Game 1 Recap

Penn State 66, Coastal Carolina 10

Well, first of all, our prediction was wrong. The teams almost eclipsed our prediction in the first half alone. Actually, as expected, the Chanticleers were underwhelming. However, our offense had a huge day and outperformed our mediocre expectations for them (yeah, it was a D1-AA school, but it’s our offense, and it was the first game, we thought 42 points was a fair assessment).

Two of the WWTL staff actually attended this game, with pretty nice seats in the north end zone. Of course, neither of us remembered a camera cable/card reader, so our pictures will be coming tomorrow or Monday. But anyway, the crowd was solid at the start, but the student section was predictably late. For the Chanticleers, tens of fans made the trip from the Myrtle Beach area to support the team. It was overcast, cloudy and muggy, so we probably would’ve stayed in Myrtle Beach too.

So, as always, the Blue Band did their thing (a class act as always), the anthem was played, and we still don’t know the goddamn words to the alma mater. But after all that, the season was ready to begin.

1st Quarter

Penn State kicked off to open the game, and while Coastal didn’t go three and out, they did punt after about six plays, which was no surprise. The Lions wasted no time at all, and rammed the ball down the collective throat of the Chanticleers. After a rush by Derrick Williams and two completions to Deon Butler, Evan Royster ran one in from 7 yards for the first touchdown of the season.

7-0

After a quick offensive series by Coastal, Penn State had the ball again. The second was a lot like the first: nothing too special, but after a couple rushes by Royster and completed passes by Clark, Royster took one in for his second touchdown of the game.

14-0

After the ensuing kickoff, Coastal broke the 50-yard line, but after two false starts, they had to punt again. And four letters can sum up Penn State’s next drive: p-u-n-t. Coastal had the ball back, ran a couple plays, and time ran out in the first.

2nd Quarter

Coastal started the quarter with the ball on the Penn State 40, and drove to the 33, where they faced a third and three. Tom Bradley’s strategy was to blitz the entire defense, as well as the entire stadium, and that quarterback Zach Macdowall found Trent Usher picking daisies in the middle of the field for a 33-yard touchdown. We watched this on the DVR when we got home, and a Penn State defender could not be seen on the replay when usher caught the ball. A little disheartening.

Penn State's secondary demonstrating their new coverage scheme.

14-7

The tens of fans from Coastal started smelling upset, but we knew better. We agreed that a runback on the kickoff would be nice. And as if sensing our request, D-Will delivered with an 89-yard return for a TD:

Peace.

21-7

And fortunately for the blue and white, this was as close as the game would get. The rest of the half was a complete wash for the Chanticleers offense, and their drives went something like this: punt, punt, fall on face, punt, interception, punt, massive fail.

Things weren’t much better for Coastal’s D either. While it seemed like there were 11 players out there on Coastal’s defense, Penn State’s offense saw a different picture:

Nobody home.

First, Clark hooked up with Norwood for a score on a pretty fade route to the corner of the end zone, almost taking out one of the Chanticleers male cheerleaders in the process, and that would’ve been bad news. Just ask Duke the Dog from James Madison what happens when you mess with Coastal’s cheerleaders:

Chauncey the Chanticleer in his finest moment.

28-7

On Penn State’s next offensive series, Pat Devlin entered the game and showed no signs of first-game jitters as he immediately found Norwood for a 40-yard gain, which was eventually followed by a 7-yard touchdown run by freshman sensation Stephfon Green.

35-7

Devlin nearly drove the offense to another touchdown, but came up short. No worries as Kevin Kelly cleaned it up with a 31-yard field goal to essentially close out the half.

38-7

Halftime

The Blue Band with another dominant performance.

3rd Quarter

It was more of the same for the Lions’ offense in the 3rd, as Evan Royster almost single-handedly destroyed Coastal’s D on the drive, and capped it off with a 10-yard touchdown run, his third of the day.

Royster reminds Coastal Carolina that they’ve only had a football program for six years.

45-7

Coastal Carolina followed up that drive with a predictable three and out. Even more predictably, Penn State scored again, this time on a 7-yard rush by Green.

52-7

So at one point in the second quarter, it was 14-7. Halfway through the third, we looked up and said, “Holy shit, it’s 52-7!”

“That escalated quickly.”

After Coastal’s earlier three and out, Coach David Bennett could be seen lobbying a ref:

“This here game’s gettin’ outta hand! I reckon that there blue team oughta only play 9 men on the de-fense!”

Unfortunately for Bennett and his team, the refs couldn’t understand his accent and let play continue:

Domination.

Before long, Penn State was driving behind Devlin and Green. But it was sophomore Chaz Powell who put a huge exclamation point on the drive, burning down the sideline for a 55-yard touchdown run.

59-7

Who the hell is Chaz Powell?

Mercifully for the Chanticleers, the quarter came to a close. In case you’re counting, after they tallied in the second, Penn State put up 45 unanswered points. Yikes.

4th Quarter

At this point, we were just hanging around to see the boys hang a 66-spot on the ol’ Chanticleers before we departed. It happened at the end of a 15-play, 80-yard, nearly 8-minute drive, as freshman Brandon Beachum scored on a run from 1 yard out.

66-7

Again, in case you’re counting, that was Penn State’s 7th rushing touchdown of the day. And Beachum was the 4th player to put one in the end zone on the ground.

Apparently Coastal Carolina added a late field goal, but we wouldn’t know, because we were halfway to The Deli.

66-10.

Penn State Wins.
Stats

Our Quick Thoughts On The Game:
-We thought the offense might sputter a little, since it was the first game. But it definitely didn’t. Everyone looked very solid. Both Clark and Devlin made some nice throws, the line played well, Williams/Butler/Norwood looked stellar, and Royster and Green have the potential to be the best backfield in the Big11Ten. Sure, it was Coastal Carolina, but we feel good about the offense.
-The defense could have some growing pains, especially at the linebacker positions. The backfield looked decent today and the line played well. After the quick lull in the second quarter, things looked good. But we all know the actual tests begin next week.
-We can only hope Williams’ kickoff return was the beginning of a huge season.
-The Chanticleers? Really??
-Stay tuned for our pics from this game, as well as next week’s recap, which will include some pics of our first big tailgate of the season (this was like a preseason game for us).

Penn State Player of the Game: Derrick Williams
This is the Derrick Williams we were hoping to see. While he didn’t have outstanding receiving numbers, he had 165 all-purpose yards, including the huge kickoff return that really woke up the offense. He did have 2 receptions for 45 yards, as well as 2 rushes for 11 yards. And he barely played in the second half.

Coastal Carolina Player of the Game: Chauncey the Chanticleer.
He demonstrated great self-control throughout the game, mainly by not getting into a fight. Also, he was really the only person of note from Coastal Carolina through the game.

A WWTL Special Feature…Douche of the Week!
This week’s award goes to some dude that calls himself Duke Flywalker. As if that weren’t enough to piss you off, he won a rap contest put on by the Daily Collegian, and performed during a time out in today’s game. It was awful, and as you can imagine, incredibly cheesy.

UPDATE: We took the pic down because it's come to our attention that the pic was not of Duke Flywalker. Our mistake. Check out the scoreboard pic in the post above.

If you feel like assaulting your ears, here’s the link to his travesty of a performance. Just to remind you, he’s rapping about Penn State football. Yes, it’s a football rap. No, we are not kidding. View at your own risk.

That’s it for now, we’ll be back this week with some updates. Enjoy your labor day.