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Many Penn State fans were hoping for the best in last week’s rematch between the Nittany Lions and the Crimson Tide at Beaver Stadium. But as expected, Joe Paterno’s crew lacked the firepower to seriously compete with the SEC powerhouse in the 27-11 loss at Beaver Stadium.

A.J. Wins the QB Duel

While Alabama has already figured out who its starting quarterback is, Penn State is currently stuck playing musical chairs with Rob Bolden and Matt McGloin. The former is a true sophomore who still lacks the instincts to properly play the position, while McGloin is fiery, but lacks the physical talent possessed by his fellow signal caller.

Bolden got first dibs and was successful in leading his team downfield, setting up a 43-yard Evan Lewis field goal, putting the Lions up 3-0. During the drive, the Detroit native overthrew Devon Smith on the first play of the drive, but was afforded good protection on a 15-yard completion to Justin Brown.

He was lucky on a 4-yard play-action pass he overthrew for fullback Joe Suhey since the intended target did a phenomenal job stretching and adjusting to the pass to haul it in. Bolden never showed any touch on his throws throughout the contest and often seemed to force balls to his favorite target, Derek Moye, when there was nothing open.

After a 12-yard completion to Brown at the 6:08 mark of the second quarter on 3^rd-and-11, Bolden took a short drop and lofted a sideline throw in Moye’s direction while the wideout was in double coverage. The play almost resulted in an interception.

It was more of the same in the third quarter, as the young triggerman overthrew Moye, who was being tightly defended by free safety Robert Lester, who tried scooping the pigskin off the ground as it hit the turf. On the next play, blitzing inside linebacker C.J. Mosely closed in on the confused quarterback, forcing him to throw the ball behind Brown and into the hands of an opportunistic Lester as it scraped the turf. Bolden dodged yet another bullet.

As the game wore on, the sophomore stopped looking for his check-downs altogether. With a little over a minute left in the third quarter, Bolden stubbornly failed to notice that Moye’s stop-and-go route didn’t fool cornerback DeQuan Menzie. The defensive back stuck with his man in trail coverage, while strong safety Mark Barron jumped in front and picked off the pass by leaving his feet and stretching his body backwards to make the spectacular play.

Bolden ended the afternoon by only connecting on 38-percent of his passes for 144 yards and an interception---he easily could have thrown three more.

His partner in crime, McGloin, wasn’t any better, even though he wasn’t afforded as many reps. Although the local Scranton, PA product often brings belter field awareness to the table, he wasn’t able to get a lot of zip behind his throws.

Case in point: On 3^rd-and-5 play with a little over 8 minutes left in the second quarter, McGloin tried to fire a quick sideline pass to Brown, but there was nothing hard or fast about the throw, which wound up being deflected by cornerback Dre Kirkpatrick who jumped the route.

The third quarter saw the fiery quarterback float an innocuous pass that goes nowhere near Suhey, but almost gets swiped by Menzie. He followed that up by throwing it behind Moye, who reached back and tipped the ball in the air where it could have been picked off.

A.J. McCarron, on the other hand, didn’t put up gaudy statistics, but he made the right decisions and made tough throws when he had to. After an uneventful first possession, the 6’4” field general used his strong arm to fire a high, deep one to Marquis Maze, who practically snatched the ball out the hands of defending safety Nick Sukay for 29 yards. The confidence McCarron exhibited in his target was remarkable.

Subsequently, the local Mobile product immediately found wide receiver Kenny Bell on a quick developing crossing route for 14 yards. At 3^rd-and-3 from the 6-yard line, McCarron zipped one through the hands of opposing outside linebacker Gerald Hodges and into the mitts of tight end Michael Williams for the touchdown, putting the Tide ahead 7-3.

Despite being rushed by Devon Still on a couple of occasions, McCarron demonstrated a quick enough release to get the ball out in time for his targets. Greg McElroy’s successor was both poised and decisive. But most of all, he took what the defense gave him instead of forcing the action.

Trent Takes No Prisoners

Running back Trent Richardson is a beast. The junior bulldozer is pound-for-pound the toughest ball carrier to tackle probably in all of college football. In last Saturday’s win, TRich was contained at times, but always seemed to surge forward for positive yardage even when there was nary a crack of daylight.

On Alabama’s first possession, the 224-pound back shook off a thunderous collision with 6’5”, 305-pound defensive tackle Devon Still and managed to stumble forward for two yards.

Later in the first quarter, Richardson took the ball 22 yards on a stretch play by following a Barrett Jones block and then bouncing off Gerald Hodges who couldn’t do much to drag him down.

The Florida native has the ability to make several defenders look silly in one-on-one situations. The best way to stop him in that type of scenario is to get low, square up and drive your shoulder into him. Off-balanced arm tackles at full speed are usually ineffective to bring down the avid weightlifter who has been known to bench 475 pounds and squat 600 pounds.

Later in the contest, Richardson proved that he can be a patient runner who uses his blocks well when he cut inside of tight end Michael Williams’ block and burst through the open running lane for 7 yards.

In the fourth quarter, the Crimson Tide lead back used a quick stutter step to break to the outside for 8 yards, showing off his nimble feet on 1^st-and-10 from his own 20. Two plays later, he barreled up the middle for 5 yards on a play where most backs would be lucky to pick up 2 yards.

In the closing minutes, Richardson (26-106-2tds) gave way to elusive backup runner Eddie Lacy who exhibited his quick cutting skills versus a demoralized Nittany Lion defense.

Penn State lead back Silas Redd was a victim of his offense’s limitations. The Tide had little respect for PSU’s passing attack and constantly blitzed linebackers (Moseley in particular) to negate the running game.

The quick/explosive Redd was rarely afforded adequate space to use his quick-strike acceleration and was bottled up for most of the game with only 64 yards on 22 carries. On a positive note, the sophomore is making strides in picking up the blitz.

Moseley was a terror on both run and pass blitzes. He often invaded the A gap between the center and guard where his quickness came into play. Guard DeOn’tae Pannell was targeted often by the defense since he lacked the lateral agility to block the aggressive linebacker.

Still Stands Tall

Devon Still was Penn State’s most effective weapon on defense. He gave guard Thomas Steen fits all game long as both a pass rusher and a run stuffer. On one of the few occasions that Steen did a good job of blocking the interior defender, the Delaware native was light enough on his feet to pursue the passer from left to right and wrap up McCarron on a 1-yard gain on 3^rd-and-goal in the first quarter.

The surly senior exploded through the outside shoulder of Steen at the start of the second quarter and was a split second away from knocking McCarron into next week if the quarterback had not gotten rid of the ball.

Although the huge trenchman had trouble with Richardson on a previous play, Still was razor sharp on a 1^st-and-10 play in the second quarter in which he quickly shot out of his three-point stance, blew by Steen---who didn’t even get into his set---and wrapped his arms around the rock hard running back for a five yard loss.

While his technique wasn’t always flawless---which caused him to lose his leverage at times--- Still was text-book perfect on a 2^nd-and goal play from the one. His ability to get low and power through the line enabled Hodges to swoop in and take out Richardson’s legs, eventually forcing the Tide to settle for a field goal at 20-3 in the third quarter.

Bama Defense Dominant

Strong safety Mark Barron was named the SEC Defensive Player of the Week and with good reason. The senior enforcer racked up seven tackles, a forced fumble and one interception. But more importantly made contributions all over the field.

Barron perfectly timed his run blitz on the last play of the second quarter and dropped Redd for a one yard gain. In the passing game, he was quick to flow to the aid of his cornerbacks on deep passes.

His interception off Bolden at the end of the third quarter was a play reminiscent of the pick Antonio Cromartie had a few years ago off Peyton Manning on Sunday Night Football in which the former Charger and current Jet leaped high in the air, facing the ball and bent himself always backwards while extending his hands way over his head for the ball.

What was most impressive about the turnover was the fact that Barron’s graceful move was aggressive but not reckless since the receiver (Moye) had a cornerback (Menzie) right behind him if the ball had gotten by the roving safety.

The 6’2” defensive back is as close to a complete safety as you can get, considering his size, instincts and discipline in pass coverage.  He is also the type who can lay the wood.

Dre Kirkpatrick also played a big hand in limiting the Penn State offense to 251 total yards. The feisty 6’3” cornerback was up Devon Smith’s grill early on and might have had a role in the small receiver dropping the ball on a 3^rd-and-9 pass from McGloin in the second quarter.

However, Kirkpatrick didn’t limit himself to sticking to his man, he used his instincts to read plays and chip in wherever necessary. He came up huge on a pass to tight end Andrew Szczerba by getting low and striking the ball loose on his first of two forced fumbles.

In addition, the future first-round draft pick jumped a number of routes, especially when the weak armed McGloin was in there throwing his junk.

The athletic cover man keeps rising up the draft boards thanks to his 4.4 speed, size and ability to play the run. The fact that he’s alert in helping his teammates and is always looking to create turnovers will only help him down the road.

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