Coastal Carolina - 10, #22 Penn State - 66
The long wait of the summer has finally paid off, and the crashing of pads and crunching of helmets for Penn State is now back! And boy did it come back today! Today's first game of the season proved why I have such high expectations of the team this year. 3 awesome senior receivers; 2 super underclassmen running backs; 2 capable QBs; special teams; the only real question was defense. While the defense did okay today, it was the offense that shined. Wow - did I actually say that? It has been a LONG time since I've been able to say that.
The receivers were great (as usual, as long as they have someone who can throw the ball), and Royster and Green were excellent. We racked up 260 passing yards and 334 rushing yards, not to mention D Williams' 82 yard TD kickoff return. 7 rushing TDs - the first since 2003!
And we finally got to see a good quarter and a half of each QB, Clarke and Devlin. While Clark did fair in passing, his running ability was not featured at all. I was a little disappointed. Overall, I think that Devlin performed much better. He was more accurate, more poised, more of a leader. I think the 2 QB scenario should work nicely this year - run Clark when we need to keep an aggressive defense honest, and use Devlin to pick apart strong pass defenses.
The defense started out a little slow, and were succeptible to across-the-middle passing attack. But if the offense is powered like this, it just might be a 1995 repeat, where we didn't need a strong defense because we simply would outscore everyone. I am surprisingly optimistic now, after having seen the team in action. "But Rob, keep in mind - it was a division 1AA school". Yeah, yeah, I know. Next week's test will be much more reflective of how the team handles itself.
So, my grades for the first game of the year:
Offense: B+ (line needs a little more work)
Defense: B
Special teams: A
Up next week: Pass-happy Oregon State. They put up over 400 passing yards in a 28-36 loss to Stanford, so that will test our defense.