Blue & White Roundtable

Thanks to Zombie Nation for setting this up.

Other participants:
There is No Name on My Jersey
Tangled Up in White and Blue
William F. Yurasko
Happy Hour Valley
Black Shoe Diaries
The Nittany Line
Zombie Nation


Oregon State finished with 404 passing yards last week. Does that worry you at all, considering PSU gave up some quality passing yardage to CCU?

It worries us, but not too much. The linebackers and secondary looked a little shaky defending the pass last week, so there is a small level of concern. But on the other hand, two things make us feel pretty good about the Oregon State stat: 1.) they were playing Stanford and 2.) they still ended up losing, despite all the yards through the air.

Oregon State’s QB, Lyle Moevao, definitely had a great game last week, but the Beavers’ offensive attack was too one-dimensional. They had 120 yards rushing, but again, consider the opponent. If Penn State can shut OSU’s ground game down like they should and build a lead, they can adjust their D for the pass. So playing catch up might help Moevao put up solid numbers again, but we don’t think it’s going to matter in the end.

If there's one unit in particular that has to play well this week, which one is it? Which unit could disappoint?

The secondary, on both accounts. The entire offense and the defensive line played terrific last week so we should hope they can duplicate the results this week. As mentioned in the previous question, Oregon State threw for a monster 404 yards last week against Stanford. Unfortunately for Oregon State, however, Penn State ain't no Stanford. The defensive line will be better suited to stop their running game (which didn't really do a whole heck of a lot in the first place) and the PSU offense should put up the points that will pressure Oregon State to start the gun slinging early and often. All that adds up to pressure on the secondary. Sure, the defense will adjust to that type of game if it's heading in that direction, but after seeing the kind of success that lowly Coastal Carolina was having with those short passes it should at least make you a little nervous when you face an actual FBS school that's capable of throwing the ball.

OK, elephant in the room. How big will the "5204" story get? If two of the players originally suspected of being there (*cough--thanks Collegian--cough-cough) weren't actually there at the time, how much of this has already been blown out of proportion? Does this effect Saturday's game?

The fact that this ran in the paper at all indicates that it's already been blown out of proportion. What are our thoughts on a player's party getting busted up by the fuzz? We say, "who cares?" Such is life in college. Sure, the players are held to a higher standard because of who they are, but they're also 19, 20 and 21 year old kids. These things will happen and even at your party at your own house, you can't really control what people carry in. If the story continues on and the weed belongs to one of the players who lived in the house, then we'll concede that maybe they should get off the Blue bus and head on to the green or red one that goes to the special kids' school. While we feel it is really none of our business what they do, and that these things do in fact happen, the players have to know that every eye in town is on them and that they need to keep their noses clean.

We do not believe this will really affect the game much at all. JoePa will drop his "ahhh, I, I, I, don't know what you're talkin about!" line and pretend it never happened, then coach his team like he does every other week of the season. Will the players involved have a bad game because of the incident? Doubtful. Anyone who's played a sport at any level of competition knows that you leave your personal life at the door and play your game once you step on the field. These guys are playing at the elite collegiate level, they should be more than capable of doing that.

Lightning Round

How many passes will Pat Devlin attempt?
8

How many times will Daryll Clark run the ball?
8

What will this week's Game Day Pins say? You know, the ones Citizens Bank gives out.
"Dam the Beavers"