PSU's Offense Struggles, Defense Bends But Doesn't Break in Win Over Purdue

Yesterday, Penn State had an unimpressive win over unranked Purdue. Penn State played and won an ugly game, 20-6.

Purdue, a team that has one of the best offenses in the Big Ten, was able to drive up and down the field on Penn State, but unable to capitalize on scoring opportunities. Penn State, facing Purdue's defense, ranked last in the Big Ten, was able to move the ball sporadically and came away with a measly 20 points.

Evan Royster was the main offensive player in yesterday's game, as he had 18 carries for 141 yards and a touchdown. Stephfon Green had a couple of explosive carries and ended the day with seven rushes for 54 yards. Although Penn State did not have the most impressive offensive performance, it had a balanced passing and rushing attack—the Lions ran for 202 yards and passed for 220 yards.

Pat Devlin did not get any playing time, and Daryll Clark looked impressive, going 18-of-26 passing, even though he did not throw a touchdown pass. He had a couple of nice passes to Derrick Williams and Deon Butler, and some other big-gain passes to Brett Brackett and Graham Zugg.

Purdue, overall, did not run very well, but Kory Sheets did have a couple of rushes for over 10 yards. Purdue ran the ball 33 times for 83 yards, which is a lousy 2.5 yards per carry. Sheets also had a rushing score in the game.

Curtis Painter was the main passing attack for Purdue, as he was 13-of-22 with 112 yards. He threw an interception to Drew Astorino, however, and backup Joey Elliott came in for the fourth quarter and was 3-of-5 with 46 yards. Neither quarterback threw for a touchdown.

Penn State's defense did not play very well, but only gave up one touchdown late in the fourth quarter, and Purdue was unable to capitalize on other scoring opportunities that it had, especially in the kicking game.

That kicking game was perhaps the biggest factor in the Lions' win. Chris Summers, the kicker for Purdue, was 5-for-8 in field-goal attempts going into this game. Purdue had two nice drives that put it in scoring range, but the Penn State defense held the Boilermakers to a mere field goal attempt both times—and Summers missed both, a 45-yard field goal and a 36-yard field goal, leaving Purdue scoreless in the first half.

When Sheets scored a touchdown late in the fourth quarter, Summers missed the extra point, leaving Purdue with 6 points instead of 7, and making any chance of a comeback for the Boilermakers much more difficult. Penn State was able to run out the clock, however, so the chance for a comeback wouldn't have mattered, anyway.

Kevin Kelly, the Penn State kicker, made two chip-shot field goals and converted both extra points. Overall, Kelly had six points from field goals and two from point-after kicks, leaving him with eight out of a possible eight, and Summers had zero points out of a possible seven.

The kicking game could've possibly been a huge momentum shift for Penn State, or maybe a letdown for Purdue, but it also could've been a non-factor, even if Purdue was successful on the field goals and extra points.

All that matters for Penn State is that it got the win. It was not a very good win, but it still puts a "W" in that win/loss column.

Penn State's offense struggled, and the defense gave up a lot of yardage, but not a lot of points. Maybe this was a look-ahead game for Penn State, maybe it wasn't. Either way, it was not an impressive game, but it was still a win.