Penn State 35, Purdue 31
I don’t have any idea what that title means. Last night’s host for watching the game, Jackstand of Mike’s Garage — or is it Mikestand of Jack’s Garage? — suggested it. Much more thunder than lightning characterized last night as both sides made lots of booboos. In the end they were evenly matched.
Yeah, yeah, I know, Penn State homies would never put their vaunted Nittany Lions on a middle stratum with the lowly Boilermakers. But like big crocodiles, they’re in de Nile. I don’t see how this Penn State team will compete favorably against the likes of tOSU and Michigan, which guarantees middle-of-the-pack for them. But it’s early.
Room for Improvement
As Joe Paterno once said, the biggest improvement in a season will be between the first and second games. I never heard him say that, but longtime friend and Penn State athletic supporter, Toejam, did. Well, they better improve, because they’re facing the mighty Bobcats of Ohio U. next week, and they’re likely to be favored by four touchdowns or more. Better not screw up!
Sean Clifford, our 45-year-old signal caller completed over half of his passes behind a still dubious offensive line. What do you think of the line play you saw last night?
The overall stats were about even. Both sides gained over 400 yards, more than three-quarters of which were via the pass. Both took “three yards and a cloud of dust” literally, as their rushing averages if counted on fingers would yield the Boy Scout salute. The Boilermakers tried to sink their own ship with nine penalties and a fumble that led to a Penn State touchdown, while the Nittany Lions 12th year senior citizen quarterback committed an equally egregious error of throwing a pick six that could have lost the game for PSU. The offense-turned-defense should have contained that interception return in Purdue’s own territory, but poor pursuit and tackling resulted in a 74-yard play. Oy vey!
In Defense of The Defense (or not)
We were also annoyed by a veritable plethora of missed tackles by the Penn State defense, but the redemption for that unit was familiar standout, Joey Porter, who had eight solo tackles and showed us some damn fine pass coverage. He should have made his old man proud with that effort.
I really don’t have much to say about this game, but its outcome was satisfying. It’s been a long week and I’m still not cranked up enough to write something meaningful here, but I wanted to let y’all know I was still alive. I hope we don’t have any more damn Thursday night games!
The Nittany Turkey writes pure BS and makes no bones about it. You’ll find me here before and after Penn State football games on my own schedule, which varies from week to week. Hope to see you back here soon.
