Have a little patience, YSU fans

So probably by now you've vowed to rip up your season tickets (or give them away), you've vented your frustration at the MVR or some watering hole, or fired off a long diatribe on some insipid web site.
All over one loss.
Chill, OK? Resist the urge to picket outside Stambaugh Stadium all this week. Watch the baseball playoffs instead. Take your mind off the Penguins.
And when you've calmed down, try to look at this situation with a little more logic.
One Gateway defeat, no matter how bad, isn't the end of the world, at least, not in the world of Division I-AA football.
Sure, it's not as good as a victory, and the Penguins, in all likelihood, are going to have to run the table now. That means winning back-to-back road games at Northern Iowa and Southern Illinois, and finishing up at The Ice Castle against Western Kentucky, the school where the newest national championship trophy resides.
It's not that bad
But, it can be done. Here's why:
It's not like the Penguins really, really stink. In some ways, count Saturday's travesty as an anomaly. How many times will you see a game like this, where YSU put the ball on the carpet five times, lost them all, and gave Western Illinois a short field every time?
Doing that against a bad team would make it all but impossible to win. Doing it against the second-ranked team in the country ... you have virtually no chance.
Let's consider the season -- 12 games -- a marathon? Ever watch one? The winners are those who do the best job of keeping an even pace throughout the whole race. Those who start out to fast often fade at the end; those who hold back too long at the start never catch up.
On Nov. 23, when the NCAA committee that determines the 16-team playoff field makes its final decisions, it's going to take the teams that have played the best down the stretch.
We've already agreed that YSU is going to have to win out. Don't you think a 9-3 record, second-place finish (at least) in the Gateway and five-game winning streak to end the season isn't going to turn some heads?
Difficult road ahead
Clearly, this isn't going to be an easy task. The defense has played well enough, for the most part, but there isn't a defense in the country that could stand up against the odds the YSU unit faced Saturday.
Same for the special teams. The kickers are among the best in the conference, but the coverage teams are giving up too many big plays.
Then there's the offense. With a sophomore-heavy backfield, a almost all-new receiving corps and a patched up line to start the season, what were you honestly expecting?
The numbers may not have suited some, and the play-calling isn't going to remind anyone of Don Coryell, but look, those of you who have been pining for a return to the "Days of Tressel" have short memories.
In Jim Tressel's 15 years here, the passing yardage was greater than the rushing yardage three times -- and in two of those seasons, the Penguins won three games. It's always been about ground game here, except for a few years when guys named Klembara and Jaworski were slingin' it.
Granted, there's some issues to be worked out, especially at quarterback and running back. Simply put, Josh Clayson needs more carries.
No one seemed to be complaining much after the back-to-back 34-point efforts against Liberty and Southwest Missouri State, but then, I guess that's human nature.
Coaches always like to point out one of the axioms of football -- no team is as good as it seems when it wins, and no team is ever as bad as it looks when it loses.
But this Penguin team, in my eyes, is a lot closer to the one that has the Ws than the one that played in the three Ls.
So have patience. Stay off on the chat sites for a couple of weeks and see if this thing doesn't get back on track.
XRob Todor is sports editor of The Vindicator. Write to him at todor@vindy.com.