I was most surprised at the poise of Dante Moore, as he was the QB who looked like the three-year starter, not Allar.

We need to somehow free-up the long ball, the Bird-Bombs to stretch the defense and open up more of the offense, IMHO.

My favorite post-game moment was watching Dante and Dan embrace in an emotional celebration.

In-game? How about Thieneman sending Allar and Franklin to Dante's 7th circle? 🤬Deja Vu?

Instead of jumping somewhere for playing time and starting QB money, Dante made the choice to improve his skills. Last night, Dante got Moore than a decent ROI on his investement, he broke the bank in front of 30 NFL scouts and 100,000 plus screaming Nit Wits.

I think on offense we’ll keep improving. Our best playmakers are the youngsters and eventually they’ll all start…3rd down conversions have reflected youth to date imo. Dante just took a quantum leap forward beyond dominating terrible teams and being on cruise control. He was fantastic.

Pass D is a menace, run D is just fine…most teams aren’t Penn State’s rushing attack and we looked damn good on that front for 3 quarters at least.

Edited 5 hours ago5 hr by JabbaNoBargain

What a game. Still on cloud nine but I'll try to focus on the task at hand.

Surprises

The run D is truly legit. #3 on the road and running is what they do but not last night. Wow is an understatement.

The freshman are legit. Frosh DBs eliminating their passing game, leading team in receiving and rushing yards. Wow again.

This portaled O line is legit. no sacks, dominated run passing and time of possession stats in that environment in first big game together. Another wow.

Improvements

I think a new RB1 and 2 have made themselves known. I'd like to see that become official.

A couple self inflicted penalties from O line cost two drives, one to start the game, the other continued the late game momentum swing. Less of that please.

A deeper D line rotation may have helped keep the game under control down the stretch. A minor flaw but I'm knit picking a third gripe.

Overall an A+ effort by an A+ team in an A+ required environment. Well done Ducks!

19 minutes ago, Charles Fischer said:

We need to somehow free-up the long ball, the Bird-Bombs to stretch the defense and open up more of the offense, IMHO.

I'll have to rewatch the game at some point but I'm not sure how many deep shots were available. Moore wasn't sacked (at least I don't think he was) but he didn't have a ton of time to throw and let a play develop.

Jim Knowles really didn't want a repeat of last year's regular season Ohio State game and I think he was trying to implement the same plan he used in the Rose Bowl and try to take away a deep shot.

However, credit to Gary Bryant for making his presence felt. Some big time catches. Penn State Washington certainly keyed in on Dak Moore and had him well covered. Many catches that Moore was making in previous weeks were a whole lot more difficult.

Oddly enough I think the Ducks need to settle on some runningback rotation. Hill and Davidson are just so good they need more touches.

Whittington just isn't good enough I hate to say. Hill was getting yards that Whittington wasn't.

Hill was running for around 8 yards per carry against THAT defense. Get the guy the ball! He also had a receiving touchdown on a screen which is an extension of the run game.

I was surprised that targeting wasn’t called.

I think DL will need to make sure this team knows that Cignetti wants to shove their faces in the dirt, and take their girlfriends.

2 hours ago, Charles Fischer said:

I was most surprised at the poise of Dante Moore, as he was the QB who looked like the three-year starter, not Allar.

We need to somehow free-up the long ball, the Bird-Bombs to stretch the defense and open up more of the offense, IMHO.

It seemed like Penn State picked up more 3rd and long conversions than they should have.

Surprised a little by how well the D-line held up against the PSU rushing attack, but Bear Alexander had a coming out party. The rest of the interior was solid with good if not great LB play. DBs shut down the WRs for the most part and except for the TD by #8 against Theinemen and a couple of risky but successful heave it up throws by Allar, took away the easy routes and chunk plays.

Surprised a bit, and thrilled, that Tosh's schemes nullified much of what PSU was trying to do. Nothing the offense did was surprising, but ecstatic that the Duck O-line spent almost three quarters either having their way or playing straight up against that good Penn St front seven.with few misfires as a result of the hostile crowd. And Dante's performance was all that and a bag of chips.

I am less worried about what Indiana will bring into Autzen in two weeks than I was after that Illinois beatdown. They are good, but OBD's better. DL, TL, WS and staff will have two weeks to dissect apart how Illinois screwed the pooch and counter what Indiana was so successful at against them and Iowa.

I think Mendoza will get rattled by a steady diet of Matayo and Tatum in his grill and Bear on a mission of mayhem up the middle.