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he said. "Daylight for days. It was great. They blocked, I just had to finish the run." Lynch did just that, working past a pair of mauling blocks from center Angelo Mangiro and guard Derek Dowrey, through a gaping hole in Rutgers' line- backers, and finally splitting through the Scarlet Knights' safeties toward the end zone. A full 75 yards later, Lynch crossed the goal line to complete the longest touchdown run of his collegiate career. The Nittany Lions led 21-0, and seem- ingly all 103,323 fans at Beaver Stadium lost their minds. "We're up 14-0, it definitely put an ex- clamation point going into the half to score another touchdown," Lynch said. "It was very big." With Penn State entering the much- hyped "Stripe Out" game at 1-1 on the young 2015 season, just about everything about the matchup with Rutgers had the same gravitas. It was the first game of the Big Ten sea- son, a rematch of a hard-fought game a year ago in Piscataway, N.J. At stake was the yearly perception of two programs locked in frequent recruiting battles. And maybe more important, for a Penn State team that was still searching for an offensive identity even aBer last week's 27-14 win against Buffalo, the opportu- nity to take another step forward proved enticing. The Nittany Lions didn't waste the op- portunity. Although Rutgers mustered 20 first downs and 251 yards through the air, a suffocating effort from Penn State's de- fense prevented the Scarlet Knights from ever getting anything going. The Lions forced seven punts and inter- cepted two passes before the Knights fi- nally put together a 16-play, 71-yard scoring drive. And even then, they couldn't put the ball in the end zone, settling instead for a 34-yard Kyle Fed- erico field goal. All of which leB Saturday night as a stage for Penn State's struggling offense, specifically the offensive line. A first-week performance that saw Penn State surrender an NCAA-worst 10 sacks was followed by a better, no-sack effort against Buffalo in week two. Facing a Rutgers defense with a considerably tougher reputation, ranked fourth in the country in run defense entering the game, the Nittany Lions understood the test would be much tougher. "Rutgers is a great team, we respect them as opponents. We never took them lightly coming into this game, we knew it was going to be a fight and we knew we had to run the ball to win, especially with the rain," Lynch said. "Being able to run the ball, especially in those conditions, helps this team a lot." The Nittany Lions were very much able to run the ball, to the tune of 330 yards rushing. The tandem of Lynch and true freshman running back Saquon Barkley combined for 315 of them, averaging a gaudy 12.0 and 9.3 yards per carry, re- spectively, on 31 carries. Notching three combined touchdowns on the ground to boot, an effort capped by Barkley's 16- yard rumble with 4:21 leB to play in the game, the Nittany Lions found them- selves talking at length following the game about their improving offensive line. "The past two weeks [they've] done a great job, and that's just a testament to them each day coming to work, ap- proaching it the same way and getting better each day. I'm super excited for them," quarterback Christian Hacken- berg said aBer his workmanlike 10-for- 19 evening with 141 yards and an interception. "They deserve it. [They're] arguably the most critiqued [position group] by a lot of people, and for them to have back-to-back weeks of success like that is huge for their confidence and our team. It's great." Acknowledging that he and his fellow offensive linemen had been disappointed by their season-opening effort against the Owls, guard Brian Gaia said that the group hit its stride with the successful run game on Saturday night. "The more you wear down on the de- fensive line, the easier it is because they're not coming off the ball as fast in pass rush," Gaia said. "Rutgers is an ath- letic team up front, so the more we could wear on them and slow them down and get them tired, it was easier for us to pass block." Penn State didn't give up a single sack against Rutgers, a substantial improve- ment over last year's game, in which the Scarlet Knights got to Hackenberg five times. The junior quarterback was highly appreciative of their efforts to keep him protected. "I'm super excited about where we're at right now," Hackenberg said. "We can get a lot better, and that's shown on the tape the past two weeks. Being able to come out and win games the way we've won them is great for us, and we're going to be able to build off that." The Nittany Lions (2-1) take on San Diego State (1-2) next Saturday at Beaver Stadium for a 3:30 p.m. kick. The game will be broadcast on BTN. SCORING SUMMARY 2ND 12:10 PSU Thompkins, DeAndre 2-yard run (Julius, Joey kick) 12 plays, 80 yards, TOP 6:02...................................................... 0-7 2:06 PSU Barkley, Saquon 15-yard run (Julius, Joey kick) 8 plays, 90 yards, TOP 3:27.......................................................0-14 1:04 PSU Lynch, Akeel 75-yard run (Julius, Joey kick) 1 play, 75 yards, TOP 0:10...........................................................0-21 4TH 10:35 RU Federico, Kyle 34-yard field goal 16 plays, 71 yards, TOP 7:13........................................................ 3-21 4:21 PSU Barkley, Saquon 16-yard run (Julius, Joey kick) 2 plays, 70 yards, TOP 0:45......................................................3-28 S E P T E m B E R 2 0 , 2 0 1 5 B L U E W H I T E O N L I N E . c O m 2

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