Immediate Penn State Reactions

As I begin to type this, there is still five minutes left in the game, but barring the most incredible comeback ever, Notre Dame should be heading into the Michigan game 2-0. Here are my immediate thoughts about the game.

• I need to pick against Notre Dame more often because whenever I do it, it seems like Notre Dame takes that team behind the woodshed for a beat down.
• The Penn State coaches deserve a F- for their performance today. I was beginning to wonder if Bill Dedrick and Kent Baer had secretly taken over as the coordinators. Seriously, they could not have picked a much worse game plan on both the offensive and defensive side of the ball. Let's see Notre Dame can't stop the run and we get 5-6 yards every time we run the ball. I know let's throw the ball 40 times. Or Georgia Tech and Ohio State had a lot of success blitzing Notre Dame. I know let's just rush three every time so Brady Quinn can pick our defense apart. Ayeayeaye. These are the kind of games that get coaches fired.
• Speaking of the run defense, yikes. Other than the kicking game, this is my biggest concern about Notre Dame right now. Notre Dame might have gotten lucky this week that Penn State's offensive coordinator did not have clue on how to attack Notre Dame's weakness. Notre Dame will not be so lucky next week when they play Michigan. Man boobs is notorious for getting conservative in big games, which means Michael Hart will probably get at least 25 carries next week. The linebackers must do a much better job tackling and getting off their blocks otherwise it could be a long afternoon for the Notre Dame defense next week.
• But let me give some praise to the Notre Dame defense. The amount of improvement by the pass defense has been phenomenal. They still need to generate more pressure from their front four, but they are getting very solid play from their secondary and they're not giving up as many big plays via the passing game as they did last year and Minter doesn't seem afraid this year to use the blitz, which has led to more pressure on the quarterback.
• Good to see the old Brady Quinn back. He still made a few shaky throws, but for the most part, a vintage Quinn performance, 25-36, 287 yards and three touchdowns.
• Speaking of seeing the old Brady Quinn, it was good to see the old offense back. 41 points and nearly 400 yards of total offense and the totals would have be higher had it not been 41-3 in the fourth quarter.
  
• Hey Carl Goia doesn't totally suck. I still find myself closing my eyes and praying whenever Notre Dame kicks a field goal, but it's good to know that kicking a field goal will not be a totally hopeless proposition.
• Enough about this game, bring on Michigan!!