Penn State 27, Iowa 7 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
October 6, 2007 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Beaver Stadium - University Park, PA | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Attendance: 108,951 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Kickoff Time: 3:30 p.m. EDT | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
UNIVERSITY PARK — Penn State offenses, of late, have not been
known for final-minute heroics. You would have go back even further to
find a Penn State offense that did much of anything in the final minute
of the first half, when Joe Paterno’s teams, whether ahead or behind,
tend to let the clock expire as they trot into the tunnel. |
Butler grabbed a 3-yard pass at the sideline and Morelli threw a laser to a diving Andrew Quarless for 24 yards to the Iowa 35-yard line. A spiked pass set up Kelly’s 53-yarder, the longest field goal by a Penn State kicker since Massimo Manca made one of the same length in 1985. The kick earned Kelly a chest bump from an exuberant Morelli and sent the Nittany Lions into the locker room, for the first time this season, with some excitement. That carried over into Penn State’s opening possession of the second half, an 11-play, 81-yard drive capped by Kinlaw’s 12-yard touchdown run with 8:36 left in the third quarter that made it 20-0. The momentum didn’t carry into the fourth quarter, when Morelli threw a pair of interceptions and Jake Christensen led Iowa on an eight-play, 86-yard scoring drive capped by his 11-yard touchdown pass to Trey Stross. But Morelli finished 18 of 31 for 233 yards and his first Big Ten win of the season. “His timing was a little better today,” Paterno said. “Some of the criticism I’ve had of him is timing, when he’d wait too long and wasn’t sure about certain things. Today he seemed to pick up things better, he had more confidence in what he saw and threw the ball on time a little better.” The fans, many of whom expressed their wishes to see backup Daryll Clark this week, booed a few of Morelli’s early completions and sarcastically cheered when he threw a pass away under pressure in the fourth quarter. He shrugged it off after the game. “It comes with the territory, the position,” said Morelli, who was in good spirits during his first talks with reporters in two weeks. “If you don’t have such a good game once in a while, they’re gonna call for the backup. They did the same thing when Zack (Mills) was here, and I was a freshman.” The Nittany Lions, who host No. 5 Wisconsin (which lost 31-26 at Illinois on Saturday) this coming Saturday, must still prove that they can be consistent on offense and proficient in pressure situations against teams that will put up more resistance than the Hawkeyes, who have lost their last eight conference games. The final drive of Saturday’s first half was a sign that they’re getting closer. “Hopefully it does help us,” Butler said. “We know we have playmakers on this team, we’ve just got to get guys to make those plays. We’re always a dangerous offense. Hopefully we’ll get on a roll and start making those plays more consistently.” |
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