Game 3 Recap: PSU 55, Syracuse 13

1st Quarter

What do you do when you're playing a terrible terrible rush defense? You run the ball.
On the first play of the game, PSU got a 9 yard run from Evan Royster. Not a bad way to start.

Unfortunately, the second play was the end of the drive as Daryll Clark lost control of the ball when he was pressured by the Syracuse D-Line.

The Orange and their fans were thinking this was the start of an upset.

Almost as quickly as they began thinking upset, their dreams were crushed as Syracuse turned the ball over on their very first play. A backwards pass was dropped, Lydell Sargent recovered, and PSU had the ball again. Such is life as a Syracuse fan.

Not wanting to let the hopes of the Orange fans get to high, Joe makes the call to rip their hearts out. Clark to Norwood, 55 yards.

7-0

Four plays, 2 turnover and a touchdown. It's a bizarre way to start the game, but we'll take it.

As Syracuse opens up their second drive, the first thing that should strike you is the noise. Sounds like there's a lot of PSU fans in that building, always a good thing.
The second thing that should strike you is the obvious hold on the first play that doesn't get called.

An incomplete pass, a short gain and a no-gain on a draw was all the Syracuse offense could muster up. We came up with that sentence before the series even began.

Sensing they hadn't screwed things up enough, the Orange interfered with Derrick Williams as he attempted to catch the punt. PSU ball, great field position.

The following drive starts off slow as PSU takes a few bad penalties and Clark throws a few incompletions. Despite the bad plays, the Lions are able to move the ball to the red zone on a Norwood reception, a Royster run and a Clark scramble. Feeling the pressure, the Syracuse defense make a few big plays, including a near sack, and force a third and 9.

Third and 9 in the red zone? Clark to Butler. That's si...that's under review.

That would have been good in the pros.

14-0

Syracuse's offense still couldn't get going on their next drive. After stopping Curtis Brinkley (who ran for 143 yards last week) and forcing two completions, Syracuse was punting again.

If you're a Penn State fan, you have to be happy with the performance so far. Up 14-0 halfway through the first quarter and out-gaining Syracuse 128 - -3.

If you're a Syracuse fan, we're glad you're here instead of on some ledge somewhere.

PSU marched down the field on the next drive with a lot of rushing. Royster had a run of 20 yards and Williams gained 14 on an end-around. Williams came up really slow after taking a huge hit on the play, and we had terrible terrible flashbacks of that night in Michigan.

Fullback Dan Lawlor got the final rush of the drive and took it across the line. Who doesn't love seeing a fullback score? Kevin Kelly puts up the extra point.

21-0

Syracuse got the ball, did nothing with it, and punted.

The only thing worth noting as the quarter ended was that Williams was out running a route, so he must not have been hurt too bad.

2nd Quarter

Penn State started the second with a punt, if you can believe it.

Not wanting to be outdone, Syracuse punted as well.

The Lions QB tandem came out on the next drive and threw some nice balls, much to the dismay of Dennis Quaide, maker generic sports movies.

The first was Clark to Butler 26 yards.

Then Royster ran for 31.

Then Devlin threw a 15 yarder to Butler that got them 6 points. Double K with the extra point.

28-0

Syracuse was able to put together a 9 play drive on their next posession. They had a few good passes and a clutch fourth down conversion during that drive, and got themselves to the Penn State 26. Unfortunately, the offense summoned their flux capacitor and went back to first quarter mode. Rush for no gain, incomplete pass and a HUGE dropped ball on a play that would have given them another first down at the PSU 15 (at least), and the Orange had to take the field goal. Patrick Shadle trotted out for the first time since opening kick-off, and knocked down the 44 yarder.

28-3

PSU marched the ball right back down the field when they got the ball back. Devlin threw completions all over the field, and Stephfon Green racked up some yards on the ground. Jordan Norwood then threw the worst pass in the recorded history of halfback passes. Red-headed guy is pissed.

Then on third and seven, Devlin hits Norwood for a 24 yard touchdown, and we're running out of clever ways to say touchdown.

35-3

As the Syracuse offense takes the field, JoePa starts calling timeouts, presumably so Devlin or Clark can get a chance to run the two-minute offense. Syracuse fans are pissed, but PSU forces the Orange to punt amid the boos.

Syracuse does punt and Scirotto fumbled the return. Karma for calling those pointless timeouts?

We are nerds.

Syracuse gets it back but can't do anything with it, and settles for another field goal.

35-6

As time expired, Kevin Kelly kicked a 52 yard field goal to put the Lions up 38-6, and slightly ahead of the 70 point pace we predicted in our preview post.

Kevin Kelly is turning out to be quite the kicker.

Halftime.

Donovan McNabb, thoughts?

meh

3rd Quarter

Syracuse started the third with the ball before punting it away.

Things worked out as far as punts go, and the Syracuse special teams downed the ball at the 1 inch line. The good news is that PSU gets a chance to work coming out of their own end zone. The bad news is there's no one left in Syracuse to make any noise to make things realistic.

The offense managed to work the ball out to the 23 yard line before they had to punt the ball away.

The Syracuse offense had decent field position to start their drive, but it ended rather abruptly when Cameron Dantley's pass was intercepted by Drew Astorino.

Devlin took the boys down the field with a lot of help from Stephfon Green and before you knew it, they were inside the three yard line.

A nifty pitch-out to Green, and the Lions had six more points. Green gets called for excessive celebration on the play, which is kind of a bad thing since you really shouldn't be celebrating excessively when you're up by 39.

45-6

After the kick, ABC showed the replay of the excessive celebration call, and we take back what we said. He was not celebrating excessively. One could argue his celebration was rather underwhelming. What is up with that, NCAA? We've seen the part of the rulebook where it talks about throwing the ball in the air being a penalty, but where does it mention a chest pound and a point to your fans? That's garbage.

Back to the game....
Following a few small plays and then a big 34 yard pass, the Orange went for it on fourth down. They had been 2 for 2 so far today, so why not?

From 11 yards out, touchdown. All six Syracuse fans still in attendance went berserk.

Three for three on fourth down. o-12 on third. Odd stat.

45-13

PSU got the ball back and after a big Chaz Powell return and a few incompletions, it was field goal time.

48-13

4th Quarter

Out came the bags.

Paul Cianciolo gets a TD. Always nice to see.

55-13

GAME.

3 Big Stat Lines:

• Deon Butler: 7 rec., 110 yds, 2 TD
• Jordan Norwood: 10 rec., 113 yds, 2 TD
• Penn State Defense: 49 yards rushing allowed (159 yards offense allowed total)
  

Our Quick Thoughts On The Game:

• We were a little nervous after the first-drive fumble. Luckily that lasted about 4 seconds.
• We loved how ESPN kept saying that the Syracuse coach thought last season was "rock-bottom". After on 0-3 start and surrendering 97 points in the last two games, what would he call this season?
• Another solid day from Evan Royster.
• Despite not showing up big on the stat sheet, we think D-Will had a good day. He's lurking.
• Syracuse RB Curtis Brinkley: 14 carries, 21 yds, 1.5 ypc.
• Great team effort by the D, Syracuse never had a chance, and it took them a while to even get a first down.
• Was Joe laughing or cringing from bad memories when he saw the highlights of Charlie Weiss? Does Joe even watch TV?
• Syracuse is an awful, awful football team.
• Could Temple be the best team we play in the non-conference schedule?

Penn State Player(s) of the Game: Deon Butler and Jordan Norwood
The offense was once again firing on all cylinders, and a lot of guys had good days: Williams, Royster, Clark/Devlin. But Norwood and Butler were the stars of the day. Both went over 100 yards receiving, and both had 2 touchdowns. You could practically feel the air go out of the Carrier Dome when Norwood shook a 'Cuse defender out of his shoes for a 55-yard TD reception on the fifth play of the game. And when Butler made a sweet falling TD grab minutes later, you knew the rout was on. These guys looked fantastic all day and hopefully it's a sign of things to come during Big11Ten play.

Syracuse Player of the Game: None.
Seriously, we aren't trying to be dicks, if Syracuse had anyone that did anything noteworthy, we'd point them out. ESPN gave its player of the game the Orange's kicker for God's sake, and we're definitely not doing that.