Here are 5 takeaways from Penn State football’s 35-31 victory over Purdue
Penn State rallied late for a 35-31 win over Purdue at Ross-Ade Stadium on Thursday night.
The Nittany Lions found themselves down 31-28 with time running out in the fourth quarter. Redshirt senior quarterback Sean Clifford drove down the field on an eight-play, 80-yard drive, resulting in a 10-yard touchdown pass to Keyvone Lee. Penn State’s defense held steady to triumph against the Boilermakers.
Here are five takeaways from Penn State’s victory over Purdue.
Barney Amor made punting look easy
Punter Barney Amor changed the fortunes for Penn State often times. He had eight punts for 375 yards in the game with an average of 46.9 and his longest punt coming on a 52-yard blast. Amor pinned Purdue inside the 20-yard line three separate times and had three punts that went 50 yards or more. Not bad for the redshirt senior punter.
Manny Diaz’s first PSU game was a learning experience
First-year Penn State defensive coordinator Manny Diaz displayed his mark on Penn State’s defense early, but there were some growing pains.
The Nittany Lions looked excited to fly around the ball earlier in the game. They allowed just 10 points in the first half, but allowed 205 yards. Purdue quarterback Aidan O’Connell went 12-for-22 with 146 passing yards in the half and the Boilermakers rushed for 59 yards and the Nittany Lions forced a fumble.
Penn State went on to allow 210 passing yards in the second half, but allowed just 11 rushing yards. The Boilermakers outscored the Nittany Lions 21-14 in the second half — though Penn State had two sacks and came away with the win by creative blitzes cooked up by Diaz.
Responding to a poor questionable call
Penn State suffered its first ejection of the season with freshman Abdul Carter disqualified in the second quarter on a targeting penalty.
Following Nittany Lions receiver Mitchell Tinsley’s touchdown and 7-3 lead, Purdue quarterback Aidan O’Connell passed the ball to wide receiver Tyrone Tracy. The pass went incomplete with Carter hitting Tracy with his shoulder at the conclusion of the play. With 13:05 left in the second quarter, Carter was ejected.
The Boilermakers went on to take a 10-7 lead with 9:50 left in the first half on the same drive. The Nittany Lions came back with two scores to lead 21-10 at the half. First, Penn State drove down the field for Sean Clifford to dive into end zone for a two-yard touchdown with 1:44 left in the second quarter on an eight-play, 34-yard drive that lasted 4:30.
Purdue redshirt junior wide receiver TJ Sheffield fumbled when Penn State redshirt freshman safety Zakee Wheatley punched the ball loose and redshirt junior cornerback Joey Porter recovered the ball. Clifford went on to hit redshirt junior tight end Brenton Strange on a 67-yard touchdown pass to give Penn State a 21-10 lead with two seconds left in the first half.
Sean Clifford giveth, he taketh away, he giveth again
Clifford scored three touchdowns in the first half. Penn State as a whole had 27 yards passing in the third quarter. Twenty-six of the yards were from freshman Drew Allar. Purdue went on to take a 24-21 lead at the end of the third quarter. However, Clifford answered back with a 29-yard touchdown pass to KeAndre Lambert-Smith with 10:44 left in the game.
The senior quarterback had every opportunity to put the game away with a 28-24 lead in the fourth quarter. With 8:29 left in the game, he threw an errant pass that landed in the hands of Purdue strong safety Chris Jefferson. Jefferson took the interception for a 72-yard touchdown to give Purdue a 31-28 lead.
The Nittany Lions were running out of time and Clifford finished with a 72 yard in the waning minutes, going 6-for-7 with a 10-yard touchdown pass to Keyvone Lee and a 35-31 lead.
There still could be a quarterback controversy
Clifford finished the game going 20-for-37 with 282 yards, four touchdowns and one interception. He completed just 54% of his passes and had a 148.3 rating. Allar went 2-for-4 with 26 yards in his lone drive. The ball came out with zip and one of his incompletions was a bobbled ball by tight end Tyler Warren. Allar made it look effortless, Clifford did not. Clifford responded late in the fourth quarter, but not without his struggles.
Could Penn State see a change in the coming weeks if he continues to struggle?
This story was originally published September 2, 2022 at 12:54 AM.
