Let's be real, Minnesota's head coach didn't get fired because the team was putting together Nat'l Championship caliber performances. Judging by record alone (admittedly, not always a fair judgement) Minnesota is the weakest team on Penn State's schedule. It's doubtful that Penn State will play a worse team the remainder of the season. So despite scoring 33 points and doing a respectable job on defense, it's hard to get too excited when you consider the fact that Penn State achieved this against a team that has a very real chance of finishing the season 1-11. However, I do think there were at least three things to take away from this game...
The Coaches May Have Finally Realized That Penn State Needs To Pass To Win
Six of the first eight offensive plays were pass plays. Not only that, but throughout the game, the coaches were often looking to throw downfield. I think it also speaks volumes that when Bolden went down, the coaches were quick to put in Matt McGloin (who is probably a slightly better passer than Newsome) rather than Newsome who is 2nd on the depth chart. I think the offensive coaches have finally accepted that this season, Penn State will probably have to attack downfield early and often if they're going to win.
Bolden May Have Gotten It Together
Bolden came right out firing shots downfield and completed his first nine passes. Bolden ended the game 11-13 for 130 yards and a TD in what was probably his best performance to date. This is very encouraging because prior to the Minnesota game it looked like Bolden had actually been regressing. Of course, what's of more concern to Nittany Nation is how Bolden ended the game - leaving early with "concussion-like symptoms." That leads to our next takeaway...
Due to injuries in the secondary, Michigan's had to resort to using some of the "less conventional" players they had at the lower end of their depth chart.Matt "Eff it, I'm goin' deep" McGloin and Kevin "Happy Feet" Newsome will do fine against Minnesota's defense (ranked 90 out of 120 in total defense). In fact, they'll almost certainly do even better against Michigan's something-they-refer-to-as-a-defense (ranked 104 in total defense... 117 in passing defense). The problem is that Michigan's offense can put up a lot of points. A LOT of points. Michigan is second only to the Oregon "Are they playing basketball?" Ducks in total offense. This means that Penn State will need to take advantage of Michigan's extremely weak defense in order to have a shot at beating them. Lord knows, unless Tom Bradley is literally able to pull off a miracle this week in practice, Penn State's defense will be sliced to ribbons by Michigan. It really doesn't matter if Denard "I don't follow totally reasonable footwear conventions" Robinson is the QB or Tater Tot is - Michigan is gonna score. A lot. Penn State needs someone who can make RichRod pay for making this man his defensive coordinator, and that someone is Rob Bolden. Let's just hope the Michigan game doesn't go like the last time Penn State played with a QB who was taken out of the previous game for "concussion-like symptoms."
That's it for now. I might be back later on this week with some thoughts on Michigan, and why this week fully deserves the title of "HATE Week."
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