Though warmer and calmer than a week before in Iowa, Saturday’s rainy weather was the worst during a Penn State home game this fall. And the play of the Nittany Lions in the first half matched the weather.
Fortunately for the water-logged fans of seventh-ranked Penn State, the Lions hit their stride after halftime and rolled to a 34-7 triumph over Indiana to remain tied with Michigan State and Ohio State at the top of the Big Ten Conference. The Lions’ victory in front of 108,445 in Beaver Stadium and those watching the Big Ten Network telecast secured State’s 20th 10-win season in Coach Joe Paterno’s 43 years at the helm.
Except for a 57-yard touchdown scamper by Hoosier tailback Marcus Thigpen in the second quarter, the Penn State defense held the visitors to five first downs, 66 yards rushing and 57 yards passing. In the second half, Coach Tom Bradley’s defensive troops allowed only one first down and 36 total yards by Indiana.
And the Nittany Lion offense, which staggered to a narrow 10-7 halftime lead over the team that shares the Big Ten cellar with Purdue, finally looked like the unit that had put 224 points on the Beaver Stadium scoreboard in its first five home games this fall. The Nittany Lions erupted for three touchdowns and a field goal in the final 30 minutes by eating up 236 yards of turf and 18 and a half minutes of clock.
Quarterback Daryll Clark completed a career-high 20 passes on a career-high 36 attempts for 240 yards and two touchdowns with one interception. Sixteen of those completions went to State’s terrific trio of senior wideouts—Jordan Norwood (7 for 69 yards), Deon Butler (5 for 56 yards and one TD) and Derrick Williams (four for 62 yards and a touchdown).
Williams’ 39-yard TD reception was the longest of his fabulous four-year career at Penn State. He also ran for a career-high 61 yards and finished the day’s scoring with a climatic 36-yard touchdown run that was the longest from scrimmage by this all-around athlete, who also has 94- and 89-yard kickoff returns, plus 78-, 75- and 63-yard punt returns to his credit.
Butler, a former walk-on defensive back, finally replaced All-American and Biletnikoff Award winner Bobby Engram as Penn State’s all-time receptions leader by raising his total to 172 for 2,541 yards and 19 TDs.
Norwood, the quietest of the three, pushed his career stats to 150 catches for 1,856 yards and 12 touchdowns, despite missing two games this year because of injury.
Tailbacks Evan Royster and Stephfon Green plus Clark rushed for an additional 119 yards against the Hoosiers, and Kevin Kelly boosted his Big Ten-leading field goal total to 77, while extending his NCAA record of consecutive games with at least one FG to 31.
State also got great play from its special teams, which gave the Lions excellent field position by limiting the Hoosiers to an average of just 13.7 yards on six kickoff returns and blocking a punt to set up an easy score. The return teams averaged 21 yards on two kickoff returns and 10.7 yards on three punt returns. Junior punter Jeremy Boone kicked for a 51.5-yard average, dropping one on the 1-yard line, and Kelly pooched a punt on a fake field goal that snapper Andrew Pitz and holder Boone raced downfield to stop at the 2-yard line.
Coach Paterno acknowledged in his post-game press conference that his team was sloppy and made several mistakes and didn’t play very well in the first half, but played a lot better after intermission of the penultimate game in the regular season.
In addition to the defense’s mistake of allowing Thigpen to spoil the shutout by bouncing off a tackle and breaking outside for 57 yards—the longest run by an opponent this fall—offensive mistakes before halftime included a rare missed 40-yard field goal attempt by Kelly, the Big Ten’s kick scoring leader, a holding penalty to stop a drive and a fumble on Indiana’s one-yard line by Clark, who also threw some off-target passes and took two sacks.
Bright spots in the first 30 minutes were Williams’ acrobatic leap over a defender to catch a 39-yard touchdown pass from Clark and Nate Stupar’s block of an Indiana punt to set up Kelly’s 32-yard three-pointer in the final four seconds.
Though he gave up a long interception and another fumble in the second half, Clark drove his team to four scores, while the defensive Lions feasted on Hoosier meat.
Receiving the second-half kickoff, the Lions crisply covered 61 yards on eight plays. The drive was ignited when Williams came in motion from the slot, took a hand-off from Clark and cut upfield for 12 yards. It was kept alive when Clark hit tight end Mickey Shuler with an 18-yard pass across the middle on a third-and-eight situation. And it climaxed when tailback Royster angled through left tackle, cut back to the middle, spun off one tackler, slipped passed another and finally stepped out of an attempted tackle at the 7-yard line to complete a 19-yard run to the end zone.
On State’s next possession, Clark passed 16 yards to Butler and 17 yards to Norwood on a third-and-six call, before two incompletions led to Kelly’s 36-yard field goal.
Late in the third quarter, Clark keyed another touchdown drive by taking a quarterback draw 17 yards up the middle on a third-and-seven to set up his six-yard strike to Butler on a slant pattern for the TD.
Early in the final frame, Clark had the ball stripped from his hands again at the PS-37. But he made up for it on the next possession by tossing a 13-yard screen pass to Green, then rushing for nine yards on a third-and-four before handing to Williams on an end-around, which the fleet-footed wide receiver took 36 yards down the right sideline to pay dirt. With a good snap from Pitz and hold by Boone, Kelly booted the final point to remain perfect on 50 conversion attempts this season.
Coach Paterno said he thought that having to overcome mistakes and the elements against Indiana will be good for his team and help prepare the Nittany Lions for Michigan State in the season finale, because “the team coming in here next week might be the best team in the league right now.”
With no game Saturday, Michigan State has had an extra week to prepare for the Nittany Lions. However, six of nine Big Ten teams that have had open weeks have lost their next game—just as Penn State did last week at Iowa.
As the players reflected on their 10-1 record so far and their chance to play for the Big Ten title against the Spartans next Saturday on Senior Day in Beaver Stadium, Williams said, “I feel like I just came here. It’s been a great experience. If we can win 40 games in four seasons, that’s incredible. Everything I set out to do I’ve accomplished with the help of my teammates, and it’s been a great time.”
Co-captain A.Q. Shipley said, “We could be the first senior class to win two Big Ten titles in the four years that we’ve been here, so we’ve just got to go out and focus on Michigan State. We know it’s a one-game season.”
Butler, who admitted that he may shed a few tears after running out of the Beaver Stadium tunnel for the last time, said, “Our emotions are going to be running high. I think the crowd is really going to be into it. There’s a lot on the line, so I think it is going to make for a great atmosphere. The guys are going to be really focused and ready to go.”
As the Lions left the locker room after the contest Saturday, they walked into the day’s first rays of sunshine, revealing a double rainbow over Mount Nittany.
And all was well again in Happy Valley.
For the glory,
