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Just you, Gabby, and the cat huh? Awesome.

At halftime of Saturday's game vs. Akron you could've found me exclaiming all sorts of stats we would end up with if we kept producing at the rate we were. Clark: 500 yds and 6 TDs! 700 yds of total offense! 62-0! Akron -34 yds rushing? That's not how it played out unfortunately, as we scored 0 points in the 3rd and 4th quarter. The second half futility was a result of the coaching staff wanting to work on some weaknesses in our game, and I'm okay with that because we need it.

The first thing anyone watching this game had to notice was how DC was straight slingin it all over the place. He threw on his first read into coverage multiple times in that first half, balls that likely would have been picked off against better defenses. But he also made some throws that I doubt he would've attempted last year, especially the 22 yd TD to Derek Moye (my man). He seems to have more confidence in the ability of these younger guys to go up and get the ball, which could lead to us testing teams deep more often which I'm fine with. It could also lead to more picks which I don't really want to talk about. So Clark does need to look a little sharper and make better reads in the upcoming games, but it's hard to argue with his numbers for the day. After all, he did wipe out Morelli's school record for passing yards in a half. Anything to minimize evidence that he ever played football for us is a step in the right direction.

The receivers may have put on the strongest offensive performance of the day. The top three of Zug, Moye, and Powell combined for 18 catches for 260 yards and all 3 touchdowns. Chaz Powell looks fast, Graham Zug looks white boy fast, and Derek Moye looks like nothing we've seen at Penn State recently standing 6"5' and showing some shake on his first catch of the day.

The running backs looked fine, but they really didn't have any room to run because the offensive line is still trying to figure out what was going on. That was obvious. Longest run of the day was 12 yards?? Royster averaged 4.4 ypc, a full 2 yards less than last year. I just didn't see any body on Akron's D line getting knocked off the ball, and they were less than imposing.

Two possible scenarios for Colin Wagner:

(1) he is a big-game kicker that went 1-3 because those field goals didn't really matter.
(2) he is under qualified but made the team because he is a townie and probably mowed Joe's lawn at some point.

I'm pulling for scenario number 1, but in case I'm wrong, I
wouldn't mind if the staff let
freshman Anthony Fera get some kicks. The kid is supposed to be pretty awesome.

Seeing Lil Way- I mean Devon (pronounced DAY-von, hello world) Smith return kicks and get a couple touches on offense was exciting. 5'7" 155 lbs of speed... hot, nasty speed.

The defense played great the first half and then fell asleep in the
second. I believe it was just tough for these guys to stay motivated during this game. Not an excuse, but that's just what it looked like. They held Akron to 3-14 on third downs and didn't allow a first down until the third quarter. Nick Sukay blew an assignment on Akron's only TD of the day but looked okay other than that. Navarro Bowman going down in the first quarter is never a good sign, word is it was a pulled groin and he may miss this week but that's it. The rest of the linebackers looked great in the new 3-4 scheme, Sean Lee is so instinctive, hunter/gatherer instinctive. He always seems to beat the runner to spots, I expect double digit tackles for losses for him this year, easily. Nate Stupar actually had a team high 12 tackles, way to go State College High. I'm going to have to see a team that is in the weight class of our front seven before getting a better idea of how good the D is.