400

Saturday came and went, and just like that JoePa has reached an unbelievable milestone with win number 400. All week he said that it was not that big of a deal, that he is more focused on the task at hand in Northwestern, and how great that Persa kid is on the other side of the field. Well, he was right, but by the end of the game, none of that mattered as JoePa was sitting on the shoulders of two burly offensive linemen and SuePa was acting as his stand-in translator with ESPN because even he was too excited to articulate what he had just accomplished.

As for the game, it lived up to the billing, and was a great way to usher JoePa into the 400 win column. This was a true Joe Paterno team, a team with grit and fire, that won with a smash mouth style, a team that took control of the game. Even though Northwestern came out and punched Penn State right in the jaw, this team stayed under control, stuck to their gameplan, and came back and won this one for Joe Paterno. I do not care what anyone says about the emergence of McGloin, this was a complete team effort.

Northwestern came out in this one and just jumped on Penn State from the get go. They were pressuring the quarterback, making plays on both sides of the ball and Persa was gashing the Penn State defense. Penn State was stuck in its base 4-3 defense and was struggling to get to the ball carriers in the open field. On the offensive side of the ball, the team was getting a decent push off the ball, but play-calling was rather inconsistent for the first quarter of play, no matter who was the QB, McGloin or Bolden. Two things happened that changed this one, Penn State made the adjustment on defense, switching to the 4-2-5 alignment (Stoops and Mauti at the LB in this formation) and putting more speed on the field to deal with Northwestern's spread and the two minute drill.

On the defensive side of the ball, Penn State made the adjustment to bring in 5 defensive  backs, which allowed the linebackers to shift all of their focus to Persa. This is when Penn State said that we're going to match up 5 of our athletes against 5 of your athletes and challenge you to beat us one on one in coverage. Let me tell you what, the secondary stepped up to challenge and made this game a different one from the latter half of the second quarter all the way until the end of the game. This allowed the two linebackers to make plays on the ball, no more read and react, they just had assignment, and boy did they respond. Anytime Persa went to his left Mauti was there, anytime Persa went to his right Stupar was in his face, this is what its about, bringing pressure and forcing this guy to beat you with his arm. The only time they had success were when we would blitz and revert to zone coverage, but the coaches did a great job of limiting this style of play and bringing constant pressure.

On the offensive side of the ball, the credit goes to the entire offense during the two minute drill. This was a wake up call for the coaching staff and for the QB. Up until this point, neither of the QBs were having success against this Northwestern defense (keep in mind, Bolden only got two series). What the two minute drill did for this offense speaks volumes, it forced McGloin to take what he was given, and boy was that a wake up call. Up until this point, MoGloin was just focused on taking shots down the field and was locked in on Derek Moye, but during the two minute drill he was putting the ball in the hands of the playmakers on our offense and let them make plays. This aggressive and methodical play-calling showed Penn State that they could score at will as they capped off a 91 yard drive in under a minute with a Touchdown just before the half.

Just when it seemed as if all hope was gone, this team was injected with some confidence. I know a lot of you want to credit McGloin (look for a future article on this topic), but the credit goes to the whole team. The momentum built off that drive carried over into the second half, and everyone came out firing on all cylinders. The running game got going, the ball was put into the hands of other receivers against NW's porous secondary, and most of all the coaches exposed this far inferior defense. They put the other team's defense in a position where they would have to make difficult decisions, and most of all difficult plays in the open field. As the team is gaining more and more confidence, so is the coaching staff in this team. The sky is now the limit, let's see if the coaches can continue to capitalize on this confidence and get JoePa 401 next weekend.

WE ARE....................................