Blue & White Roundtable: Week 5

If you couldn't tell by the feel of the questions, the crazy folks at The Nittany Line came up with them this week. Other possible participants:

There is No Name on My Jersey
Tangled Up in White and Blue
W. F. Yurasko
Happy Hour Valley
Black Shoe Diaries
Zombie Nation

1. *warning - painfully obvious question alert* Penn State gets its first ‘real’ test this weekend facing a ranked opponent when the Fighting [None-Offensive-Mascot]s come to town. Gaze into your crystal ball and give us a short description on how Saturday night’s events will unfold. Or if you’re lazy just fire up NCAA 2009 and tell us what the Xbox thinks.

This question is painfully obvious. We would have asked the same thing.
The quotations around 'real' are pretty important in this question. What makes the Illini a real test? Just the fact that they're in the Big11Ten?

Ok, so they're a good team. Far and away the best team PSU has played to this point, but they're still a pretty underwhelming squad. Illinois is giving up a ton of yardage and got smoked by the only legit team they've played.

How legit will is Penn State? We might just find out this weekend. We doubt they'll drop 60-something on them like they did in 2005, but we expect a performance significantly better than what we saw last year when Morelli was throwing two picks and the backs struggled to punch the ball in from the two.

We expect the offense to move the ball with little problem and we expect the defense to do enough to stop an offense that has done pretty well do this point. We feel PSU has the edge on both sides of the ball, and should beat the Illini with relative ease.

Upon firing up NCAA 09, however, we discovered the whole team had been suspended for a violation of team rules, so we can't give the virtual report.


2. Saturday’s game is on the big stage at 8:00 with most of the football world watching. It’s a white out and Penn State is favored by two scores (as of Monday). Is this a lose-lose situation (the only way they could look good is by winning big) for Penn State or golden opportunity to show the world what the Spread HD is all about?

Well, we definitely don't think it's a lose-lose situation. Whether Penn State wins big or wins ugly, we don't care, we just want them to win. It's pretty likely that in 8 weeks, no one's gonna care much about the margin of victory in the first conference game.

But if we have to pick, we think this game is more of a golden opportunity. It's on national TV, and it is definitely a good chance to make a statement. The offense has been smoking hot, the defense has been at least very solid, and if the Lions win big, people are going to take notice. We have a feeling that the rest of the country doesn't think to much of the Big11Ten, especially after Ohio State took a big crap in LA a couple weeks ago. So if the team can come out and look like a juggernaut, then maybe people will start to realize this conference isn't all about the Buckeyes.

3. Now that all the fluff questions are out of the way do Maurice Evans and Abe Koroma get significant playing time?

Count us amongst those who are really sick of this story. In our opinion, there's no way these guys should even be practicing. Unless we missed something, weren't they charged with marijuana possession? For the 400th time, we ask, how stupid do you have to be? It's also incredible that Joe isn't being lambasted in the press for letting them back. Doesn't it seem like this was backwards? Shouldn't you stand up for them and let them work with the team when there are no charges and then suspend them when there are?

Perhaps we're being uptight, but that's the way we feel. Of course, the question didn't ask what we thought about it, it just asked if we think they'll get some PT. Our guess is that won't start or see significant action, but will be used in a backup role to spell the others. If they're going to be out there, we hope they play well.


Lightning Round

1. Back in 2007, Illinois Basketball fans made my skull crack open in rage slightly angered me when they befouled the statue of Joe Paterno. Do you hate the Illini like me or not so much?
No. (Hey, until last year, they really sucked, so they weren't really a threat. And we didn't even know we had a basketball team.)

2. It’s a night game please quantify the amount of alcohol you will consume before gametime (if you don’t drink please quantify the amount of fatty foods you will eat).

Have we mentioned our cooker? It makes a lot of food. A lot.



3. Put it on the line – final score: PSU 37, Illinois 17