[Music] welcome back into the lions 247 podcast we're coming to you on Saturday evening fresh out of Beaver Stadium where we spent a lot of time there today for Penn State's home opener and as predicted Penn State reached two and 0 on the season heading into their bye-week but the story and the way it played out was a lot different than what we forecasted 35 point spread essentially favored Penn State going into this matchup they ended up being down at halftime they ultimately win 34 to 27 So Daniel you and I were sitting alongside each other we shared a lot of conversation in Beaver Stadium today it went from oh this is an interesting start for Bowling Green to okay Penn State's on upset alert to can Penn State find a way to put this game away and prevent a major disaster they were able to get it done we'll talk about some of the pieces that that took place for part of that process for Penn State to actually get to the Finish Line without falling to a opponent like this and by the way Notre Dame number five in the country lost to Northern Illinois on home turf today so uh let's call it Penn State Dodges a bullet of national embarrassment but also has a lot of self-c constructive uh items to get to with two weeks before their next matchup at home September 21st against Kent State yeah a group of us are in the Press Box watching the end of the not Dame Northern Illinois game and after that ended I was like oh guess Penn State's going to move up in the AP Top 25 uh tomorrow I I don't know what the rest of the results look like at like the8 n you know 10 11 uh level but yeah I you just want to avert disaster in a gamees like this and I think that things shifted pretty early on in our thinking from okay when are we going to see these backups when are we going to see the the line changes that I think we anticipated and that we teased uh you know on the preview podcast with some of our preview content on the site I know that on my keys to the game on on Friday my number one key was get in and get out I mean I I know that and I put the disclaimer that I knew I was being a little glib in saying that and that Bowling Green is a program that has really elevated itself over the past couple years and I think Scott Leer's done a really good job there when it seemed like he was not going to get anything accomplished uh at Bowling Green but I was still like you got to get in you know put up four touchdowns quick you know get these starters out get these backups get these young guys some work and very clearly did not happen um and you know even and it's not something that I was expecting to see not something you were expecting to see but I think that you get to the point where a game like this James Franken called it a dog fight I think that you kind of shift into that real gamer mode where okay we're gonna do everything we need to to get out of this with a win and it got a little dicey there with when it seemed like Penn State just couldn't put Bowling Green away and if you let a team like that hang around like a lot of times bad things happen but Zachy Wheatley Nick Singleton they got there Penn State's two and 0 I think at the end of the season we're just going to see 3427 and just kind of be like okay and move on with our lives it was A Tail of Two hav for the defense and we'll get to that it was also kind of a an uneven performance for the offense as well there was explosive plays but there were moments to really put their uh you know Put The Knife into the into the and twist it a little bit at the end of this game and until Nick Singleton raced 41 yards on the first play of a possession they were struggling to put this one away in that second half while the defense was getting the job done so look as James Franklin said you come out of a matchup like this early in the season you anticipate you'll have a lot to work on they have more than they expected to work on coming out of this one but when you're able to work on it coming off a win it makes a big difference and I don't want to make this seem like everyone should be happy that Penn State's two and 0 just you know the style points aren't there but I think clearly Penn State to to be down at halftime in this matchup and to get thrashed the way they were defensively uh they gave up more than 280 yards total in the first half um you know as we'll get to with the quarterback situation across the field he was Sensational um but I thought maybe the biggest takeaway for me is these Defenders came away from the matchup Daniel whether it was Abdul Carter Kobe King Tony roas these were a few of the guys that we got to speak with in postgame they said they learned something about Tom Allen at halftime and in the second half uh the way that Abdul Carter described it was that Tom Allen was built for this and where Tom Allen goes from being in a world where you're the CEO of a team to the guy who if you got a problem on defense it's your problem as the coordinator um and I thought if you're looking for a rebound kind of story to come out of this and feel good about it the defense sure figured out its situation in the second half and and I felt like if they hadn't kind of found a way to play button-up football then this would have been a real real problematic finish for Penn State because I don't know if their offense uh was firing on enough cylinders in the second half that would have maybe been able to to to go tit fortat against bowling GRE I know that's strange to say but that's what they were faced with early on was was matching bowling Green's possessions and matching Bowling Green scores and once Bowling Green stopped being able to move the ball at all they had six yards in the third quarter they had 86 yards in the second half then we saw what happened and Penn State was able to to establish a 10-point lead down the stretch and hold on for a seven-point win and so Daniel to me I think that's where I focus for for a positive is the defense that pendulum swung back in a big way and they were able to really you know put out a dominant effort for much of the second half yeah it felt like between the offense and the defense they never really got synced up where they have both units really rolling it was first half felt like really all about the offense second half offense did what it needed to do to get into the lead but it was a lot more about that defense and I think that defense that we saw in the second half that was the unit that we were expecting to see for this entire game I think uh when you think about the the quality of opponent that Bowling Green is when you think about the talent differential that's there I know that the transfer portal evens things out a little bit Malcolm Johnson Jr the Bowling Green wide receiver who had a nice touchdown catch Auburn transfer so that someone who has played and has been with an SEC program had enough skill coming out of high school that an SEC program viewed him as worthy of a spot on their roster um and so the playing field has changed a tiny bit from that respect but I just thought that overall the the defense in the second half it just looked a lot more determined I think I think that front and that second level um guys were all over the place it felt like you you started noticing different things you started to notice it being more disruptive um in the first half there were guys that had like a couple moments Abdul Carter coming off the edge to bat down a pass on third down that was one thing that I remember from that first half but the second half it's you're thinking about Elliot Washington seeming to be all over the place when whenever he was on the field Tony Roos came up with a couple big plays um after missing a couple you know some series earlier in the game Kobe King I thought had some nice hits and then you you look at that front and they're in the backfield more they're they're meeting the ball carrier in in the back field and that was something that in that second half stood out to me a little bit more I I I think you we'll review some of the individual standouts and and and they did emerge on defense there was a couple key takeaways late in this matchup but when we go back to the beginning here I mean the deal is Penn State surrendered 17 points before the offense ran its 10th play and so when I thought about well what's gone wrong sometimes you you you see a power conference opponent take on a Max school and just generally there's there's lethargy that's that's obvious on the field you're seeing that they didn't bring the passion but I I I wasn't picking up that on I mean the offense largely was producing early on I think by the time that we were in deep into the second quarter you had Tyler Warren KR Allen Nick Singleton Omar Evans all 24 plus yard gains through the first quarter and a half or so and yet they hadn't run their 10th play and Bowling Greens got 17 points on the board and a big Catalyst for that was was the quarterback I I mean Conor basac uh was looking all world in the first half um and it kind of came apart for him a bit in the second half but Daniel um we covered this with with with Bowling Green beat reporter on our podcast this week leading up to the matchup and he talked about basac being a well-traveled veteran someone that they can lean on you know with the experience but he said straight point point playing period he's not a guy that they're counting on to throw for a bunch of yards and be that kind of a disruptive presence on offense they like to lean on their ground game and yet in that first half I mean he was absolute money and this defense was kind of rolling around on on roller skates of felic Daniel in a way that we hadn't seen from them in the regular season in a while I mean I I don't know when you go back to maybe some of that Purdue game in the 2022 season opener when they were able to effectively move the ball a bit but just thinking about the last couple regular seasons I'm keeping the Peach Bowl on its own little you know kind of its own deal because of the opt outs and everything else that went into that um but it had been a long time since you saw the defense scrambling like this we've been so used to that authoritative presence uh but but in this case it just wasn't there and really throughout the entire first half yeah I I think the last time that we saw the the defense look that this discombobulated was probably the Michigan game in 2023 but that was a different animal because that was them that was them getting out physical up front that was Michigan being Michigan and grinding uh or no 2022 I think I said 2022 yeah October 2022 that was that was just grinding it out you know that was Michigan was the more physical team that was bullyball that was James Franklin in the uh in The Press Room after the game saying they need to get bigger um but then you look at today and Conor vlock was really slinging it Harold vanon Jr was making some really nice catches you this secondary that after last week we kind of said oh okay they're not missing a beat they sent three starters to the NFL uh or to the you know they three starters moved on great they're in good shape uh and that really wasn't the case today um were some moving Parts back there but overall those Bowling Green receivers and pass catchers are really just making some plays down field and I was surprised to see it but I think that Conor basac that's a quarterback that has that sec in Big 10 experience kind of like I mentioned earlier with Malcolm Johnson Jr um you know there's a reason these guys transfer down and some of that is their you know they can't play at that level some of it is other reasons but you know it's they still have that experience and I think there's a reason those guys end up at that level to start and that shine through a little bit there uh today you know I'm just I just want to you weren't around for this but there was that Appalachian State season opener in in 2018 I think it was and I really should remember his name right now but Appalachian State's quarterback had a career kind of game I mean he just caught fire had a bunch of momentum nearly rode that wave into giving uh the app stated an upset victory in Beaver Stadium and I was starting to wonder with with basac because he was completing some throws like you know off platform he was getting you know maybe some lucky moments down the field with how the ball was bouncing and you're starting to wonder are we just starting to see one of these special kind of afternoons he was 16 of 20 passing for 192 yards and two touchdowns at halftime of this matchup again we we just don't see quarterbacks have that kind of success against this Penn State Defense and that incl last year when when Michigan pretty much said JJ give the ball off or run it we're not going to have you pass it against against Penn State uh and and second half though as we said tail two Hal for the defense basac nine of 19 passing for 62 yards he threw two interceptions Zaki Wheatley had the second one Tony roas made made a real strong play to pick up the first interception uh they found the Kryptonite for basac but I think that you know by the way he played for Tom Allen at Indiana when Allen was the head coach there and Allen coming out of this matchup as he gets together with these guys in film session and some extended self- scouting periods with a bye I I obviously the vocal point is how do we prevent a start like this from happening again because if you find yourself on the wrong end of this kind of a quarterback performance and you're in a big 10 matchup you may not have the ability to find the shovel soon enough to dig yourself out of that situation yeah I I'm very curious what the how the what the defense takes away from this and how they how they move forward and some of the lessons that they learned from this I think that like you talked about hearing some of those defensive players talk after the game I think is is something that'll really resonate with them and I I don't think it's a wakeup call necessarily but I do think that for some of these players it definitely checks your confidence a little bit because coming into the Year this group was really really confident uh especially given how they played last year it was completely deserved too um a lot of pieces moved on but there was a ton of confidence in the pieces that were moving up because there's a lot of guys who had been around uh even if they hadn't played a lot of football they were seasoned and they had had seen different things and and gotten out there in different situations and when you perform like you did last week against West Virginia I mean why wouldn't you feel great coming into a game against Bowling Green these are 18 to 24 25 year old kids I don't know how old some of those sixe seniors are but it's pretty natural uh to have you know maybe a little bit of a let down um it didn't really seem the case based off of what players were saying but I think that that's a blank that we can kind of fill in uh given everything surrounding this game you got a by week next week too um so I'm I'm curious how they come out of it but it does sound like that Tom Allen you know resonated with these guys guys whatever his message was it got through and we'll we'll see how they carry it Forward because you know they're even if like UCLA illino Illinois like those aren't that's not necessarily topof the top Big 10 but those are power four teams they can test you Illinois is giving a game to top 20 Kansas right now um they'll be curious to see but Tyler I have a you know talking about you know not seeing a game like this and seeing a defense discombobulated a little bit I have a quick pop quiz for you okay that that I I thought of when we were starting so since 2021 so postco my first year on the beat Penn State's won 28 games how many of we could just call this the gallon area era everyone around Happy Valley just calls us the gallon era I wasn't going to say it I was I was waiting for you to say it but how many of these G how many games including today or how many games in the past few years did Penn State win by single digits win by single digits yeah that's a good one um off the top of my head I can think of and you're saying go back to to post 2021 or post 2020 including starting at Wisconsin 2021 till now okay well I'm gonna both those those openers those couple years Purdue and Wisconsin were were were narrow margins um but beyond that I'm gonna say that they maybe won is this like only the third or fourth game that they've only won in single digits this will be this today was the fifth 1610 over Wisconsin 2820 over Auburn in in 2021 you had the Purdue game in 2022 and then the Indiana game last year right I mean I mean we've heard it like Penn State is one of the like except for today people lost some money on them but like they've been one of the biggest like go cash your ticket if you bet on a bet on the big favor here like Penn State covers spreads and they do it like consistently and so when it became clear that Not only was thee right in Jeopardy for this game but the outright outcome this was really like Uncharted Territory and again the only thing I was starting to feel the only similar sense I could explain it to you is what it felt like in Beaver Stadium in the 2018 opener when the team had such high hopes and all of a sudden found themselves on the ropes against Appalachian State yeah I mean you unfortunately you don't get to hang banners for covering the spread but I I just think that it's you know we just haven't seen Penn State in a game like this where that they pull it out I know that in in 2021 even when they were losing all those games um I think they were all close it was all you know within 10 points and that margin um they lost close to Ohio State and Michigan last year I mean really that Michigan game in in 2022 is the only time since I've been here that we haven't seen them be fully competitive Peach own category uh you know per usual um so it was just it was very different today I think and to come out of that with a victory I I think it gives you a little insight into the character this team gives you a tiny bit of insight into you know how they'll respond maybe when the going gets tough because Drew Aller talked about it in in August like how do you react when things aren't going well that was a really big talking point for him and the offense last year I think we saw the offense pick up the pick up the slack in the first half which in the past there's been these all these games that we've been watching and it's like okay that offense needs to make a play that offense needs to do something and it's usually the defense that does something not the offense you know today offense picked it up in the first half defense picked them up in the second half and you you got to the victory but I just thought the dynamic today from from those perspectives once we get past the struggling with a team you should have you know boat raced I think it's kind of interesting I didn't pick up any kind of of like you know I didn't see a thousand yard stairs from these State players like wondering what just happen they didn't seem Shell Shocked I know they didn't lose but they didn't seem like like they were one searching for answers I I think they're curious I think they're probably anxious about going into that film study it's it's not going to be a very comfortable situation for a lot of people and that's how it works and and look your your growth for this team is going to come through some uncomfortable moments and this is kind of the real first test for that for them even with the defensive players it seems like they're confident that they found what they needed to find in halftime in the second half of this game let's go over to the offense Daniel and and I mentioned you had big plays uh pretty early from this offense really picking up where it left off against West Virginia uh you had Omari Evans coming up with another big play that's kind of been his bread and butter lately 29 yard touchdown reception that that brought Penn State within 1714 after falling behind 17 seven early on you had Drew Aller finding Nick Singleton for a beautiful touchdown pass U those guys have really connected that was a little bit later in the game I'm know I'm getting ahead of myself but I think my point here is Andy C nck an cot Nikki's offense and its explosive traits were very apparent to us what wasn't there today and what felt like it was holding Penn State back was the ability to remain on the field and James Franklin harped on that a couple times in the postgame podcast and I know that's going to be a central part of of their self Scout moving forward in offense is sustaining these drives getting more play opportunities and having thus the opportunity to get more Playmakers involved I I know again it's it's a it's a big number 17 points for for Bowling Green before Penn State runs his 10th offensive play um so Daniel when when you think about the body of work today the good the bad the ugly everything in between what did you make of Penn State's offensive output I think that you can make kind of the the tail of two half joke uh a little bit there but when you talk about what James Franklin was talking about with staying on the field and sustaining the drive have that the drive chart up and in the second half they they had the sequence where they they score early in the third quarter to go up uh 27 24 I think uh and then they have these three straight drives that one ends in an interception in The End Zone by Drew Aller then you have four plays and a punt three plays and a punt and the game was still in the balance and you're thinking how they're they're letting Bowling Green hang around like you you can't do this you don't get rewarded uh when this happens and I think if you face a more talented team in the Big 10 that kind of thing won't fly that that won't work um and so I I think that that's where the offense felt a little bogged down where you felt a little uncertain I would be interested to hear what James Franklin and Andy cotal Nikki would say after going back and looking at those drives again and self scouting and and sorting things out and being like okay what what can we do different next time um and you saw Penn State look a little discombobulated there too where Drew Aller loses 23 yards on a sack which was just like baffling I know that people said that there were free rushers and you know that someone was a Turn Style on the offensive line but like there's no excuse for that you to run that far backwards in in a play and not get rid of the ball not you know to to avoid that but what did you think about Drew on the day um because there were a few moments that I turned to you and I just felt like that is a play that that he was not capable maybe he wasn't maybe he was capable but that he wasn't going to make in 2023 and unfortunately for Penn State two of those plays today ended up not being completions where where he's working like doing great work inside the pocket then outside the pocket then resetting himself and throwing the ball on the move once was to was it KRON Allen where the ball was ultimately it was ruled incomplete maybe it wasn't KRON Allen I might be throwing him on yeah there there's a KRON in it was KRON and then the other time was Omari Evans before Omari Evans caught that 29 yard touchdown that was maybe the most impressive uh that I've seen Drew Aller between the snap and and the release of the football um it would have been a big gain down the field on a third down throw to Omari Evans that was dropped but I I thought overall again the 23 yard sack wasn't pretty he threw a poor interception looking for Harrison Wallace but he kept taking chances like even after some of those moments he kept throwing the ball downfield we didn't see him connect with Harrison Wallace today but but generally speaking in an adverse situation where any kind of Hiccup could have set them back or could have really put that upset alert flag raising above Beaver Stadium I just thought that he had the right responses for the most part and he continued to show what that extra athletic ISM maybe what his comfort level with the new play callar can do for this team yeah you talk about two of his most impressive individual plays ending up being incompletions and then you had two more plays that were either incompletions or didn't count that I think showed what the mindset is there's that deep ball to Harrison Wallace where I think Drew hung it up just a little bit too long uh Wallace had his guy beat but the ball hung up uh Wallace had to slow up a little bit and the the defender was there to break it up that was that was a dagger kind of throw that was that was with a few minutes remaining before Nick Singleton was able to get TouchDown that was like going for the kill shot and he was about a half stride short in the throw it seemed like and then you had the Omari Evans touchdown that got taken off the board because of offensive pass interference where that was another play where they chucked it down the field they said okay we're going to throw it to the fastest guy on our offense downfield in a matchup we like and let him try to make the play um I think that those two plays also showed where this offense is and the attitude of it and the Swagger that they have and how they want to play um I think that that really stood out to me too um but I I think that Aller is just he's he's really showcasing the tools right now yeah I mean I think that you know that touchdown pass to Nick Singleton was just like a dart and he put it only where Singleton could get it in a tight window he threw it before Singleton had even turned around like that was just the type of play where it's like okay yeah he's a pro there's another one he had another play like that early in the game that was an incompletion I don't think it was the Omari Evans drop I'm I'm completely blanking on it right now but I remember being like Oh that's an that's an NFL throw that's a that's a pro throw um and so I I think we're really seeing Aller comfortable willing to move around he did again did some things with his legs you ran for that touchdown um just looked I thought he looked really solid I've been really impressed these these past few games because kind of like what we said all summer you can talk about it but at some point you got to be about it and that's what we've seen you going back to going back to we just didn't get to see Drew work against Penn State's defense Mo this summer so generally speaking we just didn't know I think I think I will say after 120 Minutes of football if I close in my mind's eye right now I close my eyes and picture what Drew Aller is as a quarterback it has evolved more than I thought it might through the first couple games just in in terms of his ability to orchestrate this particular offense his ability to prolong plays and the confidence level that he is clearly showing in letting the ball fly down field more yeah and I think in terms of the attitude of this offense and Aller the drive that really sticks out to me is the one in the second quarter to make it 17 to 14 you know what you talked about in terms of things were not going well in the early going but we did not see guys you know dropping their heads you know thousand yards stairs or whatever we saw this offense come out and land a really strong counter punch you you go 75 yards in three plays for a touchdown after you've gone down 17 to seven I mean that's an offense that comes out and means business and is ready to go and that really stood out to me because I I felt like at times last year we never really they were not in too many situations outside of uh Michigan and Ohio State where Penn State needed the counter punch where it was a drive and it was like you need to do something or this could get away from you the only time that really happened it felt like last year was in the Indiana game and really more than anything that just felt like desperation that was kind of like oh we actually don't have a choice now we have to throw the downfield we have to kind of let it rip a little bit whereas they came out and it was just super well done calm collected um it was just a really really nice selection of plays that I'm trying to pull up right now you you had 22 yard completion to Tyler Warren 24 yard gain to Nick by Nick Singleton 29 yard pass to Omari Evans I mean you were searching for one of those kind of plays for quarters on end last year yeah and it's like the thing where it's like kind of like so simple to be like oh like you put each of those plays in a vacuum and you're kind of like oh like why don't they just do that every every Drive every play like it looks so easy it made so much sense I just was really impressed with that sequence because the quick strike Penn State offense like I think we're we've seen some like twplay 70 yard drives where it's like ends up being a you a short play then a big Nick Singleton gain or like in the Rose Bowl long pass to kandre Lambert Smith but we haven't had that a sort of as much as you can call a three-play drive sustained uh just to go and just pick up those big chunks just take big steps forward yeah like I was just like oh this is a different offense this year this team is a little bit different and I think that's something that can play in the Big 10 that's something that's going to win you games now we were kind of joking that oh man this defense needs to catch its breath it needs to to you know be on the sideline regroup a little bit and you're telling him to go back on the field like a minute later in game time but I think you'll take the seven points there and I think that was a really really big juncture in the game because we like it's 177 like this could get away from you and this could be bad and remember the uh you know that that final possession in the first half at West Virginia where we figured they'd take a knee going half time try to get the ball two plays later they're in the end zone from one side of the field to the next so yeah Andy Cod Micki thinks he has the pieces to drive the ball down the field score in a hurry and thus far he's been validated and in that in that kind of Outlook regarding this team we've made it way too far without uh addressing what Tyler Warren was able to accomplish I I really quickly want to to to note that Nick Singleton and Omari Evans fascinates me what they have done since Mike Urich was fired I mean these these two are are a front center for me and just saying individually how have things changed Nick Singleton now has three consecutive regular season games with 100 plus rushing yards first 10 games last year with Mike yuch as the OC he had maxed out at 80 rushing yards Omari Evans now has four straight regular season games with a 20 25 plus yard gain the first 10 games last year his longest catch was five yards so all of a sudden these guys week in week out are coming up with big plays Nick Singleton obviously is more of a front and center component of what this offense is but I think now Omari Evans even with that drop today has inserted himself as a field stretching figure for this offense and in speaking with Omari Evans after this game you know one thing that that we were discussing was that defenses now have to account for him you know it's one thing when you think that you've got a speed threat on your team in preseason camp but doesn't mean much when a defensive coordinator is getting ready for your offense and the time of the effort and the investment he's got to put into that player now it's on film for Omari Evans and it's on film a few few times for Omari Evans and we know what Nick Singleton the field stretcher has looked like in the past what it's looked like more recently he had the put away score 41 yards on the first play of that possession for Penn State to make it a 34-24 lead for them um KRON Allen over 100 yards on the day as well I wanted to make sure I mention a bunch of these guys because Tyler Warren is where we got to finish with on the offensive side of the football eight catches 146 yards for the fifth year senior tight end that is a Rec record for Penn State tight ends ever in a single game he was over 120 yards in that Peach Bowl in back last December that was a heck of a performance this one was even better uh seven of these eight catches were for 10 plus yards seven of these eight catches were for first downs um he didn't reach the end zone like a few of his teammates but four catches for about SE 70 yards during the first half four catches for about 70 yards during the second half uh and KRON Allen and Nick Singleton both will tell you he is so impactful as a runner go watch that 41 yard run that I just referenced for Nick Singleton that put away the game look who was clearing out the left side there Tyler Warren uh and so James Franklin called him the most complete tight end in the country two weeks ago this is the kind of performance regardless of who it's against that shows you he can be number one target material for this team regardless of what's happening at receiver and also he can be Mr consistent when maybe there's some moments of instability going on over the course of the game if you love tight end play today was a very very good day for you because you had Tyler Warren uh on the Penn State side and then on the Bowling Green side Harold Fannon Jr 11 catches 137 yards one touchdown uh he looked really really good kind of like you're I mean both of them looked like you're when you imagine a tight end in your head and the types of plays that they can make receiving that's what they looked like today but I think with Tyler Warren the thing that stood out was just the chunks of yardage that he was picking up uh I have it up right now 12 yards 15 22 30 10 29 23 and five uh but to be able just to get chunks of yardage like that I mean I I did I pulled up a stat last week where I did the you know the the small sample size Olympics where you looked at uh Drew Aller yards per attempt last year it was 6.8 which is just not a healthy number or not that's not like a high level uh quarterback number um you know in game one at West Virginia 12.7 yards per attempt uh I did not do the math today before I there he's about today was about 10 and a half yards per attempt H I just looked at it yeah and so just that just these chunks of yardage that they're picking up has just been really impressive and to do that with your tight end I think is is something that is you know really good for Penn State um you you look at last year during his career Theo Johnson was one of those guys I think was it 2022 was averaging 16 yards a catch like he showed you could be a downfield threat and Tyler Warren was more of the the station the station guy um you know a little bit you know not as much of a Down downfield guy and for him to have that being in his game this year and to be used like that shows that that full complete tight end thing I mean you know James Franklin saying it that's not praise that I think he gives out often at the same time he's sticking up for his guy and you take a lot of and I know that we're all high on him because we've seen him so much but there's still a little bit more that I feel like you want to see from him as being a number one like the alpha the that option in a receiving game and this type of performance like we saw today and a little bit like what we saw um in the peach bow that kind of makes you think like okay yeah he can do this he can be that guy he can be when we get to Mackie award season you know be be among the semifinalist to finalist when we get the draft season he can be in that conversation to be the first tight end off the board and I think it's gonna be really exciting for us to follow and and for Penn State fans to watch when Theo Johnson was going through his pre-draft interview process this spring before he landed with the New York Giants in round five he was telling everybody would listen that that Tyler Warren's going to be at the top of their tight end board uh this upcoming NFL draft and you talk about what he can do at this size he's 6 foot6 260 plus pounds and trust me he looks every bit of it we've had a chance to spend a lot of time with Tyler lately he's gone for at least 14 yards on a reception now in eight straight games so this is nothing new uh this is something I think that we we've retrained ourselves about Tyler Warren but he finished last season as as a a kind of a more vertical threat than we anticipated because I think when I pictured the first half of last season when it really started to emerge it was more boxing out in the end zone you know coming up with some contested catches using that physicality now he's racing away from people and and it's just it's really special to watch and you can understand why the combination um has codal Nicki really excited and Tyler Warren is is probably the last person to talk about Tyler Warren and so when we caught up with him after the game didn't want to do a lot of that he said he you know certainly has a lot of respect for the tight end position at Penn State guys he shared the room with guys who came before so a standalone number one in single single game yardage list is pretty special he's only four touchdowns away from Pat Fri moose all-time career record here at Penn State um but when it comes to to Warren and moving forward I think the most important thing is here we didn't talk about Harrison Wallace at all because he didn't get a catch today and Warren's point to us was this is just how it's going to be we saw that that tight end was going to be the hot read today we anticipated that might be the case Tyler said during game prep and that turned out to be the way he said last week it was Trey Wallace who was the hot readed he said next week it could be somebody else could be Trey again could be me again but I think that he makes a good point there have been recent Seasons here at Penn State where it feels like there is a definitive number one target or or there's a guy that you've got to really lean on and if he's not producing then there's going to be problems you know we got a two game sample size here where the Penn State offense puts up 34 points on both occasions different kind of game Flow but you know you've got Warren at 146 this week you got Harrison Wallace with the career game last week you got both running backs hitting 100 yards and so I think at the end of the day Andy codal Nikki is following through on what he told us in terms of week to week we're gonna identify the strengths on our Personnel match it up with what the defense has and when those weaknesses combine with our strengths it'll show up with explosive plays and so right now you are presenting a bit of a pick your poison component I think you get more more production out of that receiver room as we move forward from other guys maybe Julian Fleming Kaden sers gets healthy there there's more potential for that receiver room but I think the earlier turns are this isn't an offense this isn't a quarterback who's gonna have to hang his hat on a primary weapon yeah I think there's a lot of these factors at play where the amount of options that Penn State has I think that it's one thing to take them at their word coming into the year and and forecasting things for ourselves a little bit but now that we're in the season and you look at these first two games Tyler Warren Nick Singleton KRON Allen Trey Wallace and I'd put Omari Evans in that top group in terms of guys that we've seen Penn State go to in big moments and and feed the ball a little bit and that's a lot of guys to spread the ball around to uh you know Trey Wallace didn't have a catch today and it didn't necessarily feel he didn't necessarily feel super absent because of that I think because you're moving the ball with Tyler Warren and it's the thing where you don't need Trey Wallace to go off for a 100 yards other part of it is the amount of opportunities that Penn State has right now I think part of it was because in the second half they could not stay on the field during th those three drives when they're trying to put the game away and just how these games have gone I mean we're through two games and Drew Aller has what 37 total pass attempts which is a a number that he did three times in a game last year alone uh and two of those games were losses so who knows if you want him to be throwing that much which is a different game Flow conversation but I think that we're just seeing that like for this pass catching group there's not a ton of opportunities right now uh because of the way that the these games have gone and the way that they're playing and you know if what we saw today from this Penn State Defense maybe it changes the you know your outlook a little bit where okay they might end up in a shootout or two this year where you're going to need Drew Allard to throw it 40 times and then maybe that's when you see you know two guys with eight catches or two guys going over a 100 yards or 80 yards or something like that but I think so far I think kind of the fact that we haven't seen someone get force-fed I think it bodess well for this offense I still dealing with a tiny sample size but at a certain extent you've only got 12 regular season games so the sample size is not going to be as big as you'd like it to be in a lot of cases but I I do think that we're just going to see the the shape of this offense change week to week and I think they're sticking to their word right now when they're saying we'll look at what the defense is doing will attack that which means this guy might get a lot of work one week he won't get a lot of work this week and through two games we've seen them stick to that and I think that's a big positive in terms of your long-term Outlook receivers combined for three catches 37 yards and a touchdown Julian Fleming who who got announced as a starter today one catch three three yards this first career catch in a NY Lions uniform and then Omari Evans two catches 34 yards and a touchdown but because of what was going on around them and the other weapons that were involved it didn't feel like that was an issue today um but again it does feel like that ceiling there's a lot of room to grow a receivers still and so what does that look like as they get there it's it's you know intriguing to say the least for this offense um let's talk about some players of the game really quickly do want to mention Kobe King very clutch uh ability to field that onside kick when when Penn State was leading by seven in the final minute he took some contact he turned his body was able to get that ball in his possession so key moved there by the the captain the linebacker but talking about some individual players of the game we went over Tyler Warren he was awesome um Tonio Rojas on defense so you know you asked me kind of we were getting later in the game you said has there been really an MVP type performance on on on defense has there been and we were kind of waiting for it because then not really and then Tony roas who earlier had just really got on the got on his horse went down the field tracked the ball and knocked it down on a third down earlier in the game and that was when when uh when they were just dealing the ball through the air wherever they wanted that that was a big moment but later in the game he comes up with an interception and roas told us afterwards working against Nick Singleton and KRON Allen on a daily basis since she showed up on campus last year speed's always been a big thing for him that that's that's going to be you one of the Premier traits that leads him on the football field for the rest of his career but he said his coverage skills have really taking a boost from working with those guys and I was pretty Blown Away by by how seamless he looked in a couple really key situations where if you're a little bit early it's going to be a costly penalty if you're a little bit late it's going to be a huge gain and so I I thought he you know walked that line very well today and if he doesn't make each of those plays we could be having a very different conversation on this podcast I I did like what we we saw from roas today I thought that interception was just a really really nice play in coverage where it looked like he was trailing the receiver and then suddenly he's just right there in perfect position and is able to haul in the ball uh that pbu on the trick play Early was I thought a another really impressive play where the timing really lined up perfectly I think that there are still some areas for growth for him which for all the good things we've heard about him and all the praise we've given him still a sophomore uh today was his second game getting really really significant snaps um in the Run of play he had won play where he took a pretty hard hit from the running back where you know he didn't it was it was just a weird play where he wasn't squared up wasn't really going to wrap up the the ball carrier and the the runner just lowered his shoulder and you know pushed him off um so I I think you're seeing a young player that you're gonna hope and trust will get better on a weekly basis once he's out there um with with more and more play but yeah I mean we were we were kind of waiting for someone on the defensive side of the ball to to step up you know I I had the little placeholder text in where I said that like a lot of Penn State defensive efforts over the past couple years it was more about the combined unit as opposed to one guy and that's just how the flow of the game went but Roos came through for me for me there at the end and and came through for Penn State as well Daniel let's finish up with a couple injury notes here because uh we observed some of those uh we saw KJ Winston exit this game during the first half he was on the sideline with out his helmet the rest of the way guy who was the Big 10 defensive player of the week last week and we talked so much this week about how those safeties lived up to that Elite billing in week one without him on the field then you saw Jaylen Reed playing more of that traditional safety you saw more three linebacker looks kind of a standard defensive look you saw more of Zion Tracy playing some line because Jaylen Reed was out back playing safety James Franklin said it did impact their ability to dictate the defense how they would have preferred to do that but when you remove someone of this caliber like KJ Winston that can happen no details from James Franklin afterwards as you well know probably out there listening he doesn't get into injuries unless they're of the season ending variety so no news on KJ Winston but any kind of absence there is going to be a big deal that we got to discuss but they've got a byee that they're going into and then over at tight end Daniel they got khil dinkin back involved he had a catch today as usual he moved to chains with that catch he has high impact receptions in his career to this point not a bunch of them but they make a difference um but unfortunately surprising scratch for us was Andrew Raper and he ended up you know showing up on the field using crutches and this is a guy that we spoke with this week we saw him on the field Wednesday I wrote on Friday about him having this opportunity to take the next step for himself and unfortunately it seems like Penn State is going to be without Raper for a bit and I'm just going to leave it there because James Franklin uh you know said he wasn't prepared he just doesn't really know quite yet he's got to have those kind of conversations before he's going to have a conversation with us in a public setting in a postgame press conference but when you see a guy on crutches um you know it's usually not a great thing that it's not something that you're just like oh you know it's he'll be back tomorrow so we got to monitor this and it's an unfortunate development because Andrew rapet is a guy who has a register of freshman is truly viewed in this in this facility as someone who could step up and be a Tyler Wares figure down the road in his career yeah James Franklin said that whatever happened with Raper was very very recent uh that was his his direct quote um and you know we spotted Raper you know through the binoculars on the sideline and he was sitting kind of behind the bench uh up against the wall away from potentially any action that could come to the sideline and you he's someone that we've heard from James Franklin uh where I think the quote I don't have it in front of me but it was something along the lines of football is everything to this guy like this is what he is eating sleeping dreaming Etc um you know at all hours of the day and I think that you you play body language facial expression doctor a little bit and you know it was someone who looked pretty dejected I think at one point when I was watching through the binoculars Bo puula went over to him um on the sideline and you know they they shook hands and chatted for a couple moments and prula you know you know hit patted him on the shoulder before going back to the sideline but you I think that it's it's tough especially when you look at the timing with dinkin coming back and thinking that this room is back at full strength and now this I think that your focus really goes to dinkin and to Luke Reynolds um as to how exactly you're going to make this work if it is something extended and however that works out so you know maybe when we talk to James Franklin next week during the buy he'll have an answer for us or have some more information for us um but we'll see but you know a a bit of a surprise for us and I think that you know the fact that you saw the offense operate pretty well without someone that you would think was probably game plan to be a pretty big part of what they do we know how much Penn State likes to use its tight ends I think that you saw a pretty good adjustment from both the offense and then from Luke Reynolds and dinkin maybe coming in with different roles than they potentially expected Reynolds they might have a hard time you know keeping him to the four game Mark now I know James Franklin has halfway there has been yeah he's been careful to say you know that that Reynolds hasn't entered that green light territory but if Raper is not available for for some extended time here it's it's hard to see uh the former five-star tight end being stuck on the sideline moving forward he actually got the start today uh in his second career college game along with Tyler Warren we'll see what the snap counts look like we'll have our snap counts break down up on the site on Sunday but again it was the Tyler Warren show at tight end with with others involved but he was the first uh man involved alongside Tyler Warren at that spot let's finish with Sanders sahak because in a game that they won by seven points and it was a lot more narrow than we thought he was two for two on field goals both came in the first half the first one was from a 40 plus yard distance after he missed from that range last week against West Virginia and then you looked it up after he made his first kick you got to go all the way back to 2020 2 the last time he made a kick at a field goal of course he's been involved in extra points um so it's been a long journey for for Sanders sahak and and I think the funny thing here is Daniel we we finished out the preview pod and saying Penn State could win by 40 but if sahak misses a couple field goals it's still GNA be a talking point now Penn State you know has to kind of squeak by with the Victory and sahak made two field goals that proved very important to that process yeah I I think that you saw what you wanted to see from Sanders toak which was sounds simple but come out and make your kicks they weren't NE they didn't I I don't have the exact angle or what the wind was like on the field but they weren't necessarily just chip shots for him um like you said 40 plus had to put a little bit of leg into it which we know he has it's about that control and you know getting it down the middle and I I think that that's a really good positive to take out of this game um we'll see when the lights are on maybe when the pressure is a little bit amped up maybe when we get into the Big 10 play when you go on the road all these different circumstances that can factor into things but you wanted to see a bounceback performance because at this point given how short his leash was last year and how quickly Penn State went to Alex Falcons you kind of felt like that it was getting down to it with Sanders aak you didn't know how many chances Penn State was going to give him this year um so I I think that that's a positive you take it move on and you know kicker I feel like more than any other position is can really be week to week because it is so Stark they talk about it in terms of determining the winner of the competition there's not a lot of variables it's not like someone's dropping your passes or different things like that it comes down to you so this can still be week to week but I think Sanders haak getting that confidence giving the fan based confidence in him I think is a good development to come out of today and just worth noting every single game that we cover and talk about has layers to it some of them are not pretty some of them are very promising um and so we had a lot of work uh to to kind of go through this particular matchup we're not done yet we're going to come back on Monday get the by week started with an episode where we'll go back and break things down by then we'll have more opportunity to gain some context on what we actually witnessed we'll go back and rewatch some of this stuff which isn't always apparent when you're in the Press Box and we'll come back to you I do want to note or I know I've been touting our four episode uh schedule now that we're in the season we're not going to do four episodes during the bye we love you all but we're not going to do four episodes during the bye we'll come to you with two episodes during the bye the first of which will be on Monday again we'll take a look back at this one we'll start to set the stage for for some key questions going into a week off but Daniel really weird day at the office today Stadium um it started like a really rainy day the sun came out and then Bowling Green put up a b bunch of points on us and then all of a sudden Penn State battled back and and there was just so much to kind of deal with that we weren't anticipating and if folks want to go back and and check out our pregame podcast to see how just wrong we were with this projection that's okay because we'll own that label with just about every Las Vegas industry Titan who projected this game to be a five touchdown victory for Penn State football Daniel two and0 PN State I guess that's the bottom line right now appreciate your hard work and we'll catch up with you soon thanks Tyler on behalf of Daniel gallon I am Tyler down who this has been the Lions 247 podcast we'll catch you real soon in the meantime go catch out our coverage coming out of Bowling Green matchup at lions 247.com