Penn State on Saturday afternoon defeated the Indiana Hoosiers 33-24 to improve their record to 7-1 on the season. It was an ugly win for the Nittany Lions with the defense having its worst statistical performance of the year while the offense had a rather uninspiring performance before the game-winning touchdown pass from Drew Allar to KeAndre Lambert-Smith.
Below Happy Valley Insider gives its picks for the Nittany Lions' players of the game in the win over Indiana.
OFFENSE: QB Drew Allar
After a poor performance against Ohio State, Allar bounced back against the Hoosiers with a quality performance from start to finish. He completed 20-of-31 passing attempts for 210 yards and three touchdowns. He did throw his first career at interception but he bounced back with arguably the best pass of his Penn State career, finding KeAndre Lambert-Smith down the sideline for a 56-yard touchdown that put the Nittany Lions up 31-24 just minutes after his interception.
"I think it starts with all the support I have here," Allar said about how he was able to bounce back from the interception. "Whether it's teammates or coaches, I couldn't, couldn't ask for a better group of people to be around as a support system. You know, at the end of the day, stuff happens. You have to flush it; you can't dwell on the past. I mean, at the end of the day, we had another opportunity to go out there and win the game and we did just that and that's why that's why we play football to have opportunities like that to go down and win the game."
DEFENSE: DE Dani Dennis-Sutton
The sophomore defensive end was able to have his biggest presence yet as a Nittany Lion with Chop Robinson and Amin Vanover out against the Hoosiers. Denni-Sutton had six tackles including four solo tackles, he also had the biggest defensive play of the game, a strip sack of Brandon Sorsby which resulted in a safety, sealing the win for the Nittany Lions. The former five-star prospect is only scratching the surface of his potential.
Dennis-Sutton didn't realize that he stripped Sorsby of the ball originally. "didn't even know I actually stripped the ball," he said. "I had no idea that it was a strip sack and then I turned around and you know about to do a celebration and then I looked back and see the ball is rumbling or tumbling in the end zone and I was like 'Oh wow, I had no idea that I just did that.'"
SPECIAL TEAMS: P Riley Thompson
Thompson had his best game as a Nittany Lion, averaging 49.0 yards per punt including a long of 54 in the game. When the Nittany Lions' offense was struggling, Thompson was able to flip the field positioning pinning the Hoosiers deep in their territory including twice inside their own 20-yard line.
Thompson so far this season is averaging 44.1 yards per punt and has landed 12 of 34 punts inside the opponents' 20.
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