Penn State plays Purdue today, and Joe & The Fatman, along with a special guest, have given their predictions.
You can watch the latest episode of Joe & the Fatman here.
Joe Smeltzer, Nittany Sports Now: I think to quote Elvis Presley, it’s really now or never for this Penn State offense. If you’re not going to get it done against, statistically, the third-worst defense in the Big Ten, I don’t know when Penn State is ever going to break out offensively. So I think it’s going to be kind of a game that Purdue is accustomed to score-wise. There’s going to be a lot of points on both sides, but I think at the end of the day, Penn State probably just has a little more firepower than Purdue has in playing at home, so I think Penn State’s finally able to run the ball. I think Rocco Becht shows some flashes, and Penn State gets it done.
Penn State 35, Purdue 28
Kyle “Fatman” Golik, Nittany Sports Now: You’re saying it’s now or never. I’m just going to answer the question. It’s going to be the first time all season that I’ve gone against my preseason predictions, and I’m just going to say it’s never for this Penn State team.
I just feel you have a Penn State team that’s fighting to figure out who they are and are just feeling the pressure, the enormity, and it’s just I think this is where this team splinters versus where you have this Purdue team that I feel is motivated to try to get to a bowl game.
Like they’re punching with momentum, and you know I really like what Purdue brings offensively. Neither team’s going to get to the quarterback, but I’m going to throw this out there: I think Rocco Becht gets pulled at the half in this game.
Add Nittany Sports Now as a preferred source in Google! Click here to add us.I think we see Alex Manske, and we realize that Manske’s not ready.
Purdue 31, Penn State 16
Sam King, Purdue beat writer, Journal & Courier: So I do a lot of these for various outlets. I picked Penn State 30 to 24. I’m not going to go against what I’ve told other people because somehow that will get found out and I’ll get reamed for it on social media. When I was watching Penn State earlier this season and the loss to Wisconsin, I was like, “Man, that’s a bad Wisconsin team.” Turns out it’s not that bad of a Wisconsin team. Northwestern, I was like, “Oh gosh, how do you lose to Northwestern?” But everything that day was geared towards Northwestern doing what it did.
And then Northwestern turns out to be a pretty good team. I think USC is a very good team, and I think Michigan is you know not great, but it’s got more talent than most teams in the country. Just hasn’t put it together in terms of and losses or overall success. I think Penn State is kind of that to Purdue, a team that’s just got more talent, hasn’t put it all together. I’m intrigued by the fact that it could be a shootout, but I think that at some point it comes down to can Purdue’s other guys on offense step up and make plays?
It’s really been the two receivers that we mentioned earlier and the running back for the most part, and then the other guys have been sprinkled in. I think one of those other guys is going to have to step up and have a big game against that secondary, or Penn State’s going to be able to hold off Purdue and kind of keep them chasing the whole game.
Penn State 30, Purdue 24
