Penn State Sports Magazine
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/83944
into halftime. Anytime you score in a tight ballgame right before halftime, it bodes well for you." It boded really well for Penn State, as the Lions added 10 more points in the second half while holding the Owls to single-digits until the end, when they began substituting freely. That doesn't necessarily mean that blue skies have returned, along with that all's-right-with-the-world feeling that victories so often evoke at Penn State. All's definitely not right with the Lions' world. They still aren't going to a bowl game, nor are they getting any of their lost scholarships back. But there are things they can control, and they've done a pretty good job lately of handling them. Said O'Brien, "Win- ning takes care of a lot of things. It makes people feel good, especially when you beat good, tough teams that are well-coached." The Lions won this one without sev- eral key starters. Tailback Bill Belton missed his third game in a row, while backup Derek Day sat out, too, as he recovers from a shoulder injury. Both Belton and Day had been listed as "possible" on the pregame injury re- port, and their absence gave the start to Michael Zordich, with Zach Zwinak backing him up. Zordich responded with the best game of his career. Known mostly for his blocking, he had 75 yards rushing and 39 yards receiving before leaving in the second half with a bruised knee. Zwinak, a little-used redshirt sophomore, had 94 yards on 15 car- ries. Also having a career game was Mc- Gloin, who completed 24 of 36 at- tempts for 318 yards. The senior quarterback did a nice job getting everyone involved in the offense, com- pleting passes to nine receivers. He threw for a touchdown and ran for two additional scores. The only numbers Penn State didn't find totally satisfying were the ones on the scoreboard. Despite amassing nearly 500 yards of offense and out- gaining Temple by 254 yards, Penn State managed only three touch- downs. Said O'Brien, "I thought we had a productive day, but I felt like we left a lot of points off the board. We've gotta clean that up." Fortunately for Penn State, the Owls SCORING SUMMARY 1ST 0:06 2ND 10:29 0:22 3RD 4:57 1:37 4TH 2:29 1:33 PSU Temple PSU PSU Temple PSU Temple Robinson, Allen 41-yard pass from McGloin, Matt (Ficken, Sam kick) 4 plays, 46 yards, TOP 1:35....................................................................... 0-7 McManus, Brandon 33-yard field goal 11 plays, 60 yards, TOP 4:37......................................................................3-7 McGloin, Matt 1-yard run (Ficken, Sam kick) 3 plays, 35 yards, TOP 0:48......................................................................3-14 McGloin, Matt 2-yard run (Ficken, Sam kick) 11 plays, 80 yards, TOP 4:36....................................................................3-21 McManus, Brandon 42-yard field goal 9 plays, 45 yards, TOP 3:20......................................................................6-21 Ficken, Sam 21-yard field goal 11 plays, 68 yards, TOP 7:03....................................................................6-24 Brown, Matt 1-yard pass from Coyer, Chris (McManus, Brandon kick) 4 plays, 65 yards, TOP 0:56....................................................................13-24 were unable to capitalize. Sounds fa- miliar, right? Temple hasn't defeated in the Nittany Lions since a 14-10 vic- tory in 1941. Its losing streak now stands at 23 games. This year, the Owls were hamstrung by the absence of a downfield passing game. Chris Coyer threw for only 123 yards, and that figure was inflated by a 40-yard catch-and-run late in the game. Penn State's first touchdown came on a fourth-and-5 play on which Mc- Gloin delivered a high pass to Allen Robinson, who caught it while seem- ingly falling over backward. Robinson regained his balance and sprinted past Temple's Zamel Johnson for a 41-yard score. "I don't believe I was the first option," Robinson said. "But Matt was able to squeeze the ball in there and I was able to come down with it and run it in. Matt definitely made a great throw and I was able to put it in for six." Then came the drive that ended the first half, a 35-yarder that lasted only 54 seconds. The Lions added another score on a quarterback sneak in the third quarter to go up 21-3. Sam Ficken ended the Lions' scoring with a 24-yard field goal. So now it's on to Illinois. The Big Ten season affords the Nittany Lions a fresh start and gives them an oppor- tunity to win the only championship for which they are eligible this season: the Leaders Division regular-season title. S E P T E M B E R 2 2 , 2 0 1 2 2 They are 2-2 and feel – with some justification – that they could easily be 3-1, maybe even 4-0. McGloin is off to the best start of his career and now has nine touchdown passes and only two interceptions. They may start get- ting some of their injured players back in the coming weeks, and, let's face it, the Big Ten as a conference is looking less than invincible this sea- son. A lot less. Illinois is 2-2 under first-year coach Tim Beckman, and the Lions will no doubt recall that his staff made an ag- gressive effort in July to convince Penn State players to leave, dispatch- ing coaches to State College and even- tually succeeding in landing redshirt freshman offensive lineman Ryan Nowicki. It would be premature to assert, on the basis of victories over Navy and Temple, that Penn State has turned the corner and is ready to challenge for the division title. But as the rain- bow reappeared in the second half and players rang the victory bell en- thusiastically as they left the field, it was pretty easy to feel good about their work on this particular after- noon. "We're on a two-game win streak and the offense is starting to click," guard John Urschel said. "We're starting to drive the ball a little bit, put together drives. And our defense is stopping the opposing team. It's great to go into Big Ten play with a two-game winning streak." B L U E W H I T E O N L I N E . c O M