|
Penn State pounds Huskers
Ray Parrillo
Knight Ridder Newspapers
STATE COLLEGE, PA.– Joe Paterno warned that one big victory, even one against a team consistently ranked in the top 10, wouldn’t mean his Penn State football team had righted all the wrongs from the last two disastrous seasons.
The way the Nittany Lions manhandled No. 8 Nebraska on Saturday night before a record crowd of 110,753 at Beaver Stadium, you have to wonder.
Playing with supreme precision on offense, and with a nasty edge on defense that was missing during back-to-back losing seasons, Penn State (2-0) erupted for three touchdowns in the third quarter and ran away from the Cornhuskers (3-1), 40-7.
“I thought we had a chance to win,” Paterno said. “But anyone who thought we’d win by this much is nuts. Everything went our way.”
For Penn State, it was a night for the quarterbacks. The starter, redshirt sophomore Zack Mills, used his arm and sleight of hand to amass 291 yards, completing 19 of 31 passes for 259 of them. His remarkable execution of the option left Nebraska wondering what might come next as the Nittany Lions exploded for 476 yards of total offense.
The backup quarterback, redshirt freshman Michael Robinson, is too talented an athlete to keep on the sideline. To the surprise of the Cornhuskers, Robinson ran out of the backfield for touchdown runs of 8 and 11 yards in the big third quarter, when Penn State expanded a 13-7 halftime lead to 33-7.
“Michael can do a lot of things,” Paterno said. “He’s an awfully strong runner, and he’s ready to play quarterback. I’m smart enough to know that when you have a guy as gifted as Robinson, you get him in the game.”
Meantime, the Nittany Lions’ defense, a glaring weakness the last two seasons, choked off Nebraska’s option attack with an emotional effort, consistently surrounding the ballcarriers with several tacklers, including linebackers Derek Wake and LaMar Stewart and strong safety Shawn Mayer.
“That’s the most aggressive we’ve been in a while,” Paterno said.
Throughout the first half, which ended with Penn State in front by 13-7, the Nittany Lions kept the Cornhuskers’ defense off balance with a clever mixture of passing and running and a bit of trickery, using Robinson in the role of running back and flanker.
They came out throwing and throwing, and Mills was at his finest, passing for 205 yards, completing 15 of 25, and brilliantly executing the option despite a consistent pounding by onrushing Huskers.
“Mills is a talented athlete, and he can hurt you if you let him do certain things,” Paterno said.
But when the Lions jogged off the field for the halftime break to deafening applause, they knew they should have had more than a six-point lead.
Playing with supreme confidence, Mills guided the Nittany Lions 80 yards on eight plays, the final an option pitch to Larry Johnson for a 7-yard touchdown that broke a scoreless tie early in the second quarter.
Paterno pulled a surprise when he sent Robinson into the game during the first series. Robinson was used as a decoy on a fake reverse after he lined up at wide receiver.
|
|
|
|
|
|
