PSUPat

You're saying college football analysts over-react? Say it ain't so!!!!! Yes it's funny. Yes it happens every year. Among the 5-30 best teams in the country, there's a razor thin margin between them. And we're both in that group. PSU is capable of winning the B1G and going to the playoffs, or ending up 9th in the conference, and the difference between those two extremes is a few lucky bounces and an inch here and there. I think the same can be said of Auburn. You have a lot of solid teams on your schedule, just like us, and you're going to have a lot of close games, just like us. We happened to escape our first 2 of them with a win.

I'm PSU through and through. Lived in PA all my life and a PSU alum. Just getting a chance to look at last weekends game in more detail. But yes, always admired Auburn.

The dig on that is, that this play was copied from Bammer. https://www.sbnation.com/college-football/2014/11/9/7180957/alabama-trick-play-lsu-brandon-greene

I don't know whether your secondary is any good or not. Is it: 1. You weren't generating a pass rush, so you had to sit in a soft zone to prevent the deep ball? (i.e. the weakness is DL). 2. You weren't generating a pass rush BECAUSE your coaches were afraid of getting burnt deep and therefore playing coverage instead of pressure. (weakness is secondary). Not sure, but a couple of notes. - Ya'll didn't run a single stunt on the DL the entire game I don't think. I found that strange. Not sure I've ever seen anyone just try to man up like that. It was gap sound and contained the run game, but you couldn't get pressure like that. - On 1 of the big TE plays, it was a tackle eligible type play. We split out the RT to look like a WR, and put the center between the LG and LT. Thus, the TE was only 2 players to the left of the center, looking like a LT but eligible, and your secondary didn't pick up on it and viewed him as an ineligible lineman. - The other big TE plays were actually on blitzes. One reason you didn't blitz much is because the few times you did turned into big plays for us. I believe the streaking TE is a hot route for PSU, but we're still learning our own offensive system. That would mean you didn't disguise it well and Clifford read blitz before the snap.

fyi, I saw lots of comments about Auburns secondary losing the TE. The one real long pass to the TE was a tackle eligible play.

I think we're a playoff "contender" in the sense that we're a solid but not spectacular team right now and the B1G has 6 or 8 teams at the same level as us. The difference between 1st and 9th in this conference is razor thin this year. Teams aren't static. Who improves the most from here? Who gets the ball to bounce their way? We're in that mix though.

@Iowa, @MSU, @OSU, @Maryland even looks tough at 3-0 with a W over WVU. Michigan - still untested but look solid, at least we get them at home. Rutgers doesn't even look like a pushover.

fyi, I see ya arguing. Ya'll are very well coached. You had 2 stud running backs, and our backs are pretty weak, honestly. PSU was more talented pretty much everywhere else, dominated the line of scrimmage, and was a constant threat to go ahead 2 scores and force you to pass, where we woulda broken it open. We couldn't do it. Secondary jumping routes and coming up inches away. Every time we score, there was a response by Auburn to stay in it. Very gritty effort. Yeah a couple of questionable play calls, but so did we. Your players were disciplined and played with heart. Really impressed. A good WR and a pass rushing DE would change your fortunes quickly.

If this was at Auburn we'd switch the outcome. PSU d-line was first off the ball all night long with Auburn's tackles going on PSU's movement. Thats what home field does. Yours does too, I'm sure.

Congrats to Auburn. We couldn't quite put it away, and you couldn't quite win it. Ended up a fantastic game that was about like the talking heads thought it'd be. Beat Bammer. Time to party.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/nittanylionswire.usatoday.com/2021/09/18/our-barkley-is-better-and-other-college-gameday-signs-from-penn-state-auburn/amp/ A few good ones. Peace Auburn folks. Nice showing by you guys, good luck in every game but tonight!

I agree, point was it was was a good bammer team. Hey, we had bad years in there too. Part of that 8-8 record is a few bad PSU teams still calling a whiteout against top teams. Most of the time we play in these, we're underdogs, and they turn into dogfights.

So in perspective. 16 total white outs. - won 4/5 when favored (loss was in a monsoon) - won 4/11 as an underdog. - worst loss was to eventual BCS champ Alabama by 16. Who beat Auburn by 28. Florida by 28. And LSU by 21 in the natty game. - 7 of the opponents were in the top 10. Underdog in all 7 of these. Went 2-5 in those games. - 6 of the opponents were ranked 10-25. Favored in 3 of these. Went 4-2. - 3 opponents were unranked. PSU was a favorite in all 3. Went 2-1 with the loss being to Iowa in a monsoon. Based on this you'd think we're a 10-20 type program with occasional top 10 years or something.

Added spreads to above. Penn St was the underdog in 11 out of 16 white outs.

I dunno actually. Obviously pretty much all wore white jerseys. I doubt going all white has any strategic advantage. If anything a disadvantage if your qb loses recievers in the crowd. But I doubt that, the field is green, lol. From a motivational standpoint, I think its a cool move. Buy in and have fun with it.

Prediction: Low scoring, lots of defense. I'll go 21-13 good guys (PSU). Probably reverse that score next year at your place.

Keep in mind home field advantage is factored into spread, but according to Vegas its about a 7-10 point advantage on a white out night, 5-7 for home field on other nights. Penn State was a losing team last year. Auburn would be favored on a neutral field.

I was talking about THIS year, and you're right, from what we know so far, it isn't close.

On the 1st paragraph, agree. I expect at seasons end we'll have played 5-7 ranked teams, 1-2 top 10 teams. Yes, Auburn plays a very tough schedule. A short few years back there was lots of talking head debates over the toughest division, between our 2 divisions. In recent years MSU has fallen over completely and Michigan and PSU have failed to be superpowers. But put OSU, Michigan, PSU, MSU In the same division and round them out with occasionally respectable Indiana and Maryland (plus Rutgers, lol). Thats right up there with the SEC west as far as brands. Alabama > OSU Michigan > LSU PSU = Auburn A&M > MSU Then Miss, Miss St, Arkansas vs Indiana, Maryland on the same level. We respectfully apologize for Rutgers, but hey, they'd whip Vandy at the moment. And the B1G has done us the favor of making Iowa and Wisconsin, both on the road, our crossovers. Smh. OOC, well, we play you!

Don't disagree Auburn's schedule is tougher. Ours isn't a cakewalk by any means. Based on current rankings. Already played @ #18 Still to go: @#5 @#9 #22 #25 So 5 currently ranked teams on our schedule, 2 top 10 teams. And that doesn't include MSU and Maryland (both high in recieving votes and moving up), or Indiana (who was #16 a start of season and is still recieving votes but moving down, lol). I think at years end we'll have faced 5 to 7 teams ranked in the final AP, probably 2 top 10 teams. Don't want you to feel bad for us, I'm well aware of your schedule and not trying to say ours is tougher. Point is its not like its a creampuff schedule with 1 or 2 big games. We saw you as our 4th most difiult game coming into the season, just the 3 ahead of you were on the road.

They say Auburn is the Penn State of the SEC, which I think is pretty accurate. I'd argue Tennessee is the Nebraska of the SEC. And Michigan = Florida.

In our division alone, we have @OSU, Michigan, @MSU. And @Maryland is 2-0 and just beat WVU with a Tagovailoa as their QB. Our crossover games this year are @Wisconsin and @Iowa. With hosting Auburn OOC thrown on top for good measure. Thats not throwing any shade whatsoever at Auburns schedule, its a murderers row for sure and probably tougher than ours. But its not like PSU's schedule isn't rough too.

"I told [Penn State coach] James Franklin this: That became the most difficult place I've ever coached in my career," Meyer said on Big Ten Network. I mean, that [stadium] was as loud as I've ever heard, and we had street-fight games with them every game," Meyer said. "... In my mind, that is a 10-point differential when you play in that kind of game. "That means you have to be on point. You remember the preparation days that drove you insane on Tuesday and Wednesday, to have that music and that jet engine blowing in your ear at practice, and you have to do it. But you can't make corrections at practice, so your coaching suffers that entire week." All that said, Meyer said that as an ex coach on the Big Ten network. He also was PSU's BIGGEST game every single year. No, me personally am not saying it is louder/better than the biggest games in the biggest SEC venues. Yes, you have seen it before. But it is absolutely on that scale and in the same discussion. The SEC isn't the only place with passionate fanbases. You have a bunch of them, but not all of them. I'm a huge fan of college football, wherever its done well. I can't wait to see Auburn and do it up good for us next year!

Louder? I dunno. On par, absolutely. We're scheduled to make the trip next fall. Yes, hoping to come, as Auburn is one of the few SEC venues I haven't experienced. Yes. But mostly media types, as not many (any?) players have experienced both. Urban Meyer (coached at UF and OSU). Kirk Herbreit. Chris Fowler to name a few.

That's cool. I always imagine after a near apocalypse and mankind has recovered in like 10,000 years, some archeologist will stumble on video of major college football and report "this was the height of their society." lol. Stupid but awesome rituals held in great esteem. We even have sacrifice (what do you call Alabama State? And we got, hey, Villanova coming up).