Let's Analyze PENN STATE For A Minute.......

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thailleagle

thailleagle

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Penn State is 5-1 and 1-1 in Conference Play. Minnesota is 4-2 & 2-1 in Conference Play.......

Let's look at Penn State's Schedule.......

W Akron (31-7)
W Syracuse (28-7)
W Temple (31-6)
L Iowa (21-10)
W Illinois (35-17)
W Eastern Ill. (52-3)

They're not even remotely battle tested and the one team they did lose to hasn't really proven themselves either. Iowa beat a questionable Michigan team by 2 points with the aid of 5 Turnovers & struggled against Northern Iowa & Arkansas State. Illinois is *CLEARLY* having a horrific year and Penn State didn't even really put up any points until the 4th Quarter of that game. They scored 10 points on Iowa quickly and then got shut down the rest of the game.

After looking at their stats it seems that the Running Game is their bread & butter. We stop that and force Clark to pass & we could come away with a victory. They might have "Mason Syndrome" which means they can dominate bad teams but aren't conditioned to play any kind of real competition.

If we have all cylinders firing on Saturday I think we'll win because Penn State hasn't played anybody except Iowa and they lost.......

Minnesota 27, Penn State 24 :clap:
 

It's fair to say that we have a chance to win. I haven't watched them this year, aside from highlights, but their wins don't seem all that impressive. If we get a couple turnovers, we could bring the bell home.
 

I think of the 3 remaining road games, this is the most winnable ... by far ... they have a good LB, Lee, who didn't play yest., and may not play next week ... Royston a stud ... a starting CB got hurt yest. ... and they were playing their backup RT ... I assume when the line comes out later that PSU will be a 14 pt fav. or so ... think it absolutely can be closer than that.
 

Watching the Iowa v Penn State game, Penn really struggled to put points on the board. As long as the Gophers can keep it close I'm confident we can pull a W out of Happy Valley.
 

These next two games are winnable games. Let's hope the Gophers don't do a Twins imitation and beat themselves mentally before the games start.

As has been said, Penn St. looks rocky and Ohio St.'s offense is truly putrid. Stay close, get good special teams play and come ahead late, we have a good chance to win both games.
 


The problem with this game is that we won't be able to move the ball on the ground, thus not through the air, and thus not at all.

PSU's defense has really not given up anything all year. The 17 to Illinois were in garbage time, and we all know the 21 points Iowa scored were off the blocked punt and Darryl Clark TO's.

Speaking of Clark - when he is pressured he turns into a bad QB (sound familiar, Gopher fans?). Iowa was able to rush 4 the majority of the time and get pressure with Binns, Klug, and Claybourne. Unfortunately as we've seen - the Gophers will not be able to get consistent pressure with just four and Clark will get comfortable. Then - watch out.

Evan Royster is more than capable running the ball and our D is not good enough to shut him down.

I don't see PSU scoring 35 in this game without any special teams or defensive TDs, but they will be able to score 20 in this game. Unfortunately unless we get some special teams or defensive TDs like yesterday I don't see how we can put 20 on the board against PSU.
 

I agree, having looked at PSU wins thus far, none are against great teams! We could use our wins against Syracuse as a possible indicator, but our game against Syracuse, they were more motivated to win (first game of the season for new coach + Paulus and it was at home for them).

PSU's real game was against Iowa, I strongly believe we have the momemtum to go into HV to pull an upset! (if we don't loose Burris)

Go Gophers!!
 

I hope Brewster said the following at team meetings this morning:

This week, Penn State. Let's get one thing clear. We're going to win up front. We're going to run the ball. They're not.
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You want to kill the lion. Tip-toeing only gets you so close. Eventually you need a plan to kill the lion. So why not plan on killing it and stop figuring out ways to trick it. Studwell's Thought for the Day.
 

I think our defensive line really comes together this week. Onwuachi had a good game vs Purdue (did anyone see how high he jumped to bat down those passes?!). And we get Ced back. Combined with the rotation we use to keep our line fresh I think we can get some pressure on Clark.

So far special teams and well timed turnovers have given us superb field position. If we can keep that up Penn State's stout defense has a more difficult time IMHO.
 



I don't like the matchup, but I agree Penn State is a team that can be beat. I think you have to get to the QB better than we seem able to. I know we're starting to get healthier, and deeper and are probably improving at this so maybe.
 

Evan Royster doesn't really concern me because I don't think the Gophers will see a better running back then Jahvid Best and he was slowed down completely in that 2nd Half. I think if the game is forced into Clarks hands then this could be a very close game that comes down to the final minutes.......
 

Penn State's schedule has been absolutely embarrassing thus far, but that doesn't mean they're not a good team. If Minnesota can fire on all cylinders then they absolutely have a shot to pull the upset, but we can't afford to give up turnovers in Happy Valley.
 

Had Kim on the mind and typing too fast ... meant Royster ... my bad
 



hailtothegophers said:
Penn State's schedule has been absolutely embarrassing thus far, but that doesn't mean they're not a good team. If Minnesota can fire on all cylinders then they absolutely have a shot to pull the upset, but we can't afford to give up turnovers in Happy Valley.
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Bottom line: this deep into the season, and we know very little about Penn State ... maybe as little as any team in the country.
 

Doogie said:
Bottom line: this deep into the season, and we know very little about Penn State ... maybe as little as any team in the country.
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I have a lot of friends who are PSU fans (barf) and I love hearing them talk about their cake schedule. Every week has been a "tune up" or a "preseason" game for them to get ready for their "real season" (read: OSU). That plan worked really well for them a couple weeks ago. I can only hope it works as well this week.
 

thailleagle said:
They might have "Mason Syndrome" which means they can dominate bad teams but aren't conditioned to play any kind of real competition.
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While that may be true, we haven't exactly established that we are in the "real competition" category either.
 

Gophers beating Penn State? I didn't know Weber was ruled out as a starter.
 

Scary part of this game is that Penn State leads the league in sacks. Our OL will have to get much better and fast. Could be a long day offensively. Adam could be running for his life.
 

IMO a winnable game. However, I don't see us winning the game without winning the turnover and special teams battle to give us a shorter field.

Offensively PSU has had trouble with the OL. Our DL needs to win that battle to have a chance. If Royster (and Stephfon Greeen who is a more dangerous back) can get going we aren't going to win. The PSU receivers are not as dynamic as last year but they can get open and make plays. Our secondary isn't good enough to cover them for long periods of time so we need to get pressure on Clark. Iowa didn't have to blitz but we probably will have to blitz to get pressure. Luckily, PSU's OL hasn't been good at picking up blitzes either. Pressure Clark and he will make mistakes. Like I said, we need to win the turnover battle so we need Clark to make mistakes.

On offense I think we need to approach the game understanding their front 7 is among the top 10 in the country and it is a mismatch against our OL. That being said, their secondary is still very greeen with 4 new starters. We need to throw the ball around to beat them. We'll probably have to run a lot of draws and screens to keep their pass rush honest and we'll see max protect in obvious passing situations. Weber needs to have his best game of the season and minimize turnovers.

It is a winnable game but they are a 2 TD+ favorite for a reason.
 

I absolutely agree the key against Penn State is a pass rush. And it's not our strength. However I think it's an improved area for us, hopefully getting McKinley back adds the depth to wear their less than stellar Oline down. It's why I don't like the matchup, Clark can be beat if he has to beat you with his arm under pressure. Otherwise its pretty tough.
 

The best passing offenses we've faced thus far are Purdue (ranked #22 in passing yards) and Northwestern (#25 in passing yards). In the case of Purdue, this is a legitimate stat as they have faced some good teams. Penn State is ranked at #39, but - as has been stated - they really haven't played anyone except Iowa. So I think our defense should match up well when they pass the ball.

In terms of rushing offenses, we've faced #3 Air Force and Javid Best and John Clay, so I think we won't be overwhelmed by Evan Royster. Royster is a very good back, but he won't be able to beat us on his own.

My main concern, like others have posted here, is how our offense will or won't be able to perform against a very good Penn State defense.

If we play a good game, it should be a low-scoring affair (especially if the weather is a factor). In that case, a 3 or 7 point swing can win the game. The key to these kinds of games is to limit mistakes.

In the end, I think that if our offense has fewer mistakes than theirs, we could hang with them.
 

I don't think they will hang a tremendous number of points on us, the question will be if we can score points against their defense.
 

Our inconsistency is our biggest problem on Offense and killing ourselves with Penalties doesn't help either.......
 

Eagle has it right. We're probably not going to shut them down, we'll have to score some points. Thus far we've hurt ourselves too frequently to have the consistency needed in this game. On the flip side, when we're rolling we've looked very good. At some point we will iron the kinks out, or so I hope.
 

The key to beating Penn State is take advantage of there agressive defense.

If we can catch them with some quick fakes, there corners and safties like to jump routes. Fake the out to Stoudimire and catch him on a shallow cross where he can wheel away. Play action where we leak Tow-Arnett up the field after getting the running game going some. Some bubble screens where we can jam there corners and safties. We should pull out that pitch play on the edge to Decker. These are some things we can catch them with because they are so quick and agressive to the ball. These play action plays have to be quick, anything to long to develop will get shut off. I would eliminate reverses because they are quick to the edge and stay home well. The play action has to be something that sucks them in quick also some of those middle screens to the tight end or backs or quick dump offs over the middle.

Get a rythem going with a lot of three step drops and gone. As long as you get Weber in a rythem going quickly with a faster tempo I think we can be effective in the short but quick passing game.
 

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