Purdue Review

Don’t look now but the Penn State defense hasn’t allowed a touchdown in 9 quarters. Yes the good D came against Illinois and Purdue, but it’s still worth noting considering the Boilermakers are one of the best offenses in the Big Ten, statistically. Saturday was the first time a Joe Tiller-coached Purdue team was shut out, and the first time since 2002 that PSU held a team scoreless.

Offense
It was obvious from the start that the Penn State coaching staff wanted to do three things offensively: 1) Run the ball, 2) Throw the ball over the middle, and 3) get the tight end involved. Every time Morelli dropped back it seemed like his first look was over the middle and often #10 Andrew Quarless was the target. Quarless lead all receivers with 3 catches for 36 yards and it appears that Penn State has settled on it’s tight end.


The offensive line was scrutinized hard after two weeks of… how can I describe this… horrible play? Disgusting maybe?. There really isn’t an adjective to adequately describe how bad the line play was so let’s make one up; how about supercalicrappylisticshittilyexpidocious? But, at least for one week they were slightly above adequate and approaching average. When Tony Hunt was handed the ball he actually got to the line before coming into contact with a defender and Anthony Morelli could actually drop back and give his receivers time to get open without the fear of being knocked autistic. One game doesn’t make a season though, and this line has a long way to go before they are considered good.

Speaking of Tony Hunt it’s great to see a Penn State running back take the team on his shoulders and carry them to victory. The Lions pounded Purdue until their defense got tired and arm tackles became the norm. On the day Hunt had 31 carries for 142 yards, 36 receiving yards, and scored the team’s only touchdown late in the game when the offense needed it most. The offense played ball control all day which helped the defense rest up and shortened the game. They would have most likely scored more points if the wide receivers didn’t drop balls on crucial third downs.

The grass-stained uniform sums up Hunt's day

That brings us to the receivers. Each of the wide outs dropped a ball and most of them came on third down, killing long drives. Inexcusable. Penn State drove the length of the field on the opening drive, managed down and distance and had a chance to take total control, but Derrick Williams dropped a pass on 3rd and 5 at the Purdue 12. On Penn State’s next drive, in the same situation on 3rd and 5, Deon Butler dropped a pass that hit him in the chest. This was supposed to be the strong point of the offense this year and they are turning into a weakness. It’s definitely a head scratcher.

Defense
Conservative play calling aside, the defense played wonderful. This offense wasn’t anything to sneeze at, they have put up some big numbers, but Penn State held them to 240 total yards which is 200 below their season average. Paul Posluszny had 9 tackles, Sean Lee threw in 7 and a sack and Anthony Scirrotto had his 3rd interception in two games sealing the victory in the forth quarter. It also helped that the offense had a 10 minute plus time of possession advantage which allowed the defense to remain fresh, but in the end they did their job and shut down Purdue.

Painter couldn't escape the Penn State linebackers

Special Teams
Kevin Kelly missed another field goal, but I’ll give him a pass this time because it was a career long 50 yard attempt. He made the two necessary kicks when given the opportunity and scored the only points for either team in the first half. Kapinos was steady with a 41 yard average on punts with two inside the 20. Kick coverage was solid again as the longest kick return was for 22 yards and the longest punt return was 9.

Overall
The gameplan for Purdue was just what the doctor ordered and for the most part the team executed. If the wide receivers had done their part, the score may not have been so close. Motivation is a big question mark with this team, it took everyone in the world (including their head coach) to question them before they had a decent week of practice and showed signs of life. Can they keep it up against a much better Wisconsin team this week? I believe Penn State matches up well against the Badgers but the team can’t come out flat like they did on so many other occasions and expect to win. Wisconsin is a big, physical team and will look to pound the ball at Penn State, is the defense up for the challenge?