That's some straight up food porn right there. Just went six to midnight. To set the background, there's this place called Gumby's Pizza. There are only nine locations, and they're all in college towns:
University of Florida
Florida State
Mizzou (has fucking two locations! WTF!)
Penn State
Texas A&M
Texas State
NC State
University of Iowa
Their pizza is actually fucking terrible, but the pokey stix are some kind of amazing garlic pizza that tastes downright orgasmic.
I was in Iowa City this past weekend for the Penn State vs. Iowa football game this weekend, so naturally I had to indulge in a blast from the past. Let me tell you, I couldn't handle this medium order like my 22-year-old self could. When I think of Pokey stix, I still laugh a little that a girl from State College suggested we order Pokey Stix one halloween, and she let all of us order a large like a bunch of fucking idiots. A little heads up that these things were like pizzas would have been nice. I had in mind that they were pretzel sticks or something, but lo and behold, that night I was introduced to the eighth wonder of the world.
Was I really in Iowa City for a football game, or did I just make the trip to eat a medium order of Pokey Stix? You'll never know.
Anyway, let's talk about the game for a second. Kinnick is a nice stadium:
They also have this cool new tradition where after the first quarter everyone turns and waves to the kids in the new wing of the children's hospital. This just started this year, and this being the first night game everybody turned on their cellphone flash light and waved to the kids. Very cool moment.
Now to actual football. That game made me shit a brick. I knew it was going to be a tough game as night games at Kinnick are where perfect seasons go to die. I still remember Penn State losing there in 2008 24-23 and it was just last year No. 2 Michigan got clipped 14-13. I will take a gritty road win despite being 12.5 point favorites. If there's one thing I noticed, is that Penn State needs to keep the pedal to the medal on offense if they want to repeat as Big Ten champs. The defense is adequate, but can crack at times as was evident in the 2nd half when Iowa scored on a long catch-and-run and a long rushing play. In fact, let's take a look at that running play (fast forward to 2:28, I'm not smart of enough to get it to embed at that point):
Turned out to be a good thing that #28 took a really shitty angle in pursuit and Iowa scored that TD. With the score 15-13 I was having flashbacks to 2008 where Iowa could grind clock and then kick a field goal and win by one.
But the reason this game was so tight is that Penn State had the ball on the goal line twice and had to settle for field goals. This isn't a drive stalling on the 15 and kicking it, I'm talking about right on the fucking doorstep and you get denied with arguably the best running back in college football. What is interesting here is that Penn State now takes 100% of the snaps in the shotgun. It's working, but I would think you would want a power football package in there for short yardage situations. Obviously you're not going under center if you've never practiced it, but what I'm saying is, when you need one fucking yard, why not put a tight end in the back field in front of Barkley and play some smash mouth football. For you nerds wondering why I said tight end in the backfield, it's because Penn State doesn't use the fullback in the offense, so I doubt there's one on the roster.
Anyway, Penn State will need to finish off drives with TDs when they get so close on the road so they can get the crowd to shut the fuck up. It was LOUD in Kinnick - I was having a tough time concentrating watching the game, so it must've been crazy for McSorely to run the offense in those conditions.
Escape Iowa City with a win, ate some fucking Pokey sticks, saw the Iowa Dance team on the field. Win-win-win of a weekend.
Sup?
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