Blue White Illustrated

SNEAKa career-high three touchdowns ATTACK Quiet Zack Zwinak scores LORI  SHONTZ | blue white contRibutoR Second and goal, 4-yard line. Quarterback Christian Hackenberg took the snap, and it appeared to everyone as if he were handing it off to tailback Zack Zwinak. But then Zwinak realized he didn't have the ball. "I about had a heart attack," he said. "I thought I missed it." It's no wonder. Zwinak's tendency to fumble has become a recurring theme this season. He has lost three fumbles during 2013—including one on the first play of the second half against Michigan that cost him his starting job. This time, however, it was all good. Zwinak didn't know—in fact, none of the offense knew—that Bill O'Brien had told Hackenberg to keep the ball. Hackenberg faked play action so he could run untouched into the end zone. "I saw him running, Zwinak said. "Oh, " thank God." That scare aside, it was a good day for Zwinak, who rushed 26 times for 149 yards and tied his career high with three touchdowns. As usual, however, Zwinak declined to talk about his mindset or his return to prominence after several games as second fiddle to Belton, who carried 19 times for 81 yards and a touchdown. "The line was blocking great today; the tight ends were blocking great today," Zwinak said. "The wide receivers were even blocking down the field. So it was definitely a great day to have everybody in on it. " The Nittany Lions rushed for 290 yards total, and much of the postgame chattered centered around that performance. But Penn State's tailback continued to struggle with ball control; Belton lost a fumble in the second quarter, and Zwinak himself dropped the ball once, although Penn State recovered it. "They're good players; they're great kids," O'Brien said. "They're better kids than they are players. They feel bad n o V e m b e R GAME GRADES QUARTERBACKS Christian Hackenberg tossed a career-long 58-yard pass to Jesse James, made a couple nice throws with pressure in his face and even ran for a touchdown. GRADE ARUNNING BACKS Bill Belton ran with attitude ZACH ZWINAK and Zach Zwinak ran with revenge. But they each put the ball on the ground, and that's been a problem all season. GRADE B RECEIVERS Allen Robinson was on the money, again. Tight ends Jesse James and Adam Breneman combined for 86 yards, and Kyle Carter threw a couple key blocks. GRADE AOFFENSIVE LINE Most complete game of this unit's season. PSU compiled 182 rushing yards and three TDs in the first half. Anyone else see Donovan Smith drive his defender nearly into the student section? GRADE A Bill Anderson about it. I feel bad about it. I get frustrated. "I told them that the reason I get frustrated on the sideline when we fumble the ball is that I have high expectations for the players on this team. We'll continue to work with it. You don't want to overemphasize it—then you've got them thinking about it all the time. But we've got to stop putting the ball on the ground, bottom line. " Zwinak met the media with his left wrist wrapped in ice, but he declined to discuss whether he'd been injured beyond "just a bump. He also didn't want " to talk about his mindset on the field or whether last week's game against Minnesota, even though it was a loss, helped him regain some confidence. Parsing out those issues fell to his teammates. "Zach's a level-headed kid," center Ty Howle said. "He comes in with the same mindset every week. He runs as hard as he can, and whether he has 40 carries or 10 carries, he's going to make those carries count. He had a great game today. He did what he always tries to do. " 1 6 , 2 0 1 3 7 DEFENSIVE LINE DaQuan Jones is quietly putting together an NFL first-round resume. He's on pace to have a better senior season than Jordan Hill. Other than on Purdue's QB keeper for a TD, the defensive GRADE Aline played lights-out. LINEBACKERS Glenn Carson set the tone of the game when he popped Danny Etling on his second pass of the game. Nyeem Wartman forced a fumble, which Mike GRADE B Hull recovered. DEFENSIVE BACKS This unit had its up and downs, but it gets bonus points from Jordan Lucas, who had an interception and nearly picked off two more. GRADE B SPECIAL TEAMS Ficken was good on his only attempt – a 29-yarder, and he made a gutsy TD-saving tackle. Otherwise, Purdue dominated on special teams, especially on kickoffs. GRADE C COACHES On offense, they committed to the run early and often. It paid off. From the defensive players, there's still some mental errors. They should diminish as the season goes on, but they're not. GRADE B CROWD The crowd was announced at a lofty 96,491, but that's not bad considering it was a noon kickoff and against an opponent that is winless in the Big Ten. GRADE B b l u e w h i t e o n l i n e . c o m

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