Penn State can turn off lights on BCS plans

Walt Moody

Dandy Don Meredith made a living singing, “Turn Out the Lights, the Party’s Over,” when the contest was decided on Monday Night Football.

CDT/Nabil K. Mark

Brandon Saine scores a touchdown in the second half as Stephon Morris (12) and Nick Sukay (18) are late with the tackle. Penn State lost to Ohio State 24-7 November 7, 2009. CDT/Nabil K. Mark

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We could have used the old Cowboys quarterback and his Willie Nelson repertoire early in the fourth quarter on Saturday afternoon at Beaver Stadium.

When Ohio State’s Terrelle Pryor hit Brandon Saine with a six-yard touchdown pass with 9:47 left, Dandy Don could have not only started crooning about Penn State’s eventual 24-7 loss to the Buckeyes, but also about the Nittany Lions’ season as a whole.

Though Penn State is 8-2 now and will be favored to finish 10-2, declare 2009 a total loss.

That may be a harsh way to look at it, but when all is said and done the Nittany Lions have failed to beat the only two Top 20 opponents on their schedule. What’s worse is they lost to Iowa (21-10) and Ohio State on their turf before their own fans.

“Any loss is devastating, especially on your own field,” punter Jeremy Boone said Saturday.

But it’s the way that the Nittany Lions lost, that will define this season.

Coming into the fall, one of the biggest question marks was the offensive line. Against outmanned Akron, Eastern Illinois and even Michigan, the holes were easy to hide.

Against Iowa and Ohio State, those gaps were gaping.

In the loss to the Hawkeyes, the Nittany Lions’ offensive front was pushed around. Penn State gained just 109 yards on the ground.

And against the Buckeyes, it was worse. Penn State netted just 76 yards, with tailback Evan Royster having just 36 yards on 13 carries.

And the defensive push from both teams made quarterback Daryll Clark’s life miserable. Clark was 12-for-32 for 198 yards with three interceptions against the Hawkeyes, who sacked him twice.

He was 12-for-28 for 125 yards and one pickoff against the Buckeyes, who also had two sacks.

The sack totals don’t fully reflect the number of times Clark was either hit or pressured. It probably took Ohio State’s Cameron Heyward, who had both Buckeye sacks, an extra 15 minutes in the showers to wash off the chunks of Clark left on his body from Saturday’s game.

The pressure left Clark with little time to find receivers, who were blanketed by the Buckeyes’ cornerbacks.

“They did a good job of getting to the backfield with rushing four guys a couple of times,” said Clark of the Buckeyes (something he also could have said of the Hawkeyes). “When that happens, it’s kind of tough to execute an offense both running the ball and passing. It was just real spotty throughout the entire game.

“There were some good plays made, then the very next play something bad or something wrong would happen. That kind of just summed up the entire game.”

The defensive backfield was another question mark for the season and the Buckeyes, who were extremely conservative for most of the game, made the big play when Pryor took advantage of a secondary lapse for a 62-yard touchdown strike to DeVier Posey, which made the score 17-7 in the third quarter.

Head coach Joe Paterno blamed the lapse on cornerback D’Anton Lynn, but it appeared safety Nick Sukay took a bad angle and arrived late on a pass that hung in the air for a long time.

“We should have been OK with that one,” defensive coordinator Tom Bradley said of the Nittany Lions’ coverage on the touchdown. “It shouldn’t have been a big problem.”

The Nittany Lions were lucky that Pryor overthrew a wide open Dane Sanzenbacher at the goal line in the final seconds of the first half after more secondary confusion between Sukay and cornerback A.J. Wallace. A completion would have netted another score.

And, the special teams gave up big plays in both losses. Against Iowa, it was a blocked punt that gave the Hawkeyes the go-ahead touchdown. On Saturday, the Buckeyes’ Ray Small had 41-and 45-yard punt returns to set up two Ohio State touchdowns.

So while a potential 10-2 record might look good on a resume, it’s fool’s gold. With a non-conference schedule that was one of the worst in the country, Penn State will finish the season with no signature wins. You can’t really believe Temple is a quality win, can you?

Saturday’s loss likely cost the Nittany Lions a shot at a Big Ten title and BCS bowl bid. Instead of the Rose Bowl, you may have to get out your Mickey Mouse ears for the Capital One Bowl in Orlando.

When asked if he told his players to keep their heads up after the tough loss, Paterno said sarcastically, “After I stopped crying and wiped my eyes and I threw up a couple of times, that’s exactly what I said.”

All the jokes aside, this one stung.

“This is the game that we’ve been looking forward to the whole season,” linebacker Navorro Bowman said. “For us not to get the win, it kind of sets us back.”

That’s not the tune so many wanted to hear with this team, but the refrain sounds familiar. Sing it, Don.

Walt Moody is sports editor of the Centre Daily Times. He can be reached at 231-4630 or wmoody@centredaily.com.