Penn State vs Bowling Green Recap | STATE of STATE

hey it's state of State we got your NY line update it's a football discussion with Tom and Justin so kick back and press play with former Penn State and NFL defensive back Justin King I'm Tom Hanan this is state of State this podcast is presented by bet online bet online is the world's most trusted betting platform and your number one source for everything football bet online is every stat every matchup and even live odds and spreads to bet on during the games think you know your stuff get in on BET online's $200,000 Mega contest and pick five games against the spread every week for your chance at weekly prizes in a share of $22,000 when the games are over head to the online casino and get in on a game of blackjack or poker or unwind with one of over 150 slots games head to betonline.ag today to get in on the action state of state is presented by bet online the game starts here state of state is proud to partner with illumination brewing for another season of crafting State IPA the perfect tailgate and game day beer for Penn State football fans State IPA is available now at your local beer distributor grocery store plus select bars and restaurants visit illumination brewing.com slbe state-a to learn more must be 21 years or older to purchase please drink responsibly also state of state is a proud supporter of blue white Outfitters blue white Outfitters was created as a retail shop meant to highlight the confidence competitiveness and fearlessness of the elite athletes found throughout the history of Penn State University check out their lockdown you and Lawn booy merchandise today and keep an eye out for state of State apparel coming soon all sales from blue white Outfitters directly benefit Ben Penn State student athletes visit www.bl outfitters.com today hi everyone and welcome to state of state I'm Tom hannahan flying solo today for what should be an interesting time for Penn State football fans in this 2024 season in week two at home Penn State barely got by a Mac opponent Penn State defeats Bowling Green by a score of 34 to 27 and this one was an absolute head scratcher in a day work football was tumultuous to say the least but going to attempt to get into this and I promise in this Wednesday's Edition what considering we have a byee and plenty of time to process this game myself and Justin King will be doing a very deep dive on what went wrong and the few things that went right for Penn State in this week to Victory like comment subscribe rate US turn on notifications get at us on social media at stateof State pod and comment on YouTube speaking of YouTube you can become a member of our YouTube channel now for just 99 cents a month and you can get all upcoming episodes of state of State add free so you can get all the insight and all the reactions to these games without any pesky advertisements so thank you all so much for tuning in we appreciate it the initial reaction from this game is kind of like what the hell was that it's extremely confusing for this team to have looked as solid as impressive as it did on the road against a big 12 opponent to open the season and considering what many believe West Virginia can be within the Big 12 and this season altoe there was reason for a lot of positivity for this Penn State football team and Justin and I even talked about it in the episodes following the West Virginia game is that Penn State's going to kind of Fade Into the background a little bit here in September because okay you got Bowling Green then you have a bye then you have State then you open up Big 10 play against Illinois and UCLA and then you're at USC we'll get to that in a minute but seriously this felt like the time of year where it was like you know what these are going to be winnable games for Penn State this is a chance to get your backups in and really see what your depth looks like for later on in the season this was anything but Bowling Green to their credit came out trying to win this game guns of Blazing and all the credit to what they were able to accomplish today today at Beaver Stadium the the first thing I think you have to start with is the defense is how in the world do you give up 375 yards of total offense to Bowling Green and especially when you're looking at the passing game Connor baslac was 25 39 254 yards 64% completion percentage two touchdowns and yes two interceptions so those were very positive by Tom Allen's defense and then rushing the football 26 carries for 121 yards on the ground so about a 4.7 yard average among four rushers and last week that was about 2.5 yards per carry against West Virginia so it's extremely difficult to say what was the difference here was this just a drastically better Bowling Green Team than West Virginia time will tell uh it also seemed like defensively there were lapses in the secondary the tack was not good the defensive line was getting pushed around a substantial amount there was the rushing touchdown by Jamal Johnson just right up the middle 41 yards for the touchdown and you could hear how Matt Millan on the call was talking about how the interior of the Penn State offensive line was simply just moved credit to what Bowling Green was able to accomplish there but still this was very much night and day from what Penn State did against West Virginia not only the defensive line getting pushed around a lot but then being able to get to the second level to be able to get hat on hat with Penn State's linebackers and even the safeties to the point that Bowling Green was having success in that department looking at Conor baslac we talked about it coming into this Tom Allen having coached basag at Indiana one would have presumed that the defensive strategy would have been outstanding and quite sound and that baslac would have really struggled against Tom Allen potentially knowing all his weaknesses strengths weaknesses all those things and instead Bowling Green showed the ability to get the ball out very quickly our colleague within this world of Penn State Sports podcasting Thomas Frank Carr was very astute to point out the issues with Penn State's pass rush but those were also coupled with the fact that Conor baslac was getting the ball out in roughly two seconds so he was doing a very good job I give I want to give Bowling Green credit for what they did because they brought the fight to Penn State and damn near upset the knitty lions at home so it's alarming how does Tom Allen prepare for this team and not have an answer for the way baslac played now a veteran quarterback we talked about that coming into this game 25 39 254 yards as I mentioned very very positive he hung in in the pocket he made this really difficult for Penn State and the the secondary something was up something was up and and for me as a as a broadcaster and as a fan from the outside looking in you do have to speculate if the players were expecting to win which is a fine mentality to have but are you expecting to win so badly that you underes estimate your opponent there's been so much said about James Franklin and the culture and the coaching staff that he's put together over now 11 years at Penn State and there's constantly this culture that you hear about that James Franklin and his staff they never Overlook any opponent they're always trying to do the the one one and0 mentality all that sort of stuff but it's very difficult to look at this game and think that there's the possibility the bulk of the roster was just assuming that the team could show up and win this game and Coast into a bye in the middle of September and then Kent State as I mentioned that this is the easiest stretch of their schedule that they're going to see instead what happened was Penn State was alarming its fan base and and the defensive side of the ball lack of pass rush Abdul Carter yes had a couple of flashes but they're still waiting to to see that dominance that quote unquote Menace that we heard about from training camp that he's apparently evolved into is capable of being the secondary was having an extremely tough day Zaki wheatle did Come Away with the interception late Tony Roos came away with a great interception late Roos played as well as he possibly could have I think under the circumstances overall lots of arm tackling from the defense Zaki weatley ironically enough was all over social media this past week going at people from Pro Football Focus because apparently they had given a higher grade for the likes of KJ Winston and Jaylen Reed and a very low grade for the ways that key Wheatley played against West Virginia and Wheatley astutely pointed out that yes it's extremely difficult for Pro Football Focus to be able to grade every single play for the defense because they don't know what the call is they're they're guessing often based on alignment and guessing based off of the way that the secondary ultimately plays a play but you never know if there's little wrinkles here and there where it's not as easy for the eye to see I can understand wheatley's point he went off about it on social media at length and then got burned quite a bit in this game gave up a touchdown uh gave up a lot of big plays cam Miller also had a rough day flashbacks to the peach bow very very uncharacteristic from this defensive back room for Pence State on the offensive side of the ball for Penn State I think the positive thing to take away from this is Drew Aller in the running game and hats off to Tyler Warren most receiving yards in a single game for a Penn State tight end now there's positives to take away from this uh Drew hour ultimately finished the game 13 of 20 for 204 yards two touchdowns and the interception the interception really is going to have to bother him but he had seven carries for seven yards total and a touchdown it was a tough day for Aller this Bowling Green defense got after him and James Franklin gave that defensive line especially a lot of credit earlier on this week saying that they had impressed the Penn State coaching staff so again you're still sitting there being like okay well this offensive line should be better than them they just withstood what West Virginia was able to throw at them arguably a better opponent how did this possibly happen Penn State's tackles had a rough day Drew Shelton especially at left tackle we we have to remind ourselves of what Penn State lost at offensive tackle on both sides with Kaden Wallace at Olu fashu this is something I've been concerned about all offseason the interior of the offensive line is sound Nick Dawkins we also have to remember is in his first year as the true starter at Center so there are things where he is learning as much as he has played so much football he is learning all due respect to him but I'm sure he would admit that I give a lot of credit to Drew Ard because he showed consistency he showed intensity he showed the ability to hang in there and a lot of the reasons why Penn State and I think it's insane to have to say but like made a comeback against Bowling Green and ultimately won the game yes you can point at the running game but Drew Aller kept this offense moving did a very nice job and Tyler Warren came up with some huge plays altogether for Penn State's offense speaking of the pass catchers as I mentioned Tyler Warren um eight catches 146 yards on eight targets 18.3 yards per reception is just crazy um Amari Evans two catches 34 yards and the touchdown touchdown was very nice Nick Singleton catching a touchdown pass as well his lone catch khil Dinkins back in into the fold uh Penn State had a good amount of their linebackers unavailable for this game and I believe Andrew Raper was unavailable for this game so raple yay unavailable dinkin becomes available so you have a little bit of fluctuation in that department Julian Fleming gets his first catch of the season for three yards of no consequence no targets for Liam Clifford and no targets for Trey Wallace which very very interesting that Bowling Green was able to take away arguably Penn State's number one pass catching option but I have said it for most of the offseason is that I believe Tyler Warren is the true number one receiver in this offense I think that Trey Wallace showed he is the number one wide receiver in this offense last week but Tyler Warren proved to be just an absolute mismatch and and this is the weird thing about this game it was still a big 10 opponent against the Mac opponent and that physical mismatch of Tyler Warren against this Bowling Green defense was evident and Penn State is still going to see those opportunities as this season wears on and you get into Big 10 play you're still going to have games where Tyler Warren is the best combination of size and speed from a receiver standpoint that a defense is going to have to deal with potentially all season long he is capable of being that uh Brock bowerses center of the offense if you recall the way George's offense operated the last few years am I comparing him directly to Brock Bowers no but a similar utilization I think Warren has the potential to get to be like that but I digress Drew Aller was under duress quite a bit in this game and I give him credit for hanging in there I loved his tenacity early on in the game rushing for the touchdown that was certainly a shot in the arm for Penn State his his enthusiasm and his energy I think was a boost for Penn State and then when it came to the running game this was exactly what Penn State needed and I come back to the conversation that we've been having about what is Indy cotal Nikki's offense really going to be and the emphasis on the running game has been something that's been talked about heavily since he came on the campus 37 total carries 234 yards on the ground two touchdowns 6.3 yards per carry Nick Singleton 13 for 119 yards a touchdown a long of 41 an average of 9.2 KRON Allen got himself back into the conversation after kind of a slow start against West Virginia West Virginia did a nice job scheming for Penn State's interior run defense so credit to The Mountaineers there but KRON Allen got himself going against Bowling Green 14 carries 101 yards on the ground no touchdowns a long of 26 and 7.2 yards on uh on average so it was really nice to see the two-headed monster doing those things you see Bo perula getting involved from his package Dre hour the ability to extend plays and the ability to pick up a first down or two and as I mentioned the touchdown it's so valuable and it's something that James Franklin has talked about is the way that he's changed his body the way that he can contribute to this running game it's it's so helpful because it just erases these small all plays here and there where maybe the defense just has you locked up and unfortunately in this game there were too many of those instances so I I'm just thrilled that the the rushing attack has continued to be a focus through two games has continue to be consistent through two games and again as much as Penn State fans might not love it balance between the Penn State passing attack and the Penn State rushing attack and I'm not saying Penn State fans dislike balance but I think in this game it would have been a reasonable expectation for a Penn State fan to want to see video game numbers for everybody because it's a Mac opponent so this is just a very weird weird outcome and it's the it's the adage you hear all the time of Justin King talks about it James Franklin certainly talks about it of it's hard to win in college football I'm not using that as a copout by any means but the adversity of being down in this game and making a comeback is something that is going to be good for the DNA of Penn State as the season continues but overall this is very very very concerning you get a bye then you have Ken State and then you dive into Big 10 play apparently this bye is coming at a really opportune time you have the verbial bumps and bruises remaining from training camp a very physical training camp which again the defense needs to figure out this Jaelin Hyde stuff that we just saw from week one to week two week one at West Virginia they look lights out like one of the best defenses in the country week two it seemed like they underestimated their opponent not maximum effort so what's the overall takeaway from this I now have mendous concerns for games like USC not that I didn't already I now have tremendous concerns for Wisconsin because that is more of an air raid style offense you have worries for the Washington game beyond what you already had you certainly have worries for the Ohio State game there are just a lot more games on the schedule that you see the way that these offenses can operate if you can get the ball out quickly against Penn State their secondary struggle immensely in this game so there's a lot more that we're going to be able to dive into later on this week myself and Justin King are really going to take our time and sit with us and figure out what went wrong and the few things that did go right um hats off there a haak being able to get himself into a a Groove in this game two for two on field goals a long of 43 the shorter one was 28 struggled against West Virginia with somebody that was battling during training camp so that was a positive for Penn State but there is so much to be repaired coming out of this game so Justin and I are going to do a complete deep dive on what the hell happened during this game later on this week like comment subscribe rate US turn on notifications follow us on social media and get at us at stateof State pod and you can also comment here on YouTube we appreciate that so much and don't forget you can sign up and become a member of our YouTube channel right now for just 99 cents a month and get all upcoming episodes of state of State ad free in order to do that you hit the join button on the home Channel or you follow the link in the description of this podcast thank you all so much for tuning in for this game recap this was a weird one Penn State able to pull it out by a score of 34 to 27 against Bowling Green and thankfully we have a bye now thank you all so much for joining us this episode and our entire library of shows is available now on YouTube Apple podcast Spotify Google podcast and wherever else you get your podcast also let us know what you think of the show on social media and check out all of our content on X Instagram and Tik Tok search for the handle at stateof State pod stateof state is presented by bet online and by blue white Outfitters