[NU Sports] PSU game

[Tom Maycock]

Quote from JoPa says it all:

On if Penn State made adjustments in the second half...

"The adjustment we made is their quarterback got hurt."

A gutsy, well-coached effort almost the entire game. They even hung tough in the 3rd quarter, when the offense was no longer holding up its end of the deal. 

PSU was bound to bust a play or two eventually, and I'm not sure we could have kept up even with a healthy Kafka, but it would have been close to the end. Too much spark, precision, execution, and confidence went out along with Mike, and our D ended up on the field way too much as a result.

As far as Persa being the answer for next year, I think it would be silly to judge his future prospects based on tonight's performance. See the other JoePa quotes--they got real aggressive on the pass rush once Kafka went out, and Dan was running for his life most of the 2nd half. I'm sure they guessed correctly that a redshirt sophomore with virtually no reps was not going to be anywhere near as ready as our very talented 5th year senior.

I really feel for Kafka--he was playing at a very, very high level before he went down. I sure wish we could have seen what might have happened had he not been injured.

Tom