This isn't meant to be a bashing the refs thread, but I wanted to point out how hard it is in this day and age of college football to play defense. I think defenses all across college football are playing with one arm tied behind their backs when it comes to playing within the rules of the game.

It was no more apparent to me than at the beginning of the 3rd quarter. Steele Chambers lower his head and makes contact with Clifford as he slides. I hate the rule of targeting but by the letter of the rule, it was the correct call. But watching that play in real time and in slow mo, it was SUCH a weak call. The contact is so light and minimal, and neither Chambers nor Clifford is getting injured on that kind of hit. When I think of legit, actual "targeting" I think of a defender running full steam and launching into a defenseless player, delivering a crushing blow to a receivers head, THAT to me is a dangerous play that needs to be penalized, not what Steele Chambers did.  They really need to look into targeting, getting rid of ejections entirely and stop calling penalties on some of these ticky tack hits. All defenders are mentally conditioned to give maximum effort on every play, to track receivers and running backs and to deliver big hits when possible to cause turnovers and break up passes, and introducing targeting into the game of football has really had a negative impact on how defenders approach the game of football.

The second complete BS penalty that comes to mind was when Zach Harrison gets called for roughing the passer. By the rule I think it was the correct call, but again that needs to be changed. It wasn't an aggressive hit or push, Clifford got his shoulder pads practically slapped by Harrison and he falls back on his butt and gets the flag. Roughing the passer penalties need to be changed and called on plays where the QB gets hit hard or the hit could be deemed "dangerous" and could cause an injury, not these ticky tack hits that aren't dangerous to a QB at all. These QB's are so protected in todays game. And once again, defenders are mentally conditioned to give maximum effort, in this case shed their block and get to the QB, but when the QB gets the ball out of his hands, defenders in a split second are practically suppose to stop what they are doing and make no contact at all with the QB. It's a tough position to be in for a defender I think and the rule needs tweaked a little bit.

I know PSU ran some RPO's tonight and as a fan I don't like them, but I don't think they should be outlawed, it's a grey area for me. But I know a lot of D coordinators around the country don't like them as it puts defenders in a very difficult spot with how lenient the illegal man downfield penalty is (5 yards, or is it 3 yards? Someone can correct me). As an offense you can treat the play like it's a normal read option, your OL blocks like it's a run play, you put the ball right up to the RB's hip and your QB reads the edge defenders, only to pull the football out at the last moment and throw a slant pass 10 yards downfield. So incredibly difficult to defend if you are a defender in space. It would be a big bonus for defenses if they tightened up that illegal man downfield penalty.

Then there's other things that make playing defense hard, like pass interference bias for receivers, ticky tack "holding" calls on DB's that refs love to call on passes over the receivers head, because a holding call can be enforced whereas a DPI can be negated if the pass is deemed uncatchable. I just think it's incredibly difficult to play defense in 2021 with how the current rules are, with the sort of protection that QB's and playmakers are afforded. I don't have the stats in front of me but I'm sure that scoring offense and defense are, statistically on average, higher now than it has ever been in college football and I wish they'd do something to give defenders a better chance to succeed, those are my thoughts.