Roses for the Lions! Penn State wins, 49-18!

No. 8 Penn State (11-1) won the Big Ten Championship, with a 49-18 demolition of No. 15 Michigan State (9-3) tonight in Happy Valley. Here's some initial thoughts. I'll do "The Bad" first tonight. You'll see why. The Bad: Daryll Clark didn't complete ALL of his passes. The defense didn't shut out Michigan State. Penn State didn't score 100 points. But seriously, I was a bit concerned that Penn State didn't have too much success running the ball. Although, when you can rip apart the secondary like Clark and the receivers did, you don't have to run the ball too effectively. Evan Royster had a few good jaunts in there, which is expected, but I'm still wondering why the staff runs Stephfon Green up the middle. He's not that kind of back. The run blocking could have been a bit better. I also thought the defense gave up a few too many easy throws for 10-12 yards. But when you have a multi-touchdown lead, you can give up a few first downs.

The Good: Practically everything I didn't mention above. Clark was hotter than lightening, as were the Penn State wide receivers. Above all, I really thought Deon Butler, Derrick Williams and Jordan Norwood had the best performance, as a group, of their careers at Penn State. Clark looked confident, and relaxed. The run game did just enough to keep MSU honest, and it worked to perfection. Once MSU was on its heels, 21-0, we all had a feeling this game was over. But the offensive explosion was all set up by the fantastic defensive performance from the opening series. I hope not, but I wouldn't be surprised if Jared Odrick and Aaron Maybin entertain NFL scouts. I know they can't do too much, but they'll have people look into entering early. You saw a PSU defense that didn't miss a tackle, shed blocks, and made big plays when it mattered most. The two best defensive backs, Anthony Scirrotto and Lydell Sargeant, had interceptions, and even much-maligned Maurice Evans got back into his game. As far as coaching is concerned, I couldn't have been more impressed with the game plan coming into tonight. On top of that, Joe Paterno didn't call off the wolves too early, allowing his staff to add style points to the board. Penn State committed to passing the ball, but looked much more prepared to execute the plan than it did going against Iowa.

Overall: I can't remember a more dominant performance over a good, ranked football team. And this isn't one of those early-season blowouts, where the opponent turned out to be a fraud. MSU is still 9-3, and on its way to a New Years Day bowl game. The Nittany Lions took the Spartans to the woodshed tonight, just when the nation, and voters, were looking for Penn State to impress. The last time Penn State beat Michigan State by this kind of margin was my freshman season, 2002, as Larry Johnson romped for 279 yards in the first half, crossing the 2000 mark. But that MSU team was bad, at 4-8. And that PSU team wasn't nearly this good from top to bottom. It was a very poor move by Mark D'Antonio and MSU to call timeouts, with the obvious intention to aggravate the PSU fan base. I like D'Antonio, but his image was just a bit tarnished after that move. Unless Texas Tech or Oklahoma blows the other one away by more than two touchdowns, Penn State's win over Michigan State will be the most impressive anywhere this weekend. Let's hope the voters see it that way, too. Now it's time to sit back, and hopefully watch the rest of the top-10 teams knock each other off. Good win, Nittany Lions, and congratulations JoePa.

*And be sure to check out my open thread I kept during the game.