Penn State Football: Penn State Beats Minnesota 33-21

Editor’s note: In an effort to bring readers of StateCollege.com coverage of away football games, we are partnering with student newspapers on campuses that host the Nittany Lions. The following story originally appeared on the website for The Minnesota Daily.

by Josh Katzenstein, for The Minnesota Daily.

All players on the Minnesota football team know that it’s difficult to win games with self-inflicted wounds, but they haven’t displayed that understanding in any of the past seven weeks — regardless of the coach.

The timing of the Gophers’ six penalties — two on defensive third downs — and Adam Weber’s lone interception severely hurt the Gophers in a 33-21 loss to Penn State at TCF Bank Stadium on Saturday.

“It’s tough when, as a defense, you get drives and you get off the field on third down or it’s third down and you stop them then you’ve got a flag,” senior safety Kyle Theret said. “It kind of just deflates your balloon a little bit, but as a defense — as a team — that’s when we’ve got to snap out of it, get back into it and get a stop.”

Theret had one of the two questionable third-down pass interference penalties on a second-quarter drive that resulted in the Nittany Lions (4-3, 1-2 Big Ten) taking a 14-7 lead.

A Minnesota team that’s 1-7 (0-4 Big Ten) cannot blame the referees for a loss, but in his first game as interim head coach, Jeff Horton wanted the game to be fair. The questionable penalties against the Gophers helped fuel the team’s frustration when, on the next drive, wide receiver Da’Jon McKnight fell between two defenders in the end zone and watched D’Anton Lynn intercept Adam Weber’s ill-advised pass.

Lynn returned the pick to the Minnesota 42-yard line, and Penn State took a 21-7 lead on the next play, a 42-yard pass from third-string quarterback Matt McGloin — the second attempt and first completion of his career — to wide receiver Derek Moye.

“If you’re not playing well, it seems like whenever a bad thing happens it goes against you,” Horton said. “I don’t know if I agree with everything, but I’ve got to live with it.”

Things weren’t going well for the Nittany Lions either. In the second quarter, starting quarterback freshman Rob Bolden left the game with an undisclosed injury after starting 11-for-13 for 130 yards and a touchdown. His backup, sophomore Kevin Newsome, played sparsely after being ill for most of the week, so the sophomore McGloin had to step up.

“We knew when we got the other guy (McGloin) what they were going to do,” said Theret, implying that Penn State would run more, which they did. “We shot ourselves in the foot too many times today — bottom line — as a defense.”

Horton and Theret both said they expected the Nittany Lions to take a shot after Weber’s interception, which came just four plays after Weber became the fifth player in Big Ten history to eclipse 10,000 passing yards in a career.

But the secondary wasn’t deep enough, and Moye was wide open for the first of his two touchdown catches of the day. He finished with three catches for 81 yards, but wasn’t the best receiver on the field.

That title goes to the Gophers’ junior McKnight, who had eight catches for 103 yards and all three of the team’s touchdowns. Sophomore MarQueis Gray added seven catches for 83 yards and junior running back DeLeon Eskridge ran 26 times for 111 yards.

But it wasn’t enough. Minnesota out-gained Penn State 433 yards to 351. The Gophers also controlled the ball for seven more minutes and had nine more first downs, but it wasn’t enough.

“The game’s not always about statistics,” said Weber, who finished 26-for-49 for 299 yards, three touchdowns and that critical interception. “It’s those crucial third downs we didn’t pick up. We were pretty good, but when it mattered in critical situations, we weren’t able to make the big play, and that’s kind of been the story of our season.”

The two stories for the Gophers this season — aside from Tim Brewster’s firing last week — have been an inability to convert on third down and tackle. Minnesota converted just five of 16 third downs and misfired on three of five fourth downs, all of which came in Penn State territory.

Missed tackles also helped pad the Penn State running backs stats. Senior Evan Royster ran 10 times for 63 yards and true freshman Silas Redd went for a career-high 73 yards on just nine carries.

Theret said tackling is a “want to,” and most times, the first guy to the ball carrier didn’t want to make the tackle on Saturday before the smallest crowd in TCF Bank Stadium history (48,479 announced).

“If we don’t shoot ourselves in the foot today, we think that’s a totally different outcome in that ball game,” Theret said. “But the bottom line is we did, so we’re 1-7.”

Related coverage from The Minnesota Daily

• Paterno’s longevity represents what Gophers lack (Oct. 21, 2010)

• Horton, Gophers got nothin’ to lose (Oct. 20, 2010)

• Brewster out after sixth loss (Oct. 18, 2010)