All season long, the buzz has been about the explosive Nittany Lion offense—the prolific point-scoring machine that has driven the 2008 Penn State squad to a No. 6 national ranking.
Saturday it was the defense’s turn to shine in the Lions’ plain-vanilla 20-6 win over Purdue in West Lafayette to raise their record to 6-0 and set the stage for a prime-time showdown on ESPN in Madison, Wis., next Saturday.
While the previously-maligned Boilermaker defense, plus a half-dozen slips by Penn State runners, kept the visitors 18 points under their low for the season, the Lion defense stepped up against the Big Ten’s leading pass offense and extended to 11 its string of consecutive quarters without allowing the Purdue offense to score a touchdown.
“The defense won the game for us today,” said State’s leading receiver Deon Butler. “They kept the Purdue offense out of rhythm and kept the crowd out of the game.”
Indeed, defensive coordinator Tom Bradley’s troops throttled the conference’s top passer, Curtis Painter, holding him to just 40 percent of his average per game yardage and 247 yards below the 359 that he posted against Notre Dame the week before.
Painter, who is second only to Drew Brees on Purdue’s all-time passing yardage list, entered the game needing only 124 yards to reach the 10,000-yard mark for his career. But State’s linebackers and secondary made sure he didn’t reach that milestone against them. And they also kept intact their own mark of never allowing Painter to throw a touchdown pass against them in his four years of competition.
In fact, in their 10 games against the Boilermakers since Coach Joe Tiller introduced his high-scoring spread offense to the Big Ten 12 years ago, the Lions have allowed Tiller’s teams an average of just 16.3 points. In its four consecutive wins over the Boilers since 2004, State’s defense has surrendered a total of only three touchdowns.
What has been the secret of the Lions’ success?
Strong safety Mark Rubin says, “You just can’t give up any big plays. You play with discipline. You react on every pass. And you hold them to short gains.”
“If you keep the play in front of you and you keep hustling, eventually something good will happen,” said Bradley.
While Penn State’s defense controlled the game Saturday—keeping the home team out of Lion territory on five of its eight possessions and becoming the first team all year to hold the Boilers scoreless through the first three quarters—Penn State’s offense did not take a vacation.
Though they were not as precise as they had been in their first five games, the players who have the responsibility of moving the football forward still racked up 422 yards of total offense—enough for a 14-point margin of victory. And three slips on the grass by Lion runners, trying to cut to open fields ahead of them, probably cost touchdowns.
Quarterback Daryll Clark, the Big Ten’s pass efficiency leader, completed 18 of 26 tosses for 220 yards, improving on his 63.3 percent completion rate and 179.2 yards per game. Tailback Evan Royster had his fourth 100-yard rushing game this fall, accumulating 141 yards on 18 carries for a 7.8-yard average. Backup Stephfon Green scampered 54 yards on just seven touches for a 7.7-yard average. Royster broke away on runs of 26 and 23 yards, while Green had the game’s longest gain of 28 yards.
The Lions were four-for-four in the Red Zone, but Kevin Kelly’s two chip-shot field goals could have been touchdowns if not for slips on the grass. Three other promising drives were thwarted by the Lions’ failure to convert on third down. The team that led the Big Ten with a third-down conversion rate of 56.5 percent was successful on only four of 12 tries Saturday.
Once again, Penn State’s big uglys won the battle in the trenches, controlling the line of scrimmage on both offense and defense.
The offensive line opened enough holes for the Lions to gain 202 yards and two TDs on the ground, while giving Clark plenty of time to throw for his 220 yards through the air. The two sacks that Clark suffered resulted from his not getting rid of the ball quickly enough.
Defensively, the front seven held the Boilermaker runners to just 2.5 yards per carry, sacked Painter twice and harassed the QB into his poorest performance of the season, while State held Purdue to its lowest yardage total since 2003.
The white-clad defenders kept the black and gold in check throughout the first three quarters. But Penn State’s offense sputtered on both of its possessions in the opening frame, controlling the ball for only 4:37 compared to 10:23 for the home team.
Time of possession was reversed in the second quarter, as the Nittany Lions drove 72 yards on 13 plays, culminating in Clark’s one-yard quarterback sneak for the game’s first score, then later covered the same distance in 11 plays but had to settle for Kelly’s 25-yard field goal after Royster slipped on the PUR-2.
Royster’s 23-yard run and Clark’s 16-yard laser to Graham Zug, running a post pattern to the five-yard line on third-and-seven, highlighted the touchdown drive.
Clark’s 13- and 18-yard aerials to Brett Brackett, his 11-yard toss to Andrew Quarless and 18-yard screen pass to Royster set up Kelly’s field goal as the first half expired.
State increased its lead to 17-0 on its second possession of the second half, as Clark opened the drive with a 19-yard completion to Derrick Williams on a swing pass into the right flat. Royster immediately followed with 12- and 10-yard blasts through the Purdue defense, and Butler set up Royster’s 4-yard TD burst up the middle by hauling in a 23-yard floater from Clark while keeping his toes in bounds along the right sideline.
State’s final score early in the fourth quarter was set up by Drew Astorino’s interception and 29-yard return of Painter’s last pass. Royster converted a third-and-seven situation by taking a little shovel pass from Clark and galloping 23 yards up the middle to the PUR-4. Kelly booted his seventh 3-pointer of the season after Green took a pitchout from Clark, then slipped while headed on a clear path to the end zone.
Purdue avoided a second straight shutout by the Lions in Ross-Ade Stadium by covering 82 yards on 14 plays in the final frame.
Joey Elliott relieved Painter at quarterback and got a break when Astorino was flagged for interference on his first pass attempt of the season on third down. Elliot converted the next third down with a 6-yard toss to Greg Orton, the Big Ten’s second leading receiver, who was held to just 43 yards on five catches by the Lion defense. However, nearly half of those yards came on Elliot’s next completion—a 21-yarder to Orton.
Facing a fourth-and-10 at the PS-20, Elliott lofted a high one toward the goal line. Desmond Tardy, second in the conference in receiving yardage, out leaped three Penn State defenders for the catch at the one-yard line, setting up Kory Sheets’ dive to score in his eighth consecutive game and break Mike Alstott’s career rushing TD record at Purdue with his 40th six-pointer.
Boiler place-kicker Chris Summers, who had missed two field goal attempts earlier in the game, snapped his school-record streak of 111 successful PATs by pulling his extra point attempt wide left.
Penn State’s 81-year-old mentor Joe Paterno, directed the game from the coaches’ box high above the field in order to rest his aching right leg. It was the first time he spent an entire game in the box since having surgery at the end of the 2006 season to repair a broken left leg and torn ACL suffered in a sideline collision at Wisconsin.
Paterno injured his right leg demonstrating kicking technique in a pre-season practice, and it has caused him more pain as the season has progressed. He insists the problem is arthritis saying, “I’ve taken more pills in the last two months than I’ve taken in my life,” but adding, “I’m not going to let anybody get near me with a knife.”
So, in a game devoid of the offensive fireworks seen in the previous five, Penn State won just its second conference road opener since 2002, but will have to face down the wounded Badgers in their own den to keep its undefeated season intact next Saturday.
One of the pre-season Big Ten favorites, Wisconsin lost its conference-leading No. 8 national ranking by suffering narrow last-minute defeats at the hands of Michigan and Ohio State in its last two contests.
The Lions will prove just how good they really are if they can hand the Badgers their second straight prime-time loss on their home field, beginning next Saturday at 8 p.m. EDT.
For the glory,
