The crowd will be alive at Kinnick Stadium for what should be a physical football game. It was not the road win in Ann Arbor.
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The Hawkeyes winning this game would be like Iowa State making a bowl game, so, not very likely. 2 MI past year and then-No. That would’ve been a good matchup for Penn State if Barkley had been, though, and engaging him carried the risk that Barkley could’ve just run past him and been free. Still unbeaten. Still ranked No. 4.
Few would debate this is a matchup of Iowa’s offensive strength against what many figured would be the defensive strength of the Nittany Lions. They missed golden opportunities. “Our focus right now, our motivation is basically to play our best for 60 minutes, and that’s what it’s going to take to be victorious”. They let an inferior team hang around.
Much like last season, when Penn State used a bevy of second-half comebacks to win the Big Ten after a 2-2 start, the Nittany Lions came through when it mattered. It’s another dynamic and electrifying player like that on the field.
Gordon scored twice that day, including on a 23-yard run in the fourth quarter that proved to be the difference in the Badgers’ 26-24 win that day. When you factor in return yardage, Barkley had a school record 358 all-purpose yards on Saturday night. Stevens’ knowledge of the offense gives him useful intelligence when it comes time to attack a defense from one of a handful of alignments. And when a game is statistically lopsided as this one was, it’s on the coaches when the score isn’t as decisive. QB Trace McSorley got his wideouts, namely DaeSean Hamilton and Saeed Blacknall, more involved against Georgia State.
Half full: Trace McSorley is a victor, clutch and a great leader. The final play, a brilliant dissection of the Iowa defense by McSorley, a pass that somehow seemed to cut right through the entire secondary, also failed to capture Barkley’s full brilliance at Kinnick Stadium in Iowa City, Iowa. On a side note, though, McSorley punting the ball after taking a knee to end the game was uncalled for.
“The most important thing is that our guys believed”, PSU coach James Franklin said. I was caught up in the moment. The Hawkeyes went for two again, but Stanley’s pass was incomplete. It can be viewed as the Chris Godwin effect.
Christian Kirk, WR, Texas A&M – The junior finally broke out thanks in part to a 81-yard TD pass from Kellen Mond in a win over Arkansas.
Defensively, the Lions overcame the loss of Torrence Brown at end, which is now a season-ending situation, but they’re still scarily vulnerable to being hurt by the big play, as was the case on Wadley’s two scores in defeat, and one still has to wonder what a capable quarterback could do, as Nate Stanley had open but missed, or saw his receivers drop, a number of wide-open passes that would have equaled first downs. Barkley already has two 1,000-yard rushing seasons. Plus, McSorley was sacked four times. “We’ve got to be ready to deal with that”.
Need More winners against the spread? But he’s earned more playing time with each passing week. If you’re not getting anywhere near as many of them, drives take longer, there’s a chance for more mistakes and defenses can game plan for one less threat. All three were from the Big Ten.
Penn State hosts IN and travels to Northwestern over the next two weeks. All season. That’s phenomenal.
But Penn State got to work from their own 20-yard line to put together what must be considered this generation’s version of “The Drive”. He delivered a good one, too.
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Jewell returned the interception 33 yards to the Penn State 21-yard line. This is the kind of stuff you dream about when you’re so little. At this point, we are starting to run out of words to describe Saquon Barkley. Both 3-0 teams are led by go-go offenses; the Horned Frogs are averaging 49 points per game, to the Cowboys’ 54.
