I would really like to see the numbers of how Baker played in the first half v. second half. Early on, it looked bad! As it progressed, it looked better. Personally, I roll with him and Jagusah at guard
He gave up one pressure before Leonard left the game, and may have been credited with a second. Leonard left the pocket, and whoever Baker was blocking, changed directions so it was impossible for Baker to sustain the block. He gave up the sack on Angeli, which was bad. There may have been another pressure on that same drive, but there was pressure everywhere so who the hell knows who was credited with giving up the pressure.
Second half wasn't exactly pretty. On the scoring drive to take the lead in the 3rd quarter, he gave up a sack when Leonard tried to escape up the pocket, and 33 crossed his face and took him down for a yard or two loss. That was more on Leonard than Baker, though. The next few plays were rough. He pulled on a run play and kinda just fell over. He got abused by 33 again on 3rd down, but Leonard climbed the pocket, threw early, and Greathouse made a great play on the ball. A play or two later, he gave up inside pressure to 15, but Leonard escaped the pocket clean and picked up five or six yards. He whiffed on another run block, but Jags pulled and smacked the defender when he got upfield, and Love read it and picked up a few yards. He ended the drive a little better - he got a hand on the end and pushed him out just enough to give Thomas a crease on that end around.
I'm not sure he could have been thrown into a worse situation. 11 and 33 were flying around and played their asses off, and 15 was a really good player too - all great athletes. Worse yet, they had some really unorthodox presnap alignments on the D line which made it even more difficult. IMO, Penn State's edge players are better than OSU. Better athletes, for sure. Baker pussy foots around when he's in space, whether it's pass blocking or run blocking in the 2nd level. That's where I see the potential issue. Sawyer is a high-effort player who plays with a low pad level, and if Baker comes out high with happy feet, he’s going to light his ass up. OSU's LBers have issues between their ears but they are good athletes, and Baker is going to have trouble latching onto them in space.
Denbrock has to account for that in the run game, and do his best to scheme around it. In pass pro, he's going to give up pressure, no doubt about it. Not ideal, but Leonard is a wizard in the pocket - he can escape and keep drives alive. PSU took that away b/c tehy were able to get pressure from everywhere and Carter is so fast, he could run Leonard down. Sawyer is good but his goofy ass can't run with Leonard. IMO, the key OSU will be how well Wagner holds up on his side. If he keeps the right side clean, Leonard will have room to work when Baker gets beat.
