Penn State Special Teams Save the Day in 22-20 Upset of Purdue

Penn State Freshman Derek Wake foiled two Purdue punt attempts, which led to two touchdowns and a 22-20 upset of the 19th ranked Purdue Boilermakers. Penn State won its second game of the season in front of a home crowd of over 96,000, and evened its Big 10 mark at 1-1. Purdue dropped to 3-2 overall, and 1-1 in the Big 10.

Purdue looked for an early knockout of the struggling Lions on the opening play of the first drive. Brees threw a 45-yard bomb down the right sideline for Vinny Sutherland, who had beaten Penn State defensive backs Bruce Branch and James Boyd down the field. State fans breathed a sigh of relief when the ball slipped through a stumbling Sutherland's hands. Forcing Purdue to punt after three consecutive incompletions was a major confidence boost for the Lions' defense, coming off a disappointing 45 point effort against Ohio State.

Penn State opened their first drive with a confident Rashard Casey running a naked bootleg left and firing a strike to tight end Tony Stewart for 26 yards. The Lions had only had nine offensive plays of twenty yards or more coming into Saturday's contest, with four of those coming against an overmatched Louisiana Tech squad. They had three in the first half against Purdue. Ryan Primanti drilled a career-long 46 yard field goal to cap off the four play drive. It was the first time this season that Penn State had scored on its opening possession, and was certainly a sign of life from a previously flat Penn State offense.

On Purdue's second possession, James Boyd set the tone for the Penn State defense. After completing two third down passes to keep the drive alive, Purdue found itself with 2nd and 6 on the Penn State 35 yard line. Boyd blitzed between the tackles, and crushed Brees just as he was releasing an incomplete pass to Seth Morales. On the ensuing third down play, Boyd broke up a would-be first down pass across the middle to force a Boilermaker punt. When asked about the importance of stopping the Brees and the high-powered Boilermaker offense on early drives, Boyd said, "We had to. With a team like that, if you don't dictate early, they're going to get confidence. I thought we needed to just take it from them right away." Penn State's defensive ends, Michael Haynes and Justin Kurpeikis did a good job throughout the first half of keeping their hands up, blocking Brees' vision and outside passing lanes.

Purdue finally got on the board on their next series, with Brees leading a solid 12 play, 49 yard drive. Running the option twice and a quarterback draw once, the Heisman hopeful collected two first downs and began exploiting the Lions' six defensive back set. But PSU tightened up the defense at their own 25, and forced Travis Dorsch to kick a 44 yard field goal to even the score at 3-3.

Looking to strike back quickly on the ensuing drive, Penn State opened with the same bootleg left pass with which they opened the game. This time off a fake reverse, Casey connected with Kenny Watson for 20 yards. After two solid runs by Eric McCoo (106 yds. rushing) and 23-yard completion to Tony Stewart, PSU had a 3rd and 4 at the Purdue 15 yard line. With just over two and a half minutes remaining in the first quarter, Casey was 6 for 7 for 91 yards passing and was outplaying Brees. Casey was unable to connect on his next two passes, and Penn State was forced to settle for a Primanti 32-yard field goal to take a 6-3 lead.

The second quarter was marked by sloppy offensive play and stingy defense on each side. Each team punted on four consecutive drives, and neither team managed a real scoring threat in that span. The closest either team came to the end zone was a wild play when a pass knocked down by a Purdue defender returned to the hands of Penn State quarterback Rashard Casey. Casey then illegally threw another forward pass on the same play to a wide open, and somewhat confused, Eddie Drummond. A penalty negated the score and pushed the Lions out of field goal range.

Just before the half ended, Brees was able to coax three more points out of the Purdue offense to tie the score at six. Beginning the drive on his own 29 with 50 seconds left in the half, Brees connected with Seth Morales for 7 yards. Then he hit John Standeford on an out pattern, and the refs tacked on 15 yards for a late hit personal foul on Titcus Pettigrew. Brees hit Standeford again to get the Boilermakers down to the 5 yard line, but Purdue couldn't get the ball into the end zone, settling for a 25 yd. field goal as time expired.

Brees ended the first half with a solid 135 yards passing, but only 11 completions in 28 attempts. Brees was surprised by the Lions' tenacity on defense, "I thought Penn State played as good defensively against us in the first half as anybody ever did." Purdue coach Joe Tiller also attributed their first half offensive inconsistency to the opponent's defensive gameplan. "Penn State was doing little things blitz-wise that caused us problems. We were not very good on first downs." Tiller was definitely right about that; Brees was 3 for 11 passing on first downs in the half.

Drew set out to change that on Purdue's first drive of the second half. Following Joe Odom's interception of Casey at midfield, Brees completed both his pass attempts on a 2 minute drive to the Penn State 5 yard line. Vinny Sutherland then threw a reverse pass back to Brees for the touchdown. It was not the first time these two had hooked up on such a reception. In last year's game versus Ohio State, Sutherland completed a successful 12-yard scoring strike to Brees.

Purdue seemed to have all the momentum, scoring 10 points on their previous two drives and sacking Casey for a nine-yard loss on the opening play of Penn State's first drive of the second half. Penn State was able to weather the storm, however, with some solid rushing from Casey and Eric McCoo. The two combined for 55 yards rushing on the drive, and 100 total in the second half. Following a ten play, confidence-boosting drive, Ryan Primanti connected on his third field goal of the day to cut the Purdue lead to 13-9.

Purdue regained the ball with a four-point lead when lightning struck??twice. After their second drive of the half stalled at their own 18, Purdue punter Travis Dorsch dropped back to kick. Before he could get the punt away, he was engulfed by a sea of Lions' defenders and tackled by a hard-charging Derek Wake on his own 11 yard line. Wake had busted right through the middle of the Purdue line, forcing Dorsch to make the scramble attempt. Even Penn State coach Joe Paterno was surprised by the sequence, "Usually you might be able to get one (blocked punt), but it's tough to get two." Three plays later, Penn State fullback Paul Jefferson bullied his way into the end zone from the one yard line on his lone carry on the afternoon. Penn State missed the extra point, but still took a 15-13 lead.

No more than one minute later, Wake tackled Dorsch a second time in a punting situation. After 3 plays and out from the Purdue offense. Wake again busted through the middle of the Purdue line. This time he tackled the Purdue punter after a poor snap on the 6 yard line, and Rashard Casey shortly thereafter scrambled to the right pylon and scored to cap a zany two minute flurry of Purdue punting futility. It was the first blocked punt attempt for the Boilermakers in the last three games, and Drew Brees bluntly insisted that trend must be reversed for Purdue to have a successful campaign, "Our special teams need to pick it up."

With his team down 22-13, one quarter left, and a possible Heisman Trophy run hanging in the balance, Brees knew it was time to take over the game. Purdue's first drive of the final quarter saw Brees connect four times with four different receivers, culminating with a 39 yard touchdown pass to Vinny Sutherland. With Penn State's offense sputtering down the stretch, Brees opened another series with 7:50 left on the clock. This time he mixed the run and the pass effectively to bring the Boilermakers in range for the go ahead field goal with 2:27 remaining. Travis Dorsch's kicking second half kicking woes continued, though, as he was wide left with a 46 yard attempt that would have put Purdue ahead.

On its last possession, Penn State featured fullback Omar Easy in an attempt to run out the clock. He scampered for 17 yards to get one first down, but was not able to convert a 3rd and 2 rush on the Purdue 48. Penn State was forced to punt, but Purdue had expended all three of their timeouts during the four play drive.

Following a punt touched down at the Purdue 5, Drew Brees had one minute and 23 seconds to lead the Boilermakers to victory. After Titcus Pettigrew nearly had an interception, two complete passes (including a 4th down conversion) and two rushes moved the ball to the Penn State 45 with 9 seconds remaining. But being out of field goal range, Brees was forced to throw a last second Hail Mary that was knocked incomplete by James Boyd.

Brees finished the game 23 for 50 with 281 yards passing, and one touchdown. He also had 43 yards rushing on 9 attempts. Rashard Casey and Eric McCoo were the offensive stars for Penn State. Casey completed 11 of 25 passes for 109 yards, and ran for 48 and one touchdown. Purdue coach Joe Tiller commended Casey's versatility and leadership after the game, "We played well enough to win defensively, but Rashard Casey is a difference maker." McCoo gained 106 yards on the ground on 16 carries for a 6.6 yard average.

The real story, though, for Penn State was the play of its special teams. Along with the two blocked punts, Penn State kicker David Kimball's high and deep kickoffs constantly pinned Purdue deep in their own territory. The same can be said for punter David Royer, who averaged 41.3 yards on 6 punts. Coach Joe Paterno succinctly summed up their contributions to the team, "They won the football game for us."

The Nittany Lions lead the all time series 6-1-1, and have not lost to the Boilermakers since they joined the Big 10. The victory was Coach Paterno's 319th career win, and tied him with Pop Warner for second among major college coaches. Bear Bryant is first with 323 wins. Next up for the Lions is an away date against Minnesota on October 7. Purdue plays Michigan at home on Saturday.