On to Week Two of the football season.  This week’s game features the Nittany Lions of Penn St versus the Cuse.  The game is the first road test for new Head Coach Doug Marrone.  Once again Reyes39 and LvilleOrange will get you up to speed on all the intangibles for this week’s tilt.

When: Saturday September 12th, 2009 – 12:00 PM Eastern

Where: State College, PA Beaver Stadium

Capacity: 107,282

Television: Big 10 Network

Tailgating information: TexanMarks Tailgate Guide

Penn State Reading Material: pacusefans Penn State Reading Material Thread

The Spread: Penn State -28.5 The Over/Under is 54.

Rivalry info: Penn State holds the alltime lead in this series at 41-23-5.  The last meeting between the two teams was last year’s 55-13 Penn State victory.  Syracuse is 674-473-49 all time.  Penn State is 802-349-43 all time.

Coaches: Penn State – Joe Paterno 43rd season (384-127-3 overall) Syracuse- Doug Marrone – 1st season at Syracuse (0-1 overall.)

Syracuse Offense vs Penn St Defense: Although the Orange offense seemed to stall in the second half and only amassed a total of 257 yards – it still looked better than it had last year. If it weren’t for dropped passes and letting go of blocks the Orange could have had themselves another 100+ yards. Those are the things the Orange need to do in order to hang with Penn State this Saturday. Although Mike Williams looked good posting 94 yards and a TD on 7 receptions – he still looked like he needed to knock off some rust. The Mike we were use to could catch anything near him, yet last weekend he dropped a few balls that were inexcusable. Mike will be fine – it’s everyone else at WR I’m concerned about. Lemon and Lobdell blocked great throughout the game – but were unable to get loose. Behind Williams’ effort our leading WR was Lemon with 5 catches for 17 yards. The Penn State secondary is probably one of the weaker units on their team (four new starters) so its integral someone else step up.  Lemon, Sales, Davis, and Lobdell are all capable – its just a matter of doing so. Paulus looked good but as expected lost some arm strength and threw a crucial interception trying to force a pass in OT. Overall his decision making was great and he will have to again limit turnovers and keep Penn States offense off the field.

The hardest task will be running the ball against one of the best LB cores in the nation. SR Sean Lee returns after missing 2008 with an ACL injury and Soph Nathan Stupar filled in for injured LB Bowman and led the Nittany Lions with 10 tackles last week. The Orange Offensive Line looked O.K. but it seemed like Carter had the most success running off tackle and creating himself. Running away from experienced tackles in Ogbu and Odrick is probably smart seeing as they tallied 4.5 tackles for loss last week against Akron. The “Stallion” offense was able to churn out chunks of yardage but became too predictable and shut down in the second half. With Catalina and Nassib in the package I wouldn’t be surprised to see the Orange throw out of the Stallion this weekend to prevent Penn State from stacking 9 in the box like Minnesota did. Syracuse’s best bet to put points on the board will be through the air – but unless the front line puts forth a career effort – this one could stall early on offense for the Orange.

Penn St Offense vs Syracuse Defense: Penn State rolled out its new “Spread HD” offense with some success last week against Akron.  QB Darryl Clark passed for a career high 353 yards.  He also distributed the ball to 12 different receivers, which is big news in Nittany land since there was concern about the WR core losing its top 3 catchers from last year.  Derek Moye benefited the most last week hauling in 6 of Clark’s heaves for 138 yards and one score.  Graham Zug and and Chaz Powell, whose names sound like they belong at an Ivy fraternity, combined for 12 catches and another 120+ in yardage.  Evan Royster had a pedestrian day on the ground by his standards.  He gained a mere 67 yards on 14 carries.  It was apparent that PSU used its opener to build confidence in its youthful receiver core.  I anticipate more emphasis this week against the Orange as well.  The Lions will also try and focus on improving their second half effort as they were pretty lethargic last week and failed to reach the endzone.  I wouldn’t be surprised to see the Lions pass on first and second downs and then look to run on third down situations.

The Orange demonstrated a new level of intensity last week against Minnesota.  Scott Shafer’s crew demonstrated more of an attacking style than seen in previous seasons.  The CBs were left in single coverage and there were more blitz packages than we’ve seen in the Robinson era.  The team did a good job in confusing Adam Weber and were able to sack him two times.  Now this week we will see how the team responds to a hostile environment.  The Cuse will also be without the services of LB Ryan Gillum who has been bitten with the “shoulder bug” that has currently shelved Nickel CB Dorrian Graham and TE Nick Provo.  The Orange will have to rely more on true frosh EJ Carter.  Other freshman who played and performed well last week are DE Brandon Sharpe and DBs Philip Thomas, Sharmarko Thomas and Rishard Anderson.  Art Jones and Mike Holmes were solid as expected.  The LBing of Derrell Smith and Doug Hogue will again be asked to make tackles in space as the Nittany Lions look to spread the ball around unlike how Weber pretty much locked down on Tim Decker.

Why Syracuse will win: Paulus is able to find weaknesses against an inexperienced Nittany Lion secondary and keep the Orange moving through the air. Art Jones is too much for an inexperienced Penn State OL and Sharpe, Chandler, and Lewis reap the benefits from all the attention he’s getting. Royster is unable to get rolling and Clark can’t stay in the pocket long enough to pick apart the Orange secondary.

Why Penn St will win: The game being played in the Happy Valley will be a huge advantage for the home team, as many of the Orange will not have played in a venue the size of Beaver Stadium.  Last year the Lions used their overwhelming advantage on both lines of scrimmage to dictate play.  If they can do that again this week, the game will resemble last season’s blowout.

Syracuse player to watch: NT Arthur Jones. He had 4.5 tackles and 1 tackle for loss last week. Last time he played on such a big stage he racked up 16 tackles, 3 for loss, and 1 sack at Notre Dame last year.

Penn St players to watch: On offense, it begins and ends with Darryl Clark.  He completed nearly 75% of his passes last week.  On defense, check out. SS Nick Sukay who gets to go opposite his HS teammate and SS Max Suter.

Syracuse Injuries: LB Ryan Gillum (Starter) – Shoulder – Doubtful
TE Nick Provo   (Starter) – Shoulder – Doutbful

Penn State Injuries: LB Navarro Bowman (Starter) – Groin – Questionable

Reyes39 Prediction: Penn State 38 Syracuse 17

LVO Prediction: Penn State 47 Syracuse 24

-Stats thanks to ncaa.org and cfbdatawarehouse.com
-Injury notes thanks to collegeinjuryreport.com

This entry was posted on Friday, September 11th, 2009 at 1:41 am by Sean N. . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.