After a less-than-impressive victory last week over Villanova, Penn State seemed to have at least figured out their run game problems on Saturday in another night game with Indiana.
The Lions rushed for 202 yards for the game, and had surpassed last week’s total of 80 by the end of the first quarter. That, along with lights out play from their defense, made for a 24-0 shutout win over the Hoosiers in front of a Stripe Out crowd of 105,951 fans.
Indiana veteran quarterback Michael Penix Jr. was injured early in the second half and left the game. When Penix left, he was 10-of-22 for 118 yards passing. Reserve signal-caller Jack Tuttle had the Hoosiers driving down the field a couple times, but ended the day with 6-of-11 passing for 77 yards.
The Penn State defense held the Hoosiers to just 69 yards rushing, and Indiana never really got any drives going except for in the second quarter.
PSU quarterback Sean Clifford was picked off by Indiana defensive back Raheem Layne, and returned it down to the PSU 13. The Lions defense held strong, and got a key fourth-and-1 stop when the Lions were only up 7-0.
The Nittany Lions got the scoring going on a 10-yard touchdown pass from Clifford to Brenton Strange with 5:28 to play in the second quarter. They also scored on an 8-yard pass from Clifford to Jahan Dotson early in the second quarter as Penn State took a 14-0 lead to halftime.
Clifford and Dotson hooked up again in the third quarter for a key 30-yard touchdown on a fourth-and-4 play from the Indiana 30. It would have been a field goal attempt of over 40 yards for Jordan Stout, who hit a 50-yarder early in the fourth quarter.
Clifford ended the day with 178 yards passing, and went 17-for-33. On the rushing end, he had 58 yards on 10 carries. Keyvone Lee rushed for 74 yards on eight totes.
Dotson caught eight balls for 84 yards with the two touchdowns.
Penn State (5-0) will have a key Big Ten road game at Iowa next week for a 4 p.m. kickoff.
NOTES:
Former Penn State cornerback Alan Zemaitis served as honorary captain for the game.
All Elite Wrestling women’s champion Britt Baker, a Penn State alum and Pitt dental school grad, was recognized during the game.
The third quarter touchdown pass from Clifford to Dotson set a new school record for 18 touchdown passes between a quarterback and receiver.
