finishing, mostly because of youth (IMO). There was some improvement from our OL and running backs. We're very lucky to survive this one, and every game is going to be a dog fight. Karan Higdon made some plays today and I think DPJ is a step away on a couple of occasions. If we start making those plays, things will get more comfortabe. For now, be happy with the W and the opportunity to go into Penn St and get better.
I don't think you give Peters his first start at night in Happy Valley. PSU DE Shaka Toney is legit and they will be the best team we've faced. But they're beatable. I expect very conservative offense (maybe use O'Korn in the run game more? I don't expect much improvement in the downfield game at this point, unfortunately). Let the defense shine. Keep the score down and hope to make a big play in a one possession game (like Sparty did against us, under the lights). Iowa held them to 14 points despite 600 yards of offense until McSorley snuck one into the end zone (to an unintended receiver with the Iowa DB alligator arming the potential break up).
Don't get me wrong...I don't EXPECT us to go into PSU and all of a sudden start playing better. We're struggling. But I'm optimistic about an improving run game, a championship defense and a potential game changer at K. I THINK we can win this...
I'm not going to break down too many plays, but I think the OL played much better. Higdon obviously helped them by making a few good reads and running hard. And nobody came clean on the pass rush. The defense was championship level again, but missed a few tackles. Indiana's first TD was right after Metellus had a chance to wrap up a receiver 4 yards short of the first, but gets flat footed and juked, giving Indiana a first down. Their other TD was after a long punt return that was well executed by Indiana (I didn't see a block in the back, though I read on here that some thought there was).
So right to the Penalties....a whopping 16 for 141 yards. Most were legit, some definitely were not. But if Indiana was wearing blue, they would have been called for at least 5 more. I try to be objective as possible, but it sure did seem like at least one of the officials was trying to make it very difficult on us. Here's the list (including one that was picked up, a sideline warning (???) and two that were not accepted due to multiple fouls).
1. Gary offside...clearly, but no harm on the 3rd and 15 mistake.
2. Hawkins block in back on punt return...picked up, but it was a penalty.
3. Hill PI...I thought it was a bad call. There was some clutching, but nothing to affect the route and he played the ball beautifully.
4. Furbush offside (called on McCray...Dwumfour may have been in the neutral zone, too)
5. Sideline warning? I still can't see it. Nobody was in the white. Ref marking his territory...yet later in the game a ref has to walk between like 6 Indiana guys to mark a punt and no call).
6. Furbush 12th man.
7. DPJ holding
8. JBB False start
9. Metellus Unsportsmanlike Conduct...(didn't see it off the screen) on a punt return.
10. Crawford Unsportsmanlike Conduct on Mcdoom jet sweep, blocking and chippy OOB.
11. Long Holding...ok call, but he doesn't move receiver, just doesn't get his hands off in time
12. Hudson Offside...legit, Hurst may have been too. Part of the 3 penalty/1 play special
13. Watson Holding...not legit. Not accepted. I didn't see a hold on a throw OOB.
14. Hurst Personal Foul Late Hit on QB...not legit. Way more benign than Cox hit last week.
15. OKorn Delay of Game.
That's just the first half folks...9 or 10 of the 15 were legit, IMO, including the one that was picked up. 5 legit on the defense, 4 arguable against the defense, 3 on offense, 2 on special teams, 1 warning against the bench. In the meantime, Indiana gets a targeting call reversed and evidently the refs screwed up by actually calling a ticky tack PI, which Allen goes nuts over and uses a timeout just to complain to the ref. (But Harbaugh...who has been a saint most of the year is the bad guy? Brohm acted the same way in the Purdue game...). Scales drove his shoulder through JOKs helmet on a bang bang play. I get that the slide/duck caused the high hit, but he DROVE his shoulder into a SLIDING QBs head...that's targeting.
The second half wasn't as bad, but still...
16. O'Korn Delay of Game on shovel pass to Hill that looked like it was going for good yardage, assuming Hill could run over the CB near the first down marker.
17. Hewlett Holding on a punt return because the C fell down...really quite ticky tack.
18. TWJ false start
19. Chessman Holding...seriously? That was a hold? C'mon Man.
20. Long PI in overtime. That can't be called. 2 guys hand fighting and a bad back shoulder throw.
BTW, there were at least 4 instances where Indiana gained another yard or THREE from bad spots. That last PI call was literally right at the 15 yard marker, yet the ball was spotted at the 12. When Walker ran out of bounds he almost stepped on the first down marker and it was spotted as an 8 yard gain. On a sack they got an extra 1.5 yards on the spot and on the Metellus missed tackle mentioned earlier they gave him an extra 1.5 yards. It was almost as bad as the Ohio St debacle.
Indiana had 278 yards of offense. We gave them 141 yards in penalties, half of those penalty yards were not legitimate. And they gave them at least 5 yards in favorable spots.
Indiana got away with at least one pick play and a block below the waist that sent McCray out for a play. Officials almost let them get away with a 62 yard pass play when the guy stepped out of bounds. Again, I try to be as objective as possible, but there were some really questionable calls and they all went against us except the PI on Indiana. (Allen also complained vigorously about a spot on a punt that I have no idea what his argument was).
The bottom line is we cannot expect ANY help from the refs in this conference. It's a pattern. The league apologizes to OSU for a questionable targeting call. I don't think the play was targeting, but I don't think it was so egregious that it deserved an apology. Speight gets his neck broken and we hear nothing....
Anyways, moving on. We didn't turn the ball over, partially because the officials made a questionable call against Indiana. We forced 2 (3) TOs. Lavert Hill is playing outstanding football right now, btw. So that's a big change from last week and probably why we won.
They beat us in the punt game. The IU punt returner turned around Robbins longest punt for a 53 yard return that was well executed. They flipped the field on us a couple of times. DPJ bobbled one or two of his returns, so that needs to be tightened up. It seems like we have at least one 25 yard punt every game. Our kickoff coverage was very good, we didn't take any kicks out of the end zone (which is improvement), and Nordin has been outstanding.
QB play...
I actually liked the game plan. We took the air out of the ball for the most part. We still dropped back to pass 21 times. O'Korn scrambled twice...once for a 4 yard gain and once to buy time to hit DPJ for the longest pass play of the game (a whopping 18 yards). He completed 10 passes...mostly quick hitters, missed 10 passes (anytime we asked him to read a play), avoided turnovers (aided by a questionable call), and had one bad exchange with Evans (which I presume was Evans fault since he was not noticed for the next quarter or so).
The completions...
1. 9 yards to Gentry on the first play...a timing route/no read/out pattern.
2. 6 yards to Gentry on slant...first receiver squeezed it in.
3. 3 yards to TWJ on quick out.
4. 2 yards to DPJ on tunnel screen. TWJ gets out late, DPJ too far in backfield?
5. 18 yards to DPJ on scramble. Nice job avoiding sack
6. 2 yards to McKeon
7. 13 yards to DPJ on screen
8. 6 yards to Crawford on a quick throw
9. -2 yards to Crawford on a quick throw
10 2 yards to DPJ on a tunnel screen.
I'll give JOK the benefit of the doubt on the first pass dropped by Perry in the redzone that was a little high, but needs to be caught. McKeon dropped a pass in the flat that was behind and going nowhere anyway. He missed 2 long balls (one was PI on Indiana in double coverage when Gentry was open for 15). He threw 3 OOBs and wasn't quite able to execute a screen to HIgdon due to pressure. He tried to force one that was broken up and missed on one other downfield attempt.
There are not a lot of positives to take out of this game, or the last, with JOK. Nothing was completed downfield in a traditional drop back, read the defense, make a throw.
Other observations...
In the first half, we ran on first down 8 times and dropped back to pass 6 times. The 6 runs went for 7,9,3,16,12, 12 (taken back by Crawford penalty on McDoom sweep), -5 (bad exchange with Evans), and 3. On the passes we went 9, inc, 2, inc, 4 (scramble), 2. Evidently realizing that throwing the ball on first down was a bad idea, we only did it twice in the second half...the incomplete bomb to Crawford into double coverage (with and armbar/PI), and a -2 yard quick pass to Crawford (I think Gentry was late getting out to block the man covering Crawford).
The tunnel screen looks a little wonky, but with a little better timing could have gone for big yardage. I don't know if DPJ is coming back too far for the ball or if the TEs are a little slow getting out to block the guy covering him, but the two plays to him that only went for 2 yards were very close to being off to the races.
As Balas noted, that shovel pass negated by a delay of game looked like it was good for at least a first down and may be more if Hill can break a tackle.
I know it's coachspeak, but we are competing...We're having a hard time finishing, mostly because of youth (IMO). There was some improvement from our OL and running backs. We're very lucky to survive this one, and every game is going to be a dog fight. Karan Higdon made some plays today and I think DPJ is a step away on a couple of occasions. If we start making those plays, things will get more comfortabe. For now, be happy with the W and the opportunity to go into Penn St and get better.
I don't think you give Peters his first start at night in Happy Valley. PSU DE Shaka Toney is legit and they will be the best team we've faced. But they're beatable. I expect very conservative offense (maybe use O'Korn in the run game more? I don't expect much improvement in the downfield game at this point, unfortunately). Let the defense shine. Keep the score down and hope to make a big play in a one possession game (like Sparty did against us, under the lights). Iowa held them to 14 points despite 600 yards of offense until McSorley snuck one into the end zone (to an unintended receiver with the Iowa DB alligator arming the potential break up).
Don't get me wrong...I don't EXPECT us to go into PSU and all of a sudden start playing better. We're struggling. But I'm optimistic about an improving run game, a championship defense and a potential game changer at K. I THINK we can win this...
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