"You Know We'll Be a Sight To See"

Philadelphia Phillies: 2008 National League Division Champions

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mU4KWe2vqug

It's an Illinois weekend for PSU and the Eagles

It's funny how things link up in sports sometimes - for example, have you ever noticed that when the Yankees are playing the White Sox, the Mets often are playing the Cubs at the same time. I can remember more than a few times that the 76ers and Flyers played in the same road arena the same weekend.

Well, this weekend, both Penn State and the Eagles are under the prime-time lights, playing wary favorites against dangerous underdogs from Illinois. The Nittany Lions host the University of Illinois Saturday at 8 pm on ABC, while the Eagles visit the Bears at Soldier Field at 8:15 pm on NBC. (Meanwhile, Philadelphia and Chicago fans also will be following a little baseball this weekend too - good times, good times.)

Illinois generally isn't considered one of Penn State's bigger in-conference rivals, although the Illini were the opponent in the greatest regular season game I've ever seen, Penn State's amazing 35-31 comeback win, concluding with a 96-yard drive into howling wind, at Champaign, IL, in 1994. (Thank you, Brian Milne.)

But the Illini have really picked things up under coach Ron Zook, who brought his recruiting prowess with him from Florida and has really ramped up the athleticism at Illinois. In Zook's first year, his team looked Syracuse-bad in getting lit up at home against Penn State, also on national prime-time TV, but then the Illini put a scare into Penn State in 2006, nearly pulling an upset at Beaver Stadium on the basis of a stellar defensive performance. Last year, Illinois didn't settle for a scare, upending Penn State at Memorial Stadium thanks to the big-play performance of wide receiver Arrelious Benn and a typically erratic day from PSU quarterback Anthony Morelli. The Illini got all the way to the Rose Bowl.

Things are looking good for Penn State. They've scored a school record 211 points over their first four games, showing an offense with diversity and skill to rival the 1994 group, only this year's group has two quarterbacks who can deliver the goods, Daryll Clark and Pat Devlin. Penn State's offense is so deep, it reminds me of the days when I was pretty sure Penn State's 2nd string could field a separate team and qualify for a bowl, if not finish in the Top 25.

In addition, suspended defensive linemen Maurice Evans and Abe Koroma were back at practice this week. I've heard no word yet on whether they will play, but I have to think re-admittance to practice means that will happen soon, if not this week. In the meantime, players like Aaron Maybin (6 sacks, to lead the Big Ten) and Josh Gaines have really stepped up.

And finally, last night's 27-21 upset by Oregon State over No. 1 USC makes PSU's 45-14 win over that same Oregon State squad a lot more impressive, doesn't it? Penn State moved the ball and scored at will on Oregon State, which just a few weeks later had USC shut out until just before halftime. Maybe it's more that Penn State is really good than that their non-conference schedule was weak.

Looking at this week's game, Illinois is 2-1 but has struggled a bit, losing 52-42 to Missouri (no shame in losing to the Tigers, but that's a lot of points to give up) and barely beating Louisiana-Lafayette, 20-17. The talk is that QB Juice Williams' passing has improved, but the Illlini have not yet adequately replaced tailback Rashard Mendenhall, now of the Steelers, and don't seem as good as last year. I think Penn State finally faces some adversity, but prevails 31-21.

For the Eagles, last week's 15-6 win over the Steelers was a reassuring response to the 41-37 loss in Dallas, which made it appear as if the Birds had little defense to count on. Nine sacks of Ben Roethlisberger later, not to mention much better coverage by the secondary, and that seems to have been a one-week thing. Also, the Eagles rank number one in the league in run defense.

So what are the Bears, with Kyle Orton at QB and a pretty average running game, going to do against the Eagles? Not score a lot, I suspect. Unfortunately, the Eagles' injury list includes Donovan McNabb, expected to play, Brian Westbrook, Kevin Curtis and Shawn Andrews. I look for another low scoring game, let's say Eagles 20, Bears 10.

Regional TV breakdowns for PSU vs. Illinois

For a while, I feared the entire mid-Atlantic region would get the Virginia Tech/Nebraska game this Saturday on ABC, rather than Penn State vs. Illinois. But as somebody who gets the ABC affiliates from both Baltimore and DC, I get the best of both worlds. Penn State on Baltimore's channel 2, and the other game on DC's channel 7.

Coverage map for ABC/ESPN regional college football coverage this weekend:

http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/news/story?page=coveragemaps2008

Those of you in PA, NJ, DE, and NY also get the Penn State game.

High school football Friday

I moved to my current residence in Columbia, MD, a little over a year ago. Where I live puts me almost equidistant between two local high schools - Wilde Lake (alma mater of actor Edward Norton and former Oriole Jim Traber) and Atholton (alma mater of Greg Hawkes of The Cars). Tonight, I'm planning to attend the Atholton football game against nearby Mt. Hebron, which went 0-10 last year despite having sent defensive end Aaron Maybin on to Penn State just a couple years before.

Anyway, I haven't decided yet whether I'm an Atholton fan or a Wilde Lake fan. They play each other on Oct. 3 and I hope to decide by then. Wilde Lake is more of a local power, although Atholton was a respectable 7-4 last year. I think I'm leaning toward Atholton just because that seems more like my neighborhood - I shop at the town center just down the road from the school on a regular basis. But I hope to get into the habit of going to Friday night games fairly regularly in the fall.

I tried going to a Washington-Lee game in Arlington when I lived there but it wasn't much of a game. This seems to be a more serious high school football area than the close-in Virginia suburbs.

Really, growing up, there wasn't much Friday night football on the Philadelphia Main Line. I went to Lower Merion, where football attendance was pretty sparse despite usually respectable teams, and my recollection is that most games were played on Saturday afternoon or even Saturday morning. I know that is changing in the Philadelphia suburbs - there seem to be a lot more Friday night games, and a number of late Friday afternoon games.

Maybe high school football is becoming a bigger deal in the Philadelphia area. But when I was growing up in the '80s, other than Bucks County, high school football didn't seem like a very big deal. I know it was a culture shock when I got to Penn State and saw how much it mattered to kids from other parts of the state - and I think I missed out growing up in area much more focused on pro sports.

Basketball season approaches

Hard to believe, but in about a month college basketball teams will be heading to practice, with games starting in the 2nd week of November.

The Big Ten Network this week released its substantial schedule of Big Ten men's and women's basketball telecasts - it says most of them will be in HD, which won't benefit me but may benefit you - and the list includes 18 Penn State men's games and four Lady Lions games. Not sure why the Lady Lions total is so low, but if Coquese Washington's team has a good season, I suspect more games will be added to the TV schedule.

To check out BTN's TV hoops schedule for 2008-2009, go to:

http://www.bigtennetwork.com/corporate/2008-09-Basketball-Television-Schedule.asp

A couple of Orioles minor league tidbits

Jeff Zrebiec, who covers the Orioles for the Baltimore Sun, wrote a very interesting piece Tuesday about the advancement of the Orioles farm system this year, notably the strong starting rotation at double-A Bowie - whose games I attend fairly regularly during the summer - and, of course, catcher Matt Wieters, who dominated single-A and double-A competition in his year as a professional.

Among the players who took a step forward this year in the O's system was Pennsylvania native Nolan Reimold, who put up good power numbers at Bowie. Meanwhile, third baseman Billy Rowell, a South Jersey product, was listed as one of the promising O's system players who really did not advance this year. He played a high single-A Frederick.

http://www.baltimoresun.com/sports/baseball/bal-sp.orioles16sep16,0,6890754.story

Wieters, for his outstanding play at Frederick and Bowie, has been named the Minor League Player of the Year by Baseball America. Congratulations, Matt. The award is well-deserved.

http://www.baseballamerica.com/today/minors/awards/player-of-the-year/2008/266825.html

I've been gathering my thoughts all week on that crazy, exciting Eagles-Cowboys game and should be posting about that and Penn State later today.

- Joe

A few tidbits heading into Penn State/Syracuse

PSU defensive tackle Jared Odrick insinuated this week that Jerome Hayes' torn-up knee on a punt play resulted from dirty play, a cut block by an unspecified Oregon State player. If so, I wonder if that Oregon State player knew who he was targeting. It's hard to believe any elite athlete would wish a second consecutive year of rehabbing a torn ACL on another athlete.

In any event, I feel a lot less sorry about the beating PSU put on Oregon State last Saturday. Before, while I enjoyed the game and Penn State's strong performance, it almost felt like poor treatment of a distinguished guest - I wanted our PAC-10 opponent to make a better showing of itself.

Speaking of that, now that Penn State manhandled Oregon State 45-14, it seems a lot of people are assuming OSU must be a very bad team. Why can't it be that Penn State is just that good. I suspect Oregon State will end the year with a representative total of 7 or 8 wins - hopefully Penn State will get some benefit in the polls if Oregon State finishes strong this year.

I am still haunted by the fact that Penn State lost ground in the polls in 1994 after beating Ohio State 63-14. People immediately assumed Ohio State wasn't all that good - a perusal of their very talented roster at the time suggests otherwise.

It's unclear if tight end Andrew Quarless is suspended or not. He was allowed to dress for last Saturday's game but did not play. Joe Paterno remains mum on the future status of Quarless, Maurice Evans and Abe Koroma. Honestly, if he's letting them twist in the wind a while, but secretly plans to bring them back for conference play - assuming no further "off-field distractions" - that's fine with me.

Penn State is averaging 55.5 points per game thru its first two games. That places the Nittany Lions third in the country in scoring offense. There are two teams in Division I-A scoring more than that? Wow. That's all - just wow.

The Lions also have not permitted a sack since last November's game at Temple. With zero sacks allowed this year, that ties them for first nationally with Wisconsin. Offensive line play, both in college and the pros, continues to be very hard to predict. While a number of highly touted recruits have amounted to little at Penn State, this group of modestly-touted players has molded into an elite unit - Gerald Cadogan, Rich Orhnberger, AQ Shipley, Stefen Wisniewski and Dennis Landolt, with Mike Lucian in the role of valuable, three-position utility man. (Okay, Wisniewski was a four-star recruit, I believe, and Shipley got talked up a lot. But still, most of these guys were far less heralded than Antonio Logan-El, Mark Farriss, John Blick and Chris McKelvey - but have proven to be far better players.)

With the seemingly endless procession of cupcake games in Division I-A this September, I think the Big Ten ought to consider setting a non-conference scheduling standard for its members. Maybe the conference should require that each member school schedule, at the very least, two BCS conference schools among its non-conference opponents. I think the league also should consider mandating that each school play either Notre Dame or a PAC-10 foe each year. That's assuming the PAC-10 could facilitate this.

Kudos to the PAC-10, by the way, for its response to the recent-years move to a 12-game schedule. It went to a full round-robin for conference play. I think that would be too brutal for the Big Ten - with 11 members, that would mean 10 conference games. Nobody would consider that a good idea, I suspect. But increasing from 8 conference games to 9 might be worth considering.

Thoughts about the defensive line situation at Penn State

Never rely on assumptions in sports. Before the 2007 season, the Phillies thought they had a surplus of starting pitching, with 6 guys for 5 spots. But by midseason, Freddie Garcia and Jon Leiber were on the disabled list and Adam Eaton was pretty much a disaster. The unheralded Kyle Kendrick was rushed up from double-A in June and remained a regular starter the rest of the season, something no one could have foreseen heading into 2007.

Similar thinking was abudant about Penn State's defensive line heading into spring practice 2008. There appeared to be an embarrassment of riches in terms of top-flight talent, and depth to match probably any program in Division I-A.

About six months later, defensive tackles Phil Taylor (Baylor) and Chris Baker (Hampton) have been kicked out of the program and transferred to other schools, defensive tackle Devon Still and defensive end Jerome Hayes have sustained season-ending injuries, and All-America defensive end Maurice Evans and starting defensive tackle Abe Koroma have been suspended from the team for an unknown period of time due to police finding marijuana at their campus apartment one week ago.

All of that, and Penn State still doesn't really even need to think about switching to the 3-4, let alone something more drastic. At defensive end, fifth-year senior Josh Gaines is showing signs of finishing a solid but unspectacular Penn State career with a big senior campaign and Aaron Maybin is a legitimate quality starter on the other side. Redshirt freshmen Eric Latimore and Kevion Latham bring talent if not game experience to the backup defensive end spots. The main worry here is not putting Gaines and Maybin in a position where they will wear down in conference play - a concern that will be reduced if Evans is permitted to return to the lineup.

At defensive tackle, true freshman Jack Crawford has moved up the depth chart into the rotation. With Ollie Ogbu and Jared Odrick starting, and Chima Okoli and Tom McEowen as backups, there appears to be enough on hand here as well. And a return from Koroma has not been ruled out.

But in all cases, this assumes no more serious injuries or off-field "distractions."

Who else is listed on the official roster at these positions?

Well, 367-pound freshman Brandon Ware from Harrisburg is listed as a defensive tackle but I'm pretty sure Penn State wants to red-shirt him and get him trimmed down a bit before he plays.

Also listed, simply as a defensive lineman, is 255-pound freshman Mikel Berry from Upper Arlington, OH. That concludes what I know about him - presumably he's a preferred walk-on. Another freshman is 250-pound Pete Massaro from Marple-Newtown High School, near Philadelphia. I'm pretty sure he's another red-shirt candidate.
The roster also lists DE Jonathan Stewart, 236 pounds, sophomore, from North Huntington, PA.

How about some "thinking outside the box" ideas? Well, I'm pretty sure fifth-year senior LB Tyrell Sales at least practiced at defensive end in the past and at 238 pounds, he's no smaller than Tim Shaw when he played DE as a senior. But I think the move of Shaw to DE was intended to get him, Paul Posluzsny, Dan Connor and Sean Lee all in the starting lineup at the same time. And with Lee on the sidelines this year, I suspect Joe Paterno and Tom Bradley will want to keep Sales right where he is, as the de-facto leader of the linebacker corps.

With Penn State's outrageous depth at tight end, with Mickey Shuler Jr., Andrew Quarless (who was reinstated before Saturday's game despite being a resident of the same apartment as Koroma and Evans), the much-touted Andrew Szczerba, and true freshman Mark Wedderburn, perhaps fifth tight end Jon Ditto, who goes about 230 pounds, could try some work at defensive end. For that matter, maybe they could look at Wedderburn there, as well, if necessary.

At defensive tackle, after years of the offensive line borrowing talent from Larry Johnson's d-line recruiting (Levi Brown, Charles Rush), maybe turnaround is fair play. Fifth-year senior Mike Lucian has played both defensive tackle and end in his PSU career, but he's technically the top backup at center and both guard spots, so I think Lucian is staying put.

But how about giving some of the deeper depth chart guys like Quinn Barham (287 pounds) or Ako Poti (316 pounds) a look at defensive tackle in practice? It probably couldn't hurt.

So as usual, there are plenty of bodies to throw at the problem at Penn State. But without question, the best solution is for Evans and Koroma to return to the lineup.

In the meantime, poor Jerome Hayes. What did he ever do to deserve two torn-up knees in two years?

Perfect Eagles opener

That easily ranks as one of the best openers I've seen the Eagles play, up there with the "Pickle Juice" game at Dallas in 2000 and a 41-14 pounding of Tampa Bay in 1988 that announced Buddy Ryan's team was ready to compete with the rest of the NFC East.

Want to see a beautiful box score? Here it is:

http://sports.yahoo.com/nfl/boxscore;_ylt=Av9SQgfXXchQCFyzHH37r60dsLYF?gid=20080907021


They don't get much more one-sided than that in the NFL. The Eagles went 7 for 14 on third down, while holding St. Louis to Oh for 11. Beautiful. Especially since getting off the field on third down has been a struggle for the Eagles in recent years.

Only four penalties for 41 yards, one of which was a phantom pass interference call. I think officials have to call at least one of those every game, regardless. No turnovers. And they spread the ball around beautifully. McNabb was strong and accurate with his throws. Westbrook was effective - and not overused. Great debut for DeSean Jackson, and nice contributions from LJ Smith, Greg Lewis, Hank Baskett and Jason Avant.

On defense, good debut for Asante Samuel. Maybe now the whispers about him being a bust will quiet down. Stewart Bradley looks like a player and then some.

Just an all-around terrific game - nothing to complain about. And the Phillies won the opener against the Mets, too, 6-2. I could get used to this.

First big weekend approaches

So, here it comes. After the appetizers - sleep-inducing NFL preseason games and the non-competitive PSU/Coastal Carolina game - a real-life football weekend occurs just around the corner. PSU hosts Oregon State Saturday at 3:30 on ABC/ESPN2 and the Eagles host the Rams at 1 pm Sunday on FOX.

I'll be at the PSU game - I'm hoping not to get drenched. I'm a bit concerned about the betting line. Penn State favored by 16.5? I think that doesn't show OSU enough respect. Yeah, they lost to Stanford, but two years ago they beat USC. I'm expecting a tight game, with the Nittany Lions winning by 7 or so.

Oh, Barack Obama - Nittaly Lions? What? Man, I'm totally in your corner but please don't make it so tough. John Kerry really embarrassed us four years ago with Lambert Field and calling Ohio State's stadium the Big House (or did he call Michigan Stadium the Horseshoe? - I forget.) But you seem like a legitimate sports fan - please don't start with the Kerry-esque gaffes.

During the long NFL offseason, I managed to forget the Rams went 3-13 a year ago. All the same, I don't think they're a team to look past. Especially considering the Eagles' 3-6 record in Andy Reid season openers.

And why is there all this talk in the media about the Eagles as a darkhorse, or maybe even a serious Super Bowl contender? Like most Eagles fans, I'm much more comfortable when the team flies under the radar.

And a rookie wide receiver, DeSean Jackson, starting for Andy Reid. Never thought I'd see that. All the same, I hope Reggie Brown is healthy for Sunday.