Blue White Illustrated

O c T O B E r 2 7 , 2 0 1 8 B L U E W H I T E O N L I N E . c O M 3 • In addition to catching five passes for 59 yards, DeAndre Thompkins had a very nice downfield block on cornerback Riley Moss during McSorley's long touchdown run in the third quarter. • K.J. Hamler was Penn State's most ef- fective receiver of the day, catching five passes for 96 yards. But his biggest play was probably the 67-yard kickoff return that drained away some of Iowa's mo- mentum a?er the pick-six by Geno Stone had cut Penn State's lead to 27-24. It set up Pinegar's 44-yard field goal and forced the Hawkeyes to play for a touch- down at the end. THE BAD • Much of the late drama that Penn State faced in the final 13 minutes was self-created. The botched exchange hap- pened at Iowa's 10-yard line, costing the Lions a chance to all but put the game away. Even a?er that missed opportu- nity, they still had a two-score lead and were playing outstanding defense. But Stone's 24-yard interception put the Hawkeyes right back in contention with- out having to run an offensive play. • Pinegar and Hamler came through for Penn State, but otherwise, the special teams were an adventure. Blake Gillikin couldn't handle the snap on his first punt and had it blocked through the back of the end zone, giving Iowa a safety to open the scoring. A high snap in the second quarter resulted in another safety, and a?er tying the score, 14-14, later in the second, the Lions gave up a 49-yard kickoff return to set up a go-ahead field goal. They also gave up a touchdown on a fake field goal for which they had pre- pared extensively during the week. "We just didn't play smart early on," Franklin said. • It might be sheer dumb luck, but Penn State's defense has not been able to recover many fumbles. Going into the Iowa game, the Lions had recovered only four of the 15 fumbles they had forced in their first seven games. That trend con- tinued against the Hawkeyes. Iowa fum- bled three times in the wet conditions, starting with its first pass reception of the game, but it managed to recover all three of those loose balls. LOOKING AHEAD Michigan got to sit home and watch Penn State on TV during its bye week, so the Wolverines will be well rested when they play host to the Lions this coming Saturday. And that's hardly the only rea- son for PSU to be wary as it gets set for its trip to Ann Arbor. Michigan is leading the Big Ten in scoring defense, hav- ing allowed only 14.4 points per game through eight games. It's also leading the league in total defense, pass defense and pass- efficiency defense. The Lions are still in con- tention for a New Year's Six bowl game, but one of the likely prerequisites will be to avoid picking up a third loss. That will require an upset at the Big House, which, in turn, will al- most certainly require a more precise performance than this week's showing against the Hawkeyes. As Franklin noted a?erward, "There's plenty of stuff to clean up, and we're going to need to get it cleaned up. But we're going to enjoy this game for a few hours, and they we're going to get back to work tomorrow." A NEW WAY TO ACCESS POSTGAME COVERAGE Starting this season, Blue White Il- lustrated's postgame coverage will be available via bwi.rivals.com. All of our game stories, including the story above on Saturday's victory over Iowa, can now be accessed from the website. The change in format allows us to bring readers more gameday cover- age than ever before: game recaps, player features, notebooks, high- lights and lowlights, game grades and recruiting news. To find BWI's postgame coverage, visit the links below: HIGHLIGHTS AND LOWLIGHTS GAME GRADES FEATURE STORIES STATISTICS Hamler had five catches for the Lions, along with a 67-yard kick- off return that helped PSU hold off the Hawk- eyes. Photo by Steve Manuel

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