Derek Moye Injury: What's the Outlook with Penn State Wide Receiver Out?

Penn State will be without its best wide receiver at least for the next two weeks. Derrick Moye broke a bone in his foot after falling down the stairs in his apartment.

So far this season, he has gone for 485 yards receiving and three touchdowns, which is top among the receivers.

Doctors are hopeful that Moye will be able to play in the Lion’s clash with Illinois on October 29th, but foot injuries are particularly bad for receivers. They could reduce the explosiveness of a player and prevent him from making strong cuts or accelerating as quickly as usual.

He was far and away Penn State’s best receiver and their passing attack needed help before this injury, so you can imagine how poor their offense will be now—they’ve scored 16 or less points in four games this season. They will be relying almost entirely on running back Silas Redd who, while talented, can’t carry this team on his back.

Thankfully, the next two games aren’t too terribly bad. The Nittany Lions take on Purdue at home and then go on the road to play Northwestern who will be without their best running back for the season.

However, after those two games they have to play Illinois and Nebraska at home and then Ohio State and Wisconsin on the road.

Penn State already has five wins and their defense has been nothing short of spectacular so they should be fine for a bowl game, but anything after that seems more far fetched than it did before the injury.

Purdue is still really, really bad so they should notch a win against the Boilermakers at home, but a game against Dan Persa and Northwestern is daunting. The Wildcats have become notorious in the Big Ten for pulling off an upset and two of their three losses have come by seven points or less.

Hopefully Moye can come back 100 percent from this injury if only for his NFL draft stock, but if he doesn’t, a season with promise could quickly collapse.