It is a bittersweet time for Penn State fans. The season is over, but the Lions are going to a bowl game for the second year in a row. Certainly, this is something to celebrate as consecutive winning seasons have been hard to come by in the past 6 years. Not only will the Lions get an extra month of practice in (not to be undervalued when you are trying to develop young talent) but also the Lions get to travel into Florida and get some excellent exposure in a talent-rich state.
8-4 is certainly not what I was hoping for, or predicting, at the beginning of the year. However, this does not spell doom and gloom for the Blue & White. Every team PSU lost to this year is now in the top ten. So, things are not as bad as they seem. Also, Joe has picked up another game on Bobby Bowden AKA Sir Sucks-A-lot.
Penn State's offense was not the powerhouse many were predicting them to be, myself included. It is a quick solution to pin all the blame on first year QB Anthony Morelli. Big #14 certainly deserves his share of the blame but it is not the time to bury him under a mountain of criticism. I think that the Lions much heralded receivers should accept their part of the blame as well. The impact D-Will, Norwood, and Butler had was much less pronounced this year than last. One thing that is certainly true, regardless of who you blame, Penn State's offense was much less explosive than last year. The deep pass simply was not there this year.
The Defense deserves little to no blame, in fact, the Lions went 8-4 mainly because of the defense. Sadly, the Outback Bowl will be Poz's last game in Blue and White. On the bright side, PSU has an incredibly deep stable of LBs (here's to hoping Connor comes back for his senior year!) the secondary is now experienced and there is talent on the defensive line.
The Lions have to get down to the business of preparing to face an SEC opponent in the Outback Bowl. Here's to a quite few weeks of practice (no news is good news!) and a team fired up to win Joe another bowl game!
GO STATE! BEAT WHOEVER!
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