Blue White Illustrated

PLAYER OF THE GAME Penn State quarterback Trace McSorley had to face an immense challenge in Bloomington, and although the results were mixed, his leadership and performance were crucial to the Nittany Lions walking away with a 45-31 win. Completing 16 of 30 passes for 332 yards, McSorley made up for his two interceptions by throwing two touchdown strikes against an Indiana defense that stead- fastly refused to give Saquon Barkley any room to run. PLAY OF THE GAMERiding the mo- mentum of a four-play, 70-yard touch- down drive, followed by a forced three-and-out for the defense, Penn State offensive coordinator Joe Moor- head dug into his bag of tricks on sec- ond-and-5 early in the fourth quarter. After handing off to Saquon Barkley, McSorley took the flea-flicker pitch and delivered a strike deep downfield to DaeSean Hamilton at the Indiana 3- yard line. Two plays later, Barkley waltzed into the end zone to give the Lions a 28-24 lead. BEST PASSMcSorley had little hope of escaping Indiana's pass rush on third- and long on the Nittany Lions' first possession of the game. Buying time with his legs, McSorley found Barkley alone down the field for a 32-yard pickup. The play set up a touchdown to give Penn State an early 7-0 lead. The scenario would become a familiar one through the course of the afternoon, as the Hoosiers sent blitz after blitz to keep McSorley off-balance in the back- field. BEST RUNTaking on an Indiana de- fense that was determined to stop him, Barkley showed on one of his final car- ries of the game that he was not going to be denied. Plowing over Indiana's Jonathan Crawford at the goal line, Barkley scored his second rushing touchdown of the afternoon at the end of the fourth quarter to give the Nittany Lions a lead they wouldn't relinquish. BEST CATCHIndiana cornerback Richard Fant found himself behind De- Andre Thompkins as the Nittany Lion wideout leaped to pull in McSorley's deep pass downfield. Slipping through Thompkins' hands, the ball popped off Fant's left shoulder, but he stuck with it to make the catch. Turning upfield, Fant hurtled 34 yards to set up Indiana's half-ending touchdown possession on just five plays. Chris Godwin's third- quarter touchdown reception gets a nod here, too. WORST DROPAlthough Penn State had its share Saturday afternoon, the Hoosiers will likely be considering their JUDGMENT CALLS N O V E M B E R 1 2 , 2 0 1 6 B L U E W H I T E O N L I N E . c O M 4 N A T E B A U E R | N B A U E R @ B L U E W H I T E O N L I N E . c O M

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