Good, Bad, and Ugly: Penn State

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9/29/2002 by Jon Miller of Hawkeye Nation

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly: PSU

The Good:

Special teams:

In my opinion, this facet of the game was what contributed most to an Iowa win! We kicked off about 8 times and not once did PSU start a possession after a kick off past the 20-yard line. Kaeding was outstanding, as usual, Bradley was solid and our coverage teams were tremendous!

Dallas Clark:

Welcome back to the Iowa offense, Dallas. 4 catches for 88 yard and each of the 4 catches resulted in a 1st down! Ditto and kudos to the wide-outs: CJ, Ed and Mo! Each of these young men had big games!

Brad Banks:

Even 1 of 8 fourth quarter passing stats could not take away from an overall excellent performance. In this game, Brad used his feet, his arm and his brain. Brad and the team moved the ball almost at will for 3 quarters. Plus, he completed three big passes in OT, including the game winning toss to CJ Jones.

The OL:

We dominated the LOS against a very good team in their living room for most of the game. The PSU team has two probably NFL’ers in the middle (Kennedy and Adams). Do you get the feeling that we can do this to ANYONE!

The DL and the pass rush:

Again, for just over three-quarters, we dominated the LOS from the defensive standpoint. We held PSU to 54 yards on the ground kept the big play options and reverses of M. Robinson under raps and kept Mills out-of-rhythm for 3 quarters. Our DL was credited with 3 sacks and had about 10 hurries and QB touches.

Third downs conversions:

An excellent 10-18, this is one of several areas that the team has excelled offensively. Conversely, we held PSU to a 33% (4-12) third down conversion rate.

Comeback:

The intestinal fortitude showed by the team to regain the momentum and win in overtimes.

The Bad:

Penalties:

We continue to have too many penalties. Nine flags for 84 yds!

The fourth quarter:

Allowing 22 points in one quarter is bad, but we gave up huge chunks of yards too easily.

Turnovers:

We were lucky…we gave the ball up 3 times and were fortunate that PSU was willing to match that total. Good teams take care of the ball and this is one place where we have to improve.

The decision by some PSU fans:

PSU has great fans…but the decision by about 20,000 of them to leave after the third quarter, well…in hindsight looks pretty stupid! They missed the only part of the game where they actually had something good to cheer about.

The Ugly:

There is not Ugly associated with an upset win, in the Big Ten on the road! Go Hawks

Hawkeye Nation was founded by Jon Miller, and later acquired by Rivals and Sports Illustrated. You can visit them at HawkeyeNation.com

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