Wisconsin-Penn State halftime thoughts

Great start.

Second straight ABC game where they showed Donovan's picture when introducing the opposing starting QB. Good thing for Morelli, he is pretty ugly.

PJ introduced Donovan as "Triceps," which reminded me of one of Burch's 16 nicknames, "The Quad." Nothing like making nicknames out of underrated body parts.

Looking at Ike, I notice he has one long sleeve, one short. Saw this on Wake Forest's DBs the other night and I think a couple others today - fluke or trend? Would have been a good look on Schwalbach in '93.

Really nice touchdown drive - Donovan, PJ, Jefferson, Graham, Beckum all chipped in. Beckum was split wide left on his big catch, have to do that today against Connor and Lee.

Have a thought on the defense giving up big plays: the guys are so eager to make big plays themselves that they are running themselves out of position. Kinlaw's first run of the game was a perfect example, as Casillas ran right into a block rather than waiting for the garbage to clear out.

Donovan's first pick - totally Gilreath's fault. Two weeks ago he had another INT when Jefferson dropped on near the goal line against MSU.

PSU's second pick - totally Langford's fault, bit on an inside move when he had safety help inside, then was slow to recover. I thought he was supposed to be our technically sound cornerback.

Bad holding call wipes out nice draw by Brown - this team can't afford penalties like that, and the false start on Urbik earlier.

I think Williams' fumble on the punt return was a legit fumble and no penalty was warranted. Our gunner (is that Daven Jones? Nice play) seemed to get there right after the ball did, clearly contrary to Maguire's knee-jerk analysis. No replays after the commercial, though, would have been nice to see it again.

Royster TD run - Ike runs himself out of the play as if he was covering a guy man-to-man on a pass, when Morelli never looked for a split second as if he were going to pass. Well executed play by PSU, but shouldn't have gone for six.

Why not try a field goal at the end of the half? That's in Mehlhaff's range?

Don't give up on the run in the second half. PJ's horrible fumble aside, we're running pretty well. Get Brown some reps. Unfortunately the game situation will probably dictate less running, more passing.

Jimmy's TCT in-game blog.