Game Day Primer: Indiana vs. No. 10 Penn State
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Written By T.J. Inman (@TJHoosierHuddle)
What: Penn State Nittany Lions at Indiana Hoosiers
When: Saturday, November 12 at Noon
Where: Memorial Stadium in Bloomington, Indiana
How to Watch: The game will be broadcast on ABC/ESPN2. You can also listen to the game on the IU Radio Network with the legendary Don Fischer on the call.
What’s at Stake: The Penn State Nittany Lions are 7-2 and they’ve won five straight contests to vault themselves into the top ten in the College Football Playoff rankings. If they win out, they will have a shot at being selected for the Capital One Orange Bowl and they’ll have a surprising ten-win season that will give the program more positive momentum than it has had in a long time. The Indiana Hoosiers have won back-to-back Big Ten contests to put themselves at 5-4, just one win away from bowl eligibility. Penn State is the third top ten opponent the Hoosiers will have battled this season (with one more to go) and they are looking for their second win of the season over a ranked opponent.
A Few Things to Look For
A True Feature Back
There are very few true “feature backs” left in football. Saquon Barkley is one of those few and the Penn State Nittany Lions will try to get the ball in his hands as much as possible. On the season, Barkley has 167 carries for 1,055 yards (6.3 yards per carry) and 11 touchdowns. No other Penn State running back has more than 21 carries (Mark Allen has 21, Miles Sanders has 15). Quarterback Trace McSorley will scramble some and they will run a few designed keepers for him but, for the most part, the Penn State rushing attack will rely on the supreme talent of Saquon Barkley. He is leading the Big Ten in rushing and IU’s run defense will have its hands full. Barkley started slowly but he has caught fire in the past four weeks, rushing for 202 yards, 99 yards, 207 yards and 167 yards. The Nittany Lions offense is at its best when Barkley is churning out yards and setting up the deep passing game for McSorley. Trace McSorley is only completing 55.6% of his attempts but he’s thrown for more than 2,000 yards with 14 touchdowns and only three interceptions. Seven Nittany Lions have receptions of more than 40 yards this season so they’ll hit big pass plays if the running game can set up the pass. If the Hoosiers are to be successful on Saturday, they’ll need to slow down the likely Big Ten Offensive Player of the Year.
Hold the Line
The offensive line play for the Indiana Hoosiers this season has been very inconsistent. They’ve had stretches of good play mixed in with stretches of head-scratching holding penalties, an inability to run block and untimely false starts. Kevin Wilson called out the line and the tight ends for poor blocking in Saturday’s victory at Rutgers and he made it clear they’ll need to be better this Saturday. Penn State’s pass-rush is on fire. They are second in the conference in sacks with 27 (three per game) and they have 18 sacks in the past three games. Their run defense has been equally impressive in the past few games as they held Iowa to 1.2 yards per rush, Purdue to 1.8 yards per rush and a very good OSU offense to 4.2 yards per carry. The Hoosiers will need to be wary of Garrett Sickels (5 sacks, 8.5 TFLs), Evan Schwan (4 sacks, 5 TFLs) and Kevin Givens (3 sacks, 4.5 TFLs) when Richard Lagow drops back to pass and it would be extremely beneficial if the Hoosiers could figure out a way to generate a consistent running game.
A Tough Opponent but Reasons for Hope
The Nittany Lions are currently riding a five-game winning streak and they have as much positive momentum as they can possibly have entering this contest. However, there are some reasons for the Hoosiers to be at least somewhat hopeful this Saturday. PSU’s winning streak has come by beating Minnesota (in OT), Maryland, Ohio State and Iowa at home. The Ohio State game was a statistical fluke that PSU was fortunate to win and Minnesota played the Nittany Lions to a standstill. Their only road game in this winning streak was a contest at Purdue, a game they were tied in at halftime. PSU is a good team but I’d be lying if I wrote that I believed they were truly the tenth best team in the country. The Nittany Lions are deservedly favored on Saturday but they are not the overwhelming force that IU will face next Saturday in Ann Arbor and if IU plays a solid, clean game, they’ll have a chance to pull off a big upset.
Names to Know and Injury Notes:
-The Indiana Hoosiers are going for their third straight Big Ten victory, something that hasn’t occurred since 1993 (they went 8-4).
-Indiana’s secondary will be tested by a couple of very good deep threats and a dangerous tight end on Saturday. The top target is Chris Godwin (34 catches, 509 yards, 5 TDs, average of 15 yards per catch) but DeAndre Thompkins and DaeSean Hamilton are also quite dangerous. Mike Gesicki has had a consistent season, catching between 3 and 5 passes in all but two games this season. Saquon Barkley will catch the occasional screen pass and attempt to turn that into big yards but they’d been reticent to use him for anything other than traditional handoffs.