It was a very frustrating and painful loss this weekend for the Huskies, as they fell to 5-4 thanks to a 28-25 loss. Let’s get to some grades!
Passing Offense: 5/10
Quarterback: 4/10
Receivers: 8/10
Offensive Line: 7/10
Let’s be honest, this grade would’ve been a lot lower had the second half not happened. At one point, Williams missed 8 straight throws, and I’d wager to say that most of them were his fault, (including on a particularly bad throw on a 3rd and 10 at the Husky 2 yard line, that looked an awful lot like intentional
grounding). It felt like adjustments were made in the second half, as Demond leaned on his go-to guys (Lawson, Roebuck, Naone) as they almost pulled off an improbable comeback. But it still feels as though the issues that were there before Demond got hurt are still there. He holds onto the ball too long, his accuracy on deep balls is not there, and his eyes miss wide open receivers.
The receivers, however are good in space and very athletic, when they could get the ball. Lawson built on an already impressive season with 5 catches for 89 yards, Dezmen Roebuck caught 4 passes including 1 for a touchdown, and Baron Naone continued his emergence as a general safety valve for Williams. The line also held up fairly well, only giving up one sack. But overall, this was far from where we should be with this quarterback in year 3 of the Fisch era.
Rush Offense: 2.5/10
Running Backs: 4/10
Offensive Line: 2/10
Outside of an impressive opening drive out of Jayden Limar, the running backs continued to be stuck in neutral, with the next leading running back (Brian Bonner) having 4 carries for 9 yards. I’m going to discount the runs by Demond Williams, and Dezmen Roebuck and instead focus solely on the running backs. If you discount Limar’s 7.3 YPC, both Bonner and Trey Cooley had 2.3 yards per carry. That’s not going to get it done, especially against a team like Penn State.
Pass Defense: 4.5/10
240 yards given up, a particularly bad play on a long touchdown, and 3 players having more than a 10 plus yards per carry average is pretty bad, but the pass defense’s saving grace, such as it was, was that it was largely contained in the second half. Still, who knows where this game would’ve been if the defense would’ve not allowed as many of these long pass plays.
Rush Defense: 4/10
Some pretty bad tackling set the stage for Penn State’s first touchdown scored by Carson Hansen. It didn’t get better from there, as Hansen finished with 114 yards, and Cam Wallace added another long touchdown run from 46 yards out late in the second quarter. Again, it was largely contained in the second half, but it finally broke in the fourth, as Hansen broke a big gain for 36 yards, on the Nittany Lions’ final drive. It’s frustrating because the run defense can be better than this, and it was in the second half, but when it absolutely had to get a stop, it couldn’t!
Special Teams: 8/10
On paper, the special teams did its job. Robles made all 3 of his field goals from 29, 31 and 48 yards. Hunter Green may very well be the best player on this team, as he averaged 48.5 yards per punt on his 4 punts, with a long of 63. He continues to add onto one of the best seasons in Husky history as far as punting goes and deserves some Ray Guy consideration. Returner Zay Robinson only returned 1 boot for a return of 10 yards, so he was kept bottled up by the coverage team, and no kickoffs were returned. Overall, this was a very solid game for the specials!
Coaching: 2.5/10
This is where it gets inexcusable. Jedd went away from Limar when he had the hot hand on the first drive, kept trying to dial up shot plays when they clearly weren’t working, and oversaw a unit affected by the usual first half malaise that has plagued the Huskies both at home and away.
I would say that the second half saved him a little bit, and it did in a way, the team did look settled and a lot more comfortable, and had some momentum. And then the penalty for 12 men on the field happened. After a stop. Coming out of a timeout. That is annoying even in the flow of the game, but with the game on the line, it crosses over into “absolutely inexcusable” territory. Beyond that, it seems like this offense is still straining to be run effectively, now 9 games into this season. Fisch has overseen a pretty bad regression, and I hope that things will get better, but in all likelihood, the team is the team at this point.
