For the love of God....

What now? More fights, more drankin', and road rage. This is beyond disturbing. The 2007 Nits are now looking more like an episode of COPS (sans the Midwest white trash), than they are a football team.

I wrote my roommates about the issues. Mike replied thussly:

"Who cares. I'm done following every rumor posted on a message board.
Especially about idiots fighting. Joe's not gonna say anything about it
anytime soon anyway, when the fallout happens, we'll know. Some of
those message boards are retarded, like when I read one guy having an
"inside source" that hazelton was definitely coming to PSU. "

True that. Plus, pretending in my head that nothing is happening sure makes concentrating on this week's game against Wisconsin easier.

Figure 1-2: We don need no stinkin' batchers

Wisconsin rolls into Happy Valley in a near free-fall after losing to Illinois. Sounds familiar.

The Good

• They lost starting WR Swan for the season, and to make matters worse, their high falootin' defense gave up 289 yds on the ground last week, and 121 thru the air with the juice even throwing for a TD. This is the hallmark of an option offense, which would be great if Mills or Robinson at the helm.
• Donovan is averaging 2 INTs over the last two games (Illinois, MSU).
• There offense put up only 13 points on Iowa at home.
• The Citadel rang 31 points up on them.
• Have not had a cohesive game yet, relying on either Hill or Donovan to carry them.
• Hill has health problems (groin)

The Bad

• Hill and Donovan are capable of carrying this team past the Nits.

The Ugly

Intangibles

• Home game
• 3:30 start time leads to alcohol fueled fans without hangovers. Loud noises and sudden movements will not frighten them. Which is good, because the towels they are bringing will not scare the Badgers. We are going to need the crowd in this one.

Other Notables

Wisconsin lost the keystone of their OL in Joe Thomas, while our young D-Line is getting better. This favors us in that Hill will have much less room to run. I suspect much of the same gameplan as Michigan, defensively, which is nice because they really only put up 7 points on us. However, Donovan is better than Mallett, but has a lesser talented receiving core (see injury above).

The Wisconsin D is going to do everything they can to stop the run early, and make Morelli throw downfield. Morelli put up 134 yards in the first half last week, with the majority of yardage coming in the 2nd quarter. This was after Royster dismantled the Iowa D that only lets up 83 yards a game on the ground.

Morelli passing in the redzone has been downright scary. Last week, I am pretty sure he would have been benched had not DWill broken up the potential INT in the end zone.

Predictions

• The PSU playcalling has vastly improved since the Michigan nightmare. Mistakes now can be attributed to the players, for the most part.
• I really don't know if they are going to let Morelli throw too often in the red zone, but if it does happen, I would think they would insert Brackett, Golden, and Quarless for the jump ball.
• Both of our lines have improved, and even dominated last week.
• Morelli had one bad pick and a few bad passes last week. No bad picks, and a few errant passes will be tolerated at this point.
• Supposed to be some wind in the Valley on Saturday, so I wouldn't expect 53-yard FGs from Kelly.

PSU has not won a close game this year. PSU 31 Wisc 21

B10 Trap Game of the Week

This weeks trap game in the B10 belongs to the Purdue Michigan matchup. Why? Because i need a flimsy premace to issue the seal of Admiral Akbar.

PSU/Iowa Recap

So much went right this game, but there were still a few mistakes. As predicted (kinda), PSU played its most complete game of the season, defeating Iowa 27-7. Please note I got the total points scored right.

Notes from the first half:

• PSU comes out throwing downfield! Offense is churning, picking apart the Iowa D! Great drive!! Kinlaw fumbles... Enter Royster.
• Morelli looks good. His problem again is staring down receivers. It almost looks like he sees an open receiver, and his brain takes 2-3 seconds to coordinate his body. When he was trying to go through his progression, found an open receiver, and had to throw the ball with haste, he was inaccurate. Otherwise, he hit some receivers in stride, threw over the middle. The one play that killed me was a wide open Royster down the sideline on a screen. He was overthrown by 10 yards. On a screen.
• The defense absolutely owned the Iowa offense in every facet, holding them to 3 first downs.
• The most blessed drive was the last one of the 1rst half. About a minute left, PSU starting deep in its own territory. Morelli runs the no-huddle like Elway, and drives the team down into FG distance. Kelly splits the uprights from 53 yards. Absolute ecstasy. For one drive, everything clicked and PSU looked how i thought it should.
• Norwood flips the ball at the guy who tackled him. 15-yard unsportsmanlike. I still agree with the call-I think Norwood's intention was to just talk some ish to the defender, and made the mistake of flipping the ball near him. The defender walked into it, but still, you can't make these kinds of decisions when you are 0-2 in the B10.

Notes from the second half

• PSU still dominant. 20-0. Morelli is driving down the field and throws a pass to Williams on the sideline. Well thrown ball, and the Iowa safety makes an excellent play on the ball. Was Morelli at fault? Maybe. But it is a throw I can see most good QBs try to make.
• Iowa airs it out, and beats King downfield. Short drive, ending up in an Iowa TD. King is getting too complacent. 20-7. First nerves setting in.
• Next drive, Morelli gets flushed, and makes an unforgivable pass into triple coverage. Pick. Officially nervous. The PSU D comes up huge, reminding me why I should have faith in them.
• The offense, now featuring a more focused Kinlaw, goes right down the field and easily puts the ball in the endzone. Iowa is physically and mentally beaten. PSU wins, snapping a 5 game losing streak to Iowa.

Overall

First and foremost, the defense was stellar with the line blowing up the Iowa OL. The DTs were both studs-Iowa had no inside running game. Kudos to them. The LBs were left free to roam and finished up whatever the DL left over.

Derrick Williams officially has his confidence back. Bell should thank Williams for bailing him out after that drop in the endzone.

Morelli followed the same pattern as the Illinois game. Start competent, get confident, screw up in the second half. He did look improved in that he didn't give the game to Iowa, so bully for him.

Again, we need to platoon the RBs. Royster and Kinlaw make a very good combination. Royster just needs to stay healthy.

This game was a definite confidence booster to the OL. They did struggle at times in the passing game, but excelled in opening holes for both RBs.

Next week, we get Wisconsin at home. All players should be extremely motivated to beat a ranked team for homecoming.