I was hoping MM would send his staff to UW in the off season to learn a few coaching tips... or not.
It's easy to say PSU had a better plan today... But its not a new plan.
it's simple- load the box, dare Stave to beat you, take advantage of a young secondary with deep passes! Then hope you can hold on long enough before the offense puts some points on the board. OSU employed the same strategy, and it worked. When you have a weakness like Stave and their young corners, you're always vulnerable. Iowa did the same thing but the wind and lesser players prevented them from getting the deep balls to connect. Perfect weather conditions made a better qb with better WRs able to take advantage. These weaknesses have been there all year.
PSU has a good pass rush and didn't make the offensive mistakes. Then the game came down to a few plays... And they made them.
I was hoping these kind of performances were behind the Badgers after BB left. Sadly, Alvarez had at least one of these every year too, where the team seemed under prepared and they were outcoached. Anderson has been remarkable this year, but this leaves me scratching my head. I agreed with the commentators--seemed like the defense was thinking too much instead of just playing. Just seemed strange. And on offense, it was like MM was calling plays. 3rd and one and they throw deep? Just a weird game plan by the coaches, and yeah, Stave can't hit wide open receivers.
Well, I suppose now they'll go to some mid-level bowl and play some MAC or MWC team running the read-option and get thoroughly embarrassed.