dark blue lions

yo sports fans!  seems like forever since we posted.  so please consider the next few shout outs tuneups for the real deal when we turn our attention back to the noble world of columbia sports.  today we bring you lion news but not of a light blue tint.  on the last day of august we were comped to terrific seats by regular reader smitty (not to be confused with regular companion smith) at met life stadium.  we were there to watch the season opener between penn state’s nittany lions and the syracuse orange.  when i was a lad this was one one of the marquee matches of the eastern collegiate football season.  a series of cuse rb’s  made their bones hurling themselves against the stalwart coal miner defenders of psu.  it was frequently a bloody and muddy brawl for dominance of a western allegheny ridge line.  someone looking at the all time record of this rivalry could easily believe that the boys from state college are just flat out better as they lead it by about 45 wins to 25 for cuse.  but the bulk of that considerable difference came from about 1970 – 1985 when penn state was a regular denizen of the top ten and the orange gridders seldom shone.  during that sorry time, the nittany ran off 16 straight wins.  this year’s edition of the contest – the first between the crew since ’09 – was not a gem but hard fought all the way and compelled the attention of some 61,000 sweatily exuberant fans  right up till the final ninety seconds.

no one would mistake the game for those enhaloed contests of my youth.   neither team could run the ball a lick.  floyd little was there, on the side lines for a pre-game honor, but no runner appeared for the contestants.  credit both defensive lines with real grit on a miserably humid day.  late in the first half, penn state’s o line started shove the orange defensive bigs around and smitty thought that the cusers were ready to fade.  must admit i agreed.  but out of the locker room,and down 3 – 6, the orange was ready to rumble some more.  whether it was the at half time airconditioning or some minor adjustments by first year orange head coach (and former defensive coach) scott shafer, the hitting up front resumed the ferocity of the first half’s better moments.  the biggest return on these tinkerings came with five minutes left in the contest when defensive end robert welsh dropped back from his slot on the left, picked off a hackenberg toss and returned it to the nittany one yard line.  one play later, the orange was only 6 points back and battling to the bitter finale.   the game’s rhythm, however, had shifted because of the increased efficiency of the pennsylvanians’ air attack in the second stanza.  and that improvement came with the presence of allen robinson, psu’s foremost receiver, who had been benched during the first half for an as yet unspecified disciplinary matter.  smitty did some dogged investigative reporting to get to the bottom of robinson’s purported tort, and though he did turn up some nuggets from knowledgeable sources, without further institutional comment, allgame must remain mum.  suffice to say, it did not involve autographs and  in any case, robinson’s entry into the lineup immediately improved the performance of first year nittany qb christian hackenberg who soon found his favored target for a td.  indeed, robinson made the most of his limited playing time hauling in 133 yards worth of receptions.  besides his own td, he served as an admirable decoy on hackenberg’s 54 yard scoring toss to geno lewis with about 12 minutes left in the contest.  lewis came free in a seam as cuse’s secondary over reacted to robinson’s outside break.

in the end, despite hackenberg’s solid debut and robinson’s efficiency, the game was decided by the foot of sam ficken who some of you may have watched miss four field goals in the nittany opener last year against virginia.  that loss would haunt the pennsylvanians all season.  but ficken was faultless down the 2012 stretch and picked up saturday where he had left off and cashed three fgs.   despite the l, the six point margin would have put cash in the pockets of orange bettors as the spread was right around 7 1/2 at game time.  now hung  with his first loss,  coach scott shafer must  take his kids out to evanston to face a talented northwestern team.   the orange probably won’t win till week three when wagner visits the carrier dome.   penn state, on the other hand,  has a string of  what should be easy pickings  coming up in september before the brutal portion of its schedule kicks in.  bill o’brien’s boys face eastern michigan, ucf, kent state and then perpetual big ten softie indiana.  should be 5 – 0 before catching a real test against michigan.  meanwhile,  allgame will up the ante on its foray into big time fbs football.  over the next few weeks we will immerse ourselves in the mysteries of sec ball as we catch a couple of games with an ozark flavor.  arkansas will be up in two weeks against a now 1-1 rutgers eleven.

peace out,

paulie b