Well, like any good Penn State supporter, I predicted a win for the Nittany Lions last week, and they didn't really score too far off of my predicted 21 points. The trouble was that Ohio State scored over twice as much as I had predicted. Anyway, a loss is a loss, and you can't fault the Lions for going down to the #1 team in the nation after such a terrible day on defense. Let's leave those troubles behind though and move forward into tomorrow when the Lions face the Purdue Boilermakers at home in Beaver Stadium. First off, I don't envy Purdue in this situation. Penn State got demoralized last week, and it was a big loss. No one in their right mind wants to play the Nittany Lions after a big loss like last week. Let us remember the fine shellacking the Lions put on Illinois two years ago after the last-second loss to Michigan. All of that aside though, the Lions are becoming a good offensive football team. The trouble last week was that they didn't hit the field very often while their counterpart, the Ohio State offense, was running on all cylinders. Morelli has completed 60% of his passes and thrown for 13 touchdowns, and if you take away the Illinois game, he has only thrown 5 ints. Kinlaw did extremely well last week much to my surprise against that stout Ohio State line. He had 14 carries for 81 yards, a 5.8 yards/carry average, and he also scored the Lions only offensive touchdown. Like I said, it was just a lack of playing time that stunted the offense. The defense was, for lack of a better description, awful. King had another bad day against a fine receiver. That is going to have to change against Purdue. They have another great wideout at Purdue by the name of Dorien Bryant whose 735 receiving yards and 8 touchdowns have helped bring the Boilermakers back to prominence. The man throwing the ball to him isn't too bad himself. Curtis Painter has completed 63% of his passes for almost 2500 yards and 24 touchdowns with only 6 ints. The running game is the biggest weakness that Purdue has. Kory Sheets has 663 yards rushing and 6 touchdowns to Kinlaw's 809 and 7 touchdowns. He'll have a tough day against the linebackers if Purdue decides to run the ball a lot, and they probably won't after having analyzed the poor pass-coverage from last week. Connor and Lee just got pushed off the ball against Ohio State along with the rest of the defense. The buckeyes were too strong and too fast for the defense to keep them out of the game. That can't happen against Purdue because I will say the only reason I can favor us so heavily to win is because we are playing at home. Purdue is a good team that is underrated in the Big Ten, and they have lost to the same teams the Lions have lost to in Michigan and Ohio State. They didn't play Illinois though. You'll find out how good Purdue is this weekend and also if the Lions can bounce back. Believe me, the defense is going to be playing with a chip the size of Texas on their shoulders. Expect a hard-hitting, smash-mouth Big Ten showdown that again, could end fairly quickly for the Boilermakers if the Lions decide to play. All eyes will be on the defense. If they play well, then the offense will get the ball and drive against an average Purdue defense who gave up 31 to Minnesota, 19 to Notre Dame, and 48 to Michigan. Two of which are very poor offensive squads. It seems like a good match-up for Penn State, but they need to show up and I believe they will. Lions win it 35-14. I have also stopped writing post-game analysis because I basically just combine the pre-game and post-game from last week. So, look back next week to check out the match-up against Temple. We are...Penn State!!
P.S. I am interested to know how many people actually read this. Give me a shout-out on facebook if you know me, or drop me a line at pointbrake101@gmail.com to tell me that you've read this.
