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until the fourth quarter, after most of the starters had retreated to the bench. "We wanted to set a tone," corner- back Stephon Morris said. "We wanted to show the Big Ten that Penn State is for real. We want to show the world that we're for real. "I'm pretty sure people are starting to take a look at us." Those people got an eyeful Saturday night. Bill Belton, healthy again after suffering an ankle sprain in the opener, rushed for a career-high 103 yards and three touchdowns, and he wasn't even the big story on offense. The big story was Matt McGloin, who completed passes to nine receivers for 289 yards and two touchdowns. "You have to give him a lot of credit," O'Brien said of his senior quarterback. "Through seven games, this guy has been prepared. When a guy is in his fifth year, he grows up and understands he only has a few shots left at Penn State. He's done a really nice job, and I'm proud of him." Iowa may not be Penn State's his- toric or geographic rival, nor have there been any off-the-field kerfuffles of the sort that turned the Illinois game into a grudge match a few weeks ago. But the Nittany Lions (5- 2, 3-0) definitely did not lack motiva- tion. There was inspiration aplenty, and it was right there in the record book, even before the NCAA rewrote it over the summer: Iowa had beaten Penn State four times in a row in Kinnick Stadium, including a 6-4 vic- tory in 2004 that is remembered as one of the low points of the Paterno era. Said defensive tackle Jordan Hill, "We hadn't won here since I was in second grade. Iowa had our num- ber." Maybe it did, but these Nittany Lions are playing an entirely different game than those previous Penn State teams, teams that seemed to find themselves perpetually outgunned by the Hawkeyes. In the first half alone, the Lions ran 50 plays, totaled 304 yards and built a 24-0 lead. And the second half? Penn State just kept at- tacking, completing a deep pass to Brandon Moseby-Felder on the first play of the second half and finishing off the two-play drive with a Belton SCORING SUMMARY 1ST 7:24 2:43 2ND 7:19 5:53 3RD 14:33 4TH 14:25 14:14 4:11 PSU PSU PSU PSU PSU PSU IOWA IOWA James, Jesse 31-yard pass from McGloin, Matt (Ficken, Sam kick) 9 plays, 84 yards, TOP 2:49.........................................................................7-0 Robinson, Allen 8-yard pass from McGloin, Matt (Ficken, Sam kick) 9 plays, 69 yards, TOP 2:53.......................................................................14-0 Ficken, Sam 34-yard field goal 12 plays, 63 yards, TOP 3:46.....................................................................17-0 Belton, Bill 11-yard run (Ficken, Sam kick) 2 plays, 14 yards, TOP 0:27.......................................................................24-0 Belton, Bill 3-yard run (Ficken, Sam kick) 2 plays, 45 yards, TOP 0:27.......................................................................31-0 Belton, Bill 5-yard run (Ficken, Sam kick) 14 plays, 97 yards, TOP 6:27.....................................................................38-0 Cotton, Jordan 92-yard kickoff return (Meyer, Mike kick) 38-7 Davis, Keenan 18-yard pass from Vandenberg, James (Meyer, Mike kick) 4 plays, 37 yards, TOP 1:13.....................................................................38-14 touchdown burst to push its edge to 31-0. "We knew that this was a good team and that we were playing on the road in one of the toughest places in the Big Ten," said receiver Allen Robin- son, who finished with six catches for 39 yards. "We knew we had to come into this game focused, guns blazing. We knew we had to be fired up and ready to play, and that's what we did." The Hawkeyes, it must be noted, were hardly at full strength. They were especially shorthanded at run- ning back due to a succession of in- juries, the most recent being an ankle injury that left leading rusher Mark Weisman in a boot following the Michigan State game a week earlier. Iowa started Greg Garmon, a true freshman from Erie, Pa., who had only 14 carries for 35 yards heading into the game against the Lions. And while Weisman entered on the second series and promptly gained 5 yards on his first carry, things went downhill in a hurry. The Hawkeyes finished the game with 20 rushing yards on 23 at- tempts. "We definitely struggled tonight," Iowa coach Kirk Ferentz said. "We did- n't block them well or execute well, run or pass. We couldn't get anything going tonight at all, period." Penn State's victory sets up a very O C T O B E R 2 0 , 2 0 1 2 2 interesting Leaders Division game this week: a matchup between the Lions and seventh-ranked Ohio State Sat- urday at Beaver Stadium. Any time the Buckeyes come to town, it's a big deal. But the game's significance is magnified this year with both teams unable to participate in the postsea- son and looking to wring as much sat- isfaction as they can out of the regular season. The Buckeyes had a whole lot of trouble on Saturday keeping their perfect record intact. Their weekend went from disastrous to euphoric when backup quarterback Kenny Guiton rallied them back from an eight-point fourth-quarter deficit against Purdue. Ohio State ended up winning in overtime, 29-22, but did so without starting quarterback Braxton Miller, who had to be taken to a hos- pital for tests on his shoulder, head and neck after being driven into the turf at the end of a run. Miller's avail- ability for Saturday's game is uncer- tain, but the Buckeyes figure to be a handful with or without him. "We have a really difficult challenge coming up against one of the best teams in the country," O'Brien said. "They're an undefeated team, and they have a great coaching staff. We have a big challenge, and I just think it's back to the drawing board on Monday." B L U E W H I T E O N L I N E . C O M

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