Mendenhall is a beast. Other than Painter, I think he has been the most impressive offensive player in the Big Ten this year. If Mendenhall got the ball 44 times, he'd rush for 300 yards. He's averaging 7.0 yards/carry. This week will be the test since Penn St. has the best rushing D in the Big Ten so far.
Everything relies on Juice. Pretty soon everybody will stack 16 guys in the box and force Juice to throw upfield. Juice runs the option well but, at times, throws risky pitches. You can tell they must have worked all summer on throwing high % screens out in the flat because he does it well.
But, if he is forced to throw upfield, it's a free ball. He missed on at least 2 TDs - one to Benn that was picked and one to Morgan who was more open than any receiver I've ever seen (literally - there was nobody on that side of the field). Under pressure, he tries to do to much in the pass game and it almost cost them against Indy.
You can tell the level of talent has improved. The D is very solid, very quick. They don't have that killer instinct yet though. They should have put Indy away and let them hang around. It should have been more like 35-14 or 42-14.
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