The Hawkeye's featured the Big Ten's third best quarterback in the conference and an offense that was averaging 37.75 points per game. The PSU defense was going to have none of that.
The Lions held the Hawks to just 84 rushing yards and almost 35 points below their average, despite the Hawkeyes coming off a bye week and nearly owning Penn State for the past decade.
Granted, this is somewhat of a rebuilding year for the Hawkeyes, and they really have faced no team of any consequence except possibly ISU to whom they lost (sorry Pitt, but it's true), and this win does not atone for the loss in 2008 when the Hawks upset us when we were ranked third, or the 2009 loss when they duplicated that effort against a 5th ranked PSU team, or even the spanking they gave us last year. Oy vey again! Double Oy! Was that one rambling sentence or what?! Maybe not full revenge, but it is a start. A good start.
I was far from confident that we could win this game, but I knew that we could. We still made mistakes, but our guys played like they wanted to win. Even Ferentz commented after the game about the intensity of the Penn State players.
In a series where the ball always seems to bounce in Iowa's favor, the opposite rang true on this gorgeous Saturday in Happy Valley. Passes bounced from one PSU receiver to another. We dribbled a kick-off return but retained possession. Silas Redd recovered his own fumble. And Penn State forced three turnovers, while only throwing one INT, albeit a painful one in the end zone that left points on the field and not on the scoreboard. It's like a pick six, but it's a pick minus six. A negative pick six. Pick Six anti-matter. You get the idea.
That's McGloin. He's a gunslinger. He's going to make big plays. He's going to make big mistakes. You've got to take the good with the bad. I wish we didn't have to but Kerry Collins is long gone and we're scraping the bottom of the quarterback barrel. Bolden, bless his heart, still looks like a deer in the headlights out there. The quarterback controversy is slowly turning in favor of McGloin, who played all but two series despite not starting.
BY THE NUMBERS:
From GoPSUsports:
| Team Totals | IOWA | PSU |
|---|---|---|
| FIRST DOWNS | 16 | 21 |
| Rushing | 6 | 12 |
| Passing | 9 | 9 |
| Penalty | 1 | 0 |
| NET YARDS RUSHING | 84 | 231 |
| Rushing Attempts | 30 | 46 |
| Average Per Rush | 2.8 | 5 |
| Rushing Touchdowns | 0 | 0 |
| Yards Gained Rushing | 126 | 240 |
| Yards Lost Rushing | 42 | 9 |
| NET YARDS PASSING | 169 | 164 |
| Completions-Attempts-Int | 17-34-2 | 15-26-1 |
| Average Per Attempt | 5 | 6.3 |
| Average Per Completion | 9.9 | 10.9 |
| Passing Touchdowns | 0 | 1 |
| TOTAL OFFENSE YARDS | 253 | 395 |
| Total offense plays | 64 | 72 |
| Average Gain Per Play | 4 | 5.5 |
| Fumbles: Number-Lost | 2-1 | 2-0 |
| Penalties: Number-Yards | 3-15 | 5-50 |
| PUNTS-YARDS | 4-158 | 5-219 |
| Average Yards Per Punt | 39.5 | 43.8 |
| Net Yards Per Punt | 39.5 | 32.6 |
| Inside 20 | 2 | 1 |
| 50+ Yards | 0 | 1 |
| Touchbacks | 0 | 3 |
| Fair catch | 2 | 1 |
| KICKOFFS-YARDS | 2-120 | 4-277 |
| Average Yards Per Kickoff | 60 | 69.2 |
| Net Yards Per Kickoff | 47.5 | 49.2 |
| Touchbacks | 0 | 2 |
| Punt returns: Number-Yards-TD | 1-4-0 | 0-0-0 |
| Average Per Return | -4 | 0 |
| Kickoff returns: Number-Yds-TD | 2-40-0 | 2-25-0 |
| Average Per Return | 20 | 12.5 |
| Interceptions: Number-Yds-TD | 1-0-0 | 2-4-0 |
| Fumble Returns: Number-Yds-TD | 0-0-0 | 0-0-0 |
| Miscellaneous Yards | 0 | 0 |
| Possession Time | 24:06 | 35:54 |
| 1st Quarter | 6:44 | 8:16 |
| 2nd Quarter | 6:18 | 8:42 |
| 3rd Quarter | 6:03 | 8:57 |
| 4th Quarter | 5:01 | 9:59 |
| Third-Down Conversions | 7 of 16 | 5 of 14 |
| Fourth-Down Conversions | 1 of 3 | 1 of 1 |
| Red-Zone Scores-Chances | 1-1 | 3-4 |
| Touchdowns | 0-1 | 1-4 |
| Field goals | 1-1 | 2-4 |
| Sacks By: Number-Yards | 0-0 | 5-40 |
| PAT Kicks | 0-0 | 1-1 |
| Field Goals | 1-1 | 2-2 |
Penn State won time of possession convincingly. The yards rushing was the key to this game. Despite not putting a ton of points on the board, the Lions kept the ball moving, kept the clock running, kept Vandenberg off the field, and dominated this game. I wonder: when was the last time Iowa didn't sack our QB? I'll have to wait for the AFLAC duck on that one.
INTANGIBLES:
The Drum Major missed the second flip but nailed the important one.
Iowa won the toss and elected to receive, presumably hoping to put points on the board early. Nice try.
And in what was one of the most classless, high school league moves I have seen in a while, the Hawkeye team waited until Penn State emerged from the tunnel to come out on the field at the same time. Really lame and bush league, Hawks. Why don't you just flock in the end zone and peck the 'Penn State' lettering?
Of course, the BEAT IOWA cheer was a little silly. I don't know about you, but it seemed lame. Maybe it's because it sounds too much like EAT IOWA. Too many vowels. It just doesn't roll off the tongue. I hope we don't do that again.
The Penn State-Iowa series is now even at 12-12.
Joe Paterno notched win number 406 as the Lions move to 5-1 (2-0). He only spent one half on the sidelines, apparently suffering a little pain after getting out of the way of a play. The message boards across Nittany Nation spent most of the week dreaming of Urban Renewal at Penn State. This was fueled in part by Meyer's presence on the TV crew, but also by Jeff Rapp who wrote about a source claiming that Urban would love the Penn State job.
Even John Eichelberger threw his opinion into the ring by saying that it was time for Joe to move on. In his blog, the Senator applauded a Mirror article by Cory Giger calling for Paterno's resignation, if not in so many words.
And according to this Scout.com messageboard post, Urban Meyer referred to the Penn State quarterbacks as "our" quarterbacks before correcting himself. I was at the game and did not hear this. Those who remembered to DVR this can do their own sleuthing and draw their own conclusions.
While Penn State could do worse than Urban Meyer, I'd really like to see Boise State's head coach come to Penn State.
THE BIG (TEN) PICTURE:
Denard Robinson beat Northwestern 42-24, scoring 21 unanswered points.
The Cornhuskers notch their first conference victory and set a record for the biggest comeback in school history to defeat the Columbus Cheateyes 34-27, after trailing 27-6.
Illinois took care of business over Indiana, 41-20.
Purdue rolled over the pathetic gophers, 45-17. Will Minnesota even win a game in the Big Ten? Do they play Indiana? No they don't. Doesn't look good for the golden varmints.
Wisconsin and Michigan State took the week off.
SHEDDING TEARS:
1. Dick Faust--Sleepless in
2. Pitt--chopped down by Buttgers.
3. The Service Academies--all three lost yesterday
4. F$U--lost to Wake Forest
5. The Longhorns, crushed by Oklahoma 55-17.
LOOKING AHEAD:
Homecoming. Noon kick-off. Drink a boilermaker or two. Roast some
Here's the Boiler's season to date:
W Middle Tennessee State 27-24
L Rice 22-24
W Southeast Missouri State 59-0
L Notre Dame 10-38
W Minnesota 45-17
To keep the pattern going, the next game has to be a loss for them.
Basically, any team with a pulse has beaten Purdue. That Southeast Missouri State victory was impressive, though. Not.
PSU is 65-21-5 in Homecoming games, 39-6 under Paterno. Look for #66 next week, which will put Paterno one behind Eddie Robinson's record of 408.
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