University Park– It looked like Penn State had stalled out against Purdue, but a fake field goal led to PSU drawing first blood with seven points instead of three.
Facing a 4th and 3 at the Purdue 20, Penn State brought the field goal team out.
But instead of kicking, PSU called a fake.
Punter Nathan Tiyce, who doubles as Penn State’s holder, tossed the ball to tight end Ben Brahmer. Brahmer ran for a first down, and Penn State scored two plays later on a 4-yard pass from Rocco Becht to Andrew Rappleyea, capping a 12-play, 96-yard drive that took 6:06.
This marked the first time Penn State jumped out to a 7-0 lead since Sept. 26 against Wisconsin, which was more than a month ago.
Add Nittany Sports Now as a preferred source in Google! Click here to add us.It was the second time in three weeks that Penn State scored a TD on its opening possession, with the offense accomplishing the same feat Oct. 10 against USC at Beaver Stadium.
The scoring drive against USC only tied the game, since USC started with the ball and scored a touchdown.
Unfortunately for Penn State, the Purdue game told a similar tale, with the Boilers coming right back and scoring on a 33-yard TD pass from QB Ryan Browne to WR Xaiver Townsend, which led to the tying extra point.
But the Penn State offense came right back with another scoring drive, this one in four plays, 75 yards in 2:19 to retake the lead.
Penn State has been struggling to run the ball all year, with no runs of more than 10 yards in any of the first four Big Ten games. Carson Hansen had a 32-yard run on the first drive, and Cam Wallace had a 47-yard run on the second, so things have improved just a tad.
