Grades against Ohio State

There’s no need to wait to assess Penn State’s play against the Buckeyes. It won’t take long either.

• Quarterbacks — Daryll Clark had one of the worst performances of his career. His offensive line didn’t help him out, but Clark is a fifth-year senior who should play better than he did at home against a good defense. Clark finished a dreadful 12-for-28 for 125 yards (that’s less than 4.5 yards per attempt) and threw a costly interception when the Nittany Lions had a chance to answer an Ohio State touchdown. Grade: D.
• Running backs — Evan Royster did something to his knee in pregame warmups and obviously it affected his play. He was slow to the hole, couldn’t find any cutback lanes and didn’t make many yards after contact. Stephfon Green is a nice change-of-pace back, but let’s be realistic that he’ll never be an every down player. It would have been nice for Brandon Beachum to get more than one carry, too. Grade: F.
• Offensive line — I’m not sure who decided that blocking Ohio State’s Cameron Heyward one-on-one for most of the game was a good idea. Losing Johnnie Troutman early killed the running game and there were some costly holding penalties that put PSU is awful down and distances. Also, I don’t know why teams continue to try and match up tight ends with defensive ends, thinking somehow that it will work when it usually fails miserably. Grade: F.
• Receivers — Graham Zug had a pretty good day, hauling in seven passes for 96 yards. No other receiver even showed up. Derrick Moye didn’t have a catch and was barely thrown to and Chaz Powell had all of one catch for zero yards. And once again the tight ends were invisible with Andrew Quarless and Mickey Shuler catching all of one pass each. And what happened to all the true freshmen who were going to contribute this season? Grade: D-.
• Defensive line — For the first time this season, Penn State’s front line was handled across the board and by one of the Big Ten’s more inferior offensive lines. Jared Odrick was OK, but he was constantly double teamed and nobody stepped up to help him. Devon Still flashed some talent here and there, but there was no pressure from the ends and when they did get up field they lost contain on Terrelle Pryor. Grade: D.
• Linebackers — Sean Lee is not healthy. There’s just no way. Lee is an attacking linebacker who usually plays on the opponents’ side of the ball, but he was constantly pushed around by the Buckeyes linemen and backs. Josh Hull was a ghost and Navorro Bowman didn’t make any plays when the game was still in reach. I’m still waiting to see some younger players (Gerald Hodges, Mike Yancich and Michael Zordick) get a shot. Grade: D.
• Secondary — I thought Drew Astorino was supposed to be one of the better athletes on the team. If so, why does he have so much trouble playing in space? When you’re a safety that’s a big part of your game and he’s just not doing it. A.J. Wallace made a few nice plays, but he also got beat several times, one of which came at the end of the first half when he totally blew an assignment. Grade: C-.
• Special teams — How many more times can I vilify this unit before it gets old? How about one more? Either something is wrong with Jeremy Boone or he’s scared to death to get a punt blocked. Either way he shouldn’t be on the field. The coverage units again gave up too much in the return game, while Penn State’s returners got in good lat workouts with their fair catches. I just can’t believe there’s not one player on this team that can’t return a punt. Of course, holding calls are usually whistled against Penn State so maybe it doesn’t matter. Grade: F.
• Coaching — I don’t really know how much blame can be put on the coaches here. The players didn’t come to play and I don’t think it’s because of how the coaches prepared them during the week. It’s hard to fault Tom Bradley for sending blitzers on Pryor since his defensive line was getting no pressure. What is Galen Hall supposed to do when the line isn’t blocking in the run game and his quarterback is missing left, right, high and low? I’d still like to see someone brought into run the special teams, but I don’t know what good that would do if fair catch machines are going to be put back to field punts. Grade: B.
• Overall — After Clark’s 1-yard touchdown tied the game, Penn State was manhandled. The Lions lost in every phase of the game (and it wasn’t even close) and showed little desire to perform in front of big crowd that wanted so badly to cheer for them. You don’t hear a ton of booing at Penn State games, but every single one was warranted on this day. This is going to be an ugly game when the team watches the film. It should probably be burned so nobody else’s eyes are forced to watch it again. Grade: F.