Ducks Accepted, Spirals Preferred
Ah, the start of another season. You could smell it arriving, couldn’t you? That late August sunshine baking the grass and giving off the scent of fall sports. Prognosticators in print and on networks predicting our season’s trajectory beginning with this season opener against the Mountaineers.
The Nittany Lions took the field in Morgantown with plenty of challenges. West Virginia is no slouch adversary and plenty of naysayers predicted an upset, including the likes of that cockalorum Urban Meyer. New offensive and defensive coordinators upped the unknowns.
As James Franklin quipped, “ducks accepted, spirals preferred,” pretty much sums up the game. He was referring to the late second quarter 55 yard bomb in which Allar appeared to launch the ball into space hoping for the best and Omari Evans fought through the contact to make the catch. You could look at the whole game through that comment: a jittery start and some kinks to work out but overall many promising looks for the season ahead. Coach Franklin also believes we have a chance to be good on both sides of the ball, a chance to be balanced, to win, on both offense and defense.
Big plays are back; fingers crossed this team continues to prove it. On offense, Wallace showed he can be The Guy, which freed things up for Singleton to look explosive again. Some might say Drew Allar played the two best games of his career so far against West Virginia. The defense displayed aggression and speed and the ability to force turnovers. Overall, Penn State gave us plenty of looks that bode well for the type of team they can be this season.
Not even a two-plus hour weather delay could stop us, though I’m sure I’m not the only one who immediately recalled the 2017 Michigan State situation. When the Lions finally returned to start the second half with a nine-play, 78-yard touchdown drive, we were reassured that lessons were learned. When asked about it in his post-game interview, Franklin highlighted the difficulty in being a visiting team with limited resources; this go round they made sure to have plenty of food (vs begging an East Lansing Chick-fil-a to stay open and feed a football team) and an opportunity to watch and analyze first half tape while waiting. To be able to score in the final 32 seconds of the half, lose that momentum for two hours, and then come right back to score again shows the growth.
A season opening win against an exciting opponent in a challenging environment leading into four straight home games— I can’t believe we’re here already! Here’s hoping for consistency and staying healthy. See you next weekend Nittany Nation! Go State! Beat the Falcons!
