Nittany Lions frustrated by offensive lull in 35-7 win

On the far side of Beaver Stadium’s postgame media room, K.J. Hamler stewed quietly in his seat.

Surrounded by reporters at the long podium, the Nittany Lion receiver offered brief responses to the questions asked of him. This, of course, following his team’s 35-7 Homecoming win against Purdue just minutes earlier.

Dissatisfied with an offensive performance that saw the Nittany Lions accumulate 460 yards of offense, 24 first downs, a whopping 13.2 yards per completion in the passing game, 11 chunk plays, and most important, five touchdowns, Hamler expressed his frustration. Having posted four TDs in the game’s first 16 minutes, that the Nittany Lions were held off the scoreboard for the next two-and-a-half quarters proved unacceptable.

“The slowing up part, that is just something we gotta fix,” Hamler said, noting that Sunday’s film study will reveal the unit’s ills. “We gotta go and watch the film and see what we do wrong to execute on plays, to just get open for Cliff, or the O-line is holding up for us and stuff like that. I think the offense as a group needs to execute better.”

Were it not for an explosive burst of offensive firepower to start the game, Hamler’s dissatisfaction might have been more easily dismissed.

Beginning with his 23-yard score just six plays into a 56-yard possession, helped along by his 26-yard punt return, the Nittany Lions reeled off four touchdowns on four consecutive possessions. In sum, they needed just 20 plays to span 225 yards, eating up 9 minutes, 23 seconds off the clock, producing four of those explosive plays along the way.

Looking to keep the momentum rolling, the Nittany Lions’ plans were upended on their fifth possession, though, a Sean Clifford deep ball intended to Hamler intercepted by Purdue corner Simeon Smiley. Again nearing Purdue’s territory, the shot downfield quickly turned into the Boilermakers’ first (and only) points of the afternoon.

Though the Nittany Lions would return to Purdue’s red zone, a halted drive and missed 35-yard field goal for Jake Pinegar again left the hosts without points. And despite a forced three-and-out by Penn State’s defense, Purdue again controlled the football when its ensuing punt careened off Jonathan Sutherland and into the hands of Zander Horvath, immediately returning possession to the Boilermakers.

The Nittany Lions’ frustrations would only grow from there.

Returning to the field after halftime determined to get back on track, Purdue presented unexpected, atypical looks to Penn State’s offense. Described by Clifford as though the Boilermakers were “running a different defense” on every single play, the results were just 42 yards of offense in the period on 20 plays, leading to four punts and no points.

“We were really frustrated in the third quarter,” offensive lineman Steven Gonzalez said. “We were just trying to make adjustments to the new looks they were giving us and there were things that they really hadn't shown. On third down, they would start bringing like an overload kind of pressure thing. And we hadn't really... they very rarely ran it; very inconsistent. And so we just kind of had to make our adjustments, and once we made them, we blocked it fine, but it just took a little bit of adjustments.

“Obviously it's frustrating when you can't go down and score, it's tough. And the defense has to continuously go out there and make a stop for us. But we trust our defense and we trust the process that no matter what's going to happen, we're going to try to do our best to score.”

Finally, the Nittany Lions did.

Beginning the fourth quarter with another fruitless drive, this time spanning just 19 yards on eight plays, the offense started to regain its rhythm behind the carries of true freshman running back Noah Cain. Allowing the power back to rumble for 64 of Penn State’s 87 yards on the seven-play drive, he eventually plunged into the end zone with a 2-yard carry to give the Nittany Lions a 35-7 advantage.

“I think that was like one of the biggest parts of the game… when we were high, we were high, and when we’re low, we gotta get out of that slump,” Clifford said. “Now, granted, we did get out of that slump. The third quarter is not acceptable; that's not to the standard. But in the fourth quarter, we really did get back to how we were. So that's where we gotta look.

“What did we do in that fourth quarter to make that jump where we didn't do it in the third quarter? And I think that's where we're going to make significant strides and start to be an elite offense.”

Set to take on the meat of their Big Ten schedule beginning with next weekend’s trip to No. 14 Iowa (4-1), the Nittany Lions (5-0) will be counting on it.