Blue White Illustrated

O c T O B E R 2 9 , 2 0 1 6 B L U E W H I T E O N L I N E . c O M 3 • A?er surrendering 17 points in the first half, Penn State tightened up in the second. The Lions allowed only seven points a?er hal?ime, and those points came on a 62-yard touchdown pass to DeAngelo Yancey, one of the few plays on which Purdue tested the Lions by going deep. Penn State forced four second-half punts a?er forcing only one in the game's first 30 minutes. THE BAD • Sporting the Big Ten's best passing numbers heading into the game, sopho- more quarterback David Blough picked apart Penn State in the first half. Orches- trating Purdue's short passing game with great efficiency, he finished the game with 34 completions on 50 attempts for 281 yards and two touchdowns. Even when the Nittany Lions got stops on first and second down, Blough was ef- fective on third, as Purdue converted 9 of 21 third-down opportunities. Their suc- cess was not surprising. Purdue went into the game converting 46.7 percent of its third-down chances, the fourth-best rate in the Big Ten. • Penn State was flagged four times in the first 10 minutes of the game, includ- ing three defensive penalties a?er Pur- due had reached the red zone, setting up a 1-yard touchdown run by Markell Jones. The Lions, who were averaging six penalties per game through seven games, were flagged 11 times for 91 yards against the Boilermakers. "Early in the game we just made too many mistakes," Franklin said. "We've been one of the more disciplined teams in the country, and we had too many penalties. We had more penalties in the first quarter – four or five – than we nor- mally have in a whole game. We just kept giving them life." THE TAKEAWAY A?er romping past Purdue, the Nittany Lions move on to face what may be their toughest remaining opponent: Iowa. Al- though this won't be an official White Out, it will be a night game in Beaver Sta- dium, and the atmospherics of those games always seem to bring out the best in the Lions. Just ask Ohio State. There will be one big difference, though: Unlike the most recent night game at the Beav, this time it will be the visitors who are coming off a bye week. The Hawkeyes were inactive this week- end, giving them plenty of time to re- cuperate from a hard-fought 17-9 loss to Wisconsin, which dropped their record to 5-3 overall and 3-2 in the Big Ten. Kirk Ferentz and company got to watch Penn State take on Purdue, and while their more-traditional Big Ten offense doesn't bear much resemblance to the Boilermakers' short passing attack, they figure to present the Nittany Lions with plenty of challenges on both sides of the ball.

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