BLOOMINGTON, IND. — No offense, but the Penn State defense had to save the day once again on Saturday for the Nittany Lions.
The ‘D’ did it two weeks ago, in a four-point win over Temple. And they did it against lowly Indiana — lucky for the Nittany Lions.
Penn State held the host Hoosiers to 10 points, caused two turnovers and forced 10 three-and-outs (or faster) to keep it close while the offense found its legs.
Luckily for the Nittany Lions, those legs finally came, in the person of wide receiver Derek Moye. The senior co-captain grabbed a 74-yard TD pass from quarterback Matt McGloin with 91 seconds left in the third quarter.
It was Moye’s third TD reception of the year, all from McGloin. The two players connected for a pair of touchdowns last week in Penn State’s 34-6 victory over Eastern Michigan. In 2010-11, Moye has caught 11 TD passes — 10 from McGloin and one from Rob Bolden (the Lions’ starter Saturday vs. Indiana).
Moye’s touchdown gave the Lions their first lead of the game, 13-6, and propelled them past Indiana 16-10.
Silas Redd ran 29 times for 129 yards as Penn State upped its record to 4-1 on the season, as Indiana fell to 1-4. It was the Big Ten opener for both teams. McGloin completed 10 of 22 for 204 yards, with no interceptions.
Moye caught six passes for 158 yards, his sixth career game over 100 yards. He now has 130 receptions, ranking him fifth on PSU’s all-time career chart, having passed O.J. McDuffie (125) on Saturday.
Penn State turned the ball over three times, and was stifled by a rash of penalties and unforced errors. PSU coach Joe Paterno saw the game from the playing field in the first half, then watched the game from the press box in the second half.
Penn State is at home next Saturday, playing host to Iowa at 3:30 p.m. in Beaver Stadium. The Hawkeyes are 8-1 vs. Penn State in their last nine meetings, including a 24-3 victory last year at Iowa.
FOURTH QUARTER: PENN STATE 16, INDIANA 10
By the fourth quarter, Penn State had the drill down pat: The D stops Indiana, gives the ball to the O, then the offense moves the ball downfield. The whole concept took awhile to get — by the Nittany Lion offense.
The latest rendition resulted in a 33-yard field goal by Anthony Fera that gave Penn State a 16-3 lead with 10:10 to play. It culminated a 13-play, 63-yard drive that lasted 5:39.
Penn State 16, Indiana 3
Indiana responded by going 77 yards on 14 plays in 3:45 to score on a five-yard TD pass from Dusty Kiel to Ted Bolster. After the PAT by Mitch Ewald, Penn State led 16-1, with 3:51 to play.
Penn State 16, Indiana 10
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THIRD QUARTER: PENN STATE, INDIANA 3
To start the second half, Bolden came out to lead…er, guide…er, pace…er, direct…
Let’s try this: Bolden came out to play quarterback. Predictably, the Lions’ offense went three and out, and punted.
Very quickly, we found out the Penn State defense still works. As in Devon Still. Defensive end Sean Stanley forced Indiana running back Stephen Houston to fumble, and Still recovered.
The Lion offense took over at the Indiana 13-yard line. Two incomplete passes and a woeful Bolden draw that gained three yards later, the Lions were forced — allowed? — to kick a 27-yard field goal by Anthony Fera to give PSU a 6-3 lead.
Penn State 6, Indiana 3
After the Penn State defense delivered another nicely wrapped Three And Out to the Lion offense, Bolden stayed in at quarterback.
The Lions slowly went down the field, thanks to dropped passes, a slant over the middle to Moo-Moo Smith, off-setting pass interference penalties (on an incompletion) in the end zone and a couple of runs by Curtis Dukes and Silas Redd. Then the offense stayed true to its form…
…and Redd fumbled on the 2-yard line.
He lost the ball while running behind — trying to run behind — the left side of the Nittany Lion offensive line, guard Quinn Barham and tackle Johnnie Troutman.
Indiana’s Chase Hoobler caused the fumble and Daruius John recovered it.
The Lion defense stopped Indiana after an IU drive of 10 plays and 30 yards. Following a punt Penn State took over at its own 26-yard lne.
McGloin was back in at quarterback and he changed Penn State’s fortunes in one play:
A 74-yard scoring pass to Derek Moye on a stop-and-go route into single coverage on the right sideline. Fera’s PAT gave Penn State a 14-0 lead.
Penn State 13, Indiana 6
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HALFTIME: PENN STATE 3, INDIANA 3
The good news — or, as Joe Paterno likes to call it — the Nittany Lion defense:
Indiana has run for just 27 yards, is 1 of 9 on third downs, has only six first downs and is averaging just 3.5 yards a play (105 yards overall). Yes, the Lions have been whistled for unnecessary roughness and face-masking penalties, but they’ve also grabbed an interception and yielded just three points.
The bad news — or, as everyone (not in Indiana red) hates to call it — the Nittany Lion offense:
Three points.
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SECOND QUARTER: PENN STATE 3, INDIANA 3
The second quarter began with how much of the first quarter went for Penn State — with a bad, short-hopped pass, as McGloin missed badly to Moye.
Joe Paterno is on the sidelines — at least in the first half — and appears to be fairly involved. He’s talked with Bolden and interacted with several players. But he’s stayed out of most of the big huddles during timeouts and before kicks.
Penn State’s offense continued to struggle on its next possession. The Lions tried a variety of formations and packages, and just couldn’t get Redd loose on a run of any consequence — even when they split three receivers left and one to right. That yielded all of four yards.
In all, on the drive Redd carried four times — 4, 3, 4 and 1 yards — for 12 yards. On the day, Redd has 11 carries for 35 yards. He’ll need at least 100 yards for the day to be a success, and 150 if PSU is to have any confidence in its running game moving into the meat of its Big Ten schedule.
The burden is on Penn State’s O-line, and right now it’s just offensive.
As has much of the Nittany Lions. A litany of their miscues and errors in the game’s first 21 minutes:
An interception, a poor pass that became an open-game fumble, a holding call on an apparent touchdown, dropped passes, one-hopped passes, getting hit with a bouncing punt for a fumble, an unnecessary roughness penalty, a facemask penalty…
…and a procedure penalty against offensive tackle Chima Okoli, negating what have been a big-gainer by McGloin on a QB draw.
Yet, despite all of that self-imposed adversity, Penn State did manage to make its way down the field. Midway through the second quarter, On a third and 6 from the 37, McGloin completed a 26-yard pass to Kersey, giving PSU the ball first-and-10 from the 11. But they couldn’t convert, leading to a 22-yard field goal by Anthony Fera. The drive went 65 yards on 12 plays in 5:46, as Penn State tied the game 3-3 with 2:57 left in the half.
Penn State 3, Indiana 3
Chaz Powell taketh away (faux paus on punt) and giveth — he intercepted Indiana QB Dusty Kiel with 2:24 left in the first half. The pick gave PSU the ball first down its own 40-yard line.
After an incomplete pass intended for Justin Brown, McGloin ran for seven yards and then threw a 14-yard sideline pass to Moye. But as has been the case all day, well enough stood alone.
Dropping back to pass, McGloin pump-faked once, then once twice. On the second pump he fumbled the ball, and recovered. He quickly tried to make amends on the next play, completing a 13-yard pass to Szczerba. But another incompletion — intended for Moye — followed and the Lions wasted Powell’s interception.
After holding stopping Indiana’s offense, Penn State got the ball back at the Indiana 46 with 19 seconds left. The Lions moved the ball 13 yards, setting up Anthony Fera with a 52-yard field goal attempt that fell short as the half ended.
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FIRST QUARTER: INDIANA 3, PENN STATE 0
Indiana opened the game with Dusty Kiel at quarterback and the Hoosiers’ offense went three and out.
On Penn State’s first drive, a touchdown was just out of reach for the Nittany Lions and tight end Andrew Szczerba. Twice.
Rob Bolden started at quarterback and quickly led the Lions downfield by converting a pair of third-down-and-long passes. The first was a nine-yarder to Devon Smith and the second was an 11-yarder to Justin Brown. He followed that with a 40-yard completion to Derek Moye on a slightly underthrown ball, giving PSU the ball on the 13.
Two plays later, it looked as if Silas Redd had the game’s first touchdown on a run wide left. But the TD was called back after Szczerba was whistled for holding.
On the very next play, Bolden went back to pass and saw an open Szczerba across the middle. But the pass was high and behind the tight end. It was also intercepted, by Indiana’s Forisse Hardin at the 1-yard line to halt the drive.
Indiana converted the turnover into three points, going 47 yards in nine plays and 1:51 to set up a 49-yard field goal by Mitch Ewald with 6:51 left in the half. Kiel has come out throwing, completing 5 of 8 passes for 54 yards. Kiel came off the bench last week against North Texas State, leading Indiana to three TDs after falling behind 24-0. IU still lost, 24-21.
Indiana 3, Penn State 0
On Penn State’s ensuing possession, Indiana was hit with a roughing the passer penalty — but it was Penn State’s passer (Bolden) who looked rough.
Bolden scrambled, couldn’t find a secondary receiver, bounced a pass, turned a pass into a lateral and had a 30-yard pass dropped by Moye (that one was not Bolden’s fault). End result: a coffin corner punt by Anthony Fera, pinning the Indiana offense back on its 5-yard line.
The Hoosiers’ couldn’t get a drive going, and Adam Pines punted.
It got rough for Penn State again. The punt took a hop and on the bounce it hit Penn State return man Chaz Powell, who was looking to block. That made the ball free game, and Indiana recovered. But the Hoosiers couldn’t move the ball, and Penn State took over.
Penn State got the ball. And Matt McGloin at quarterback. They immediately started moving the football. Running back Curtis Dukes ripped off a 29-yard run, then McGloin hit Shawney Kersey for a six-yard gain.
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PRE-GAME: NOT ON THE TRIP
Penn State is limited to taking 70 scholarship players on the trip. They used one of those coveted spots to bring along injured linebacker Michael Mauti. Not making the trip are Brandon Beachum, D’Anton Lynn, Curtis Drake and Evan Lewis. Lewis, the Lions’ place-kicker through the first four games of the season, didn’t play last week.
Anthony Fera added the place-kicking duties to his punting chores last week. The Lions’ other two kickers who made the trip are both from Indiana — punter Alex Butterworth (Indianapolis) and place-kicker Sam Ficken (Valparaiso).
IT’S NOT BASKETBALL
Welcome to Memorial Field in Bloomington, Ind. Kickoff is an hour away and there are more people in the press box than the stands.
‘Where is everyone?’ I asked a staffer in the press box.
‘Welcome to Indiana football,’ he replied with a goofy grin. ‘We wish this was like Penn State. But it’s not.’
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