Game Preview: Penn State vs. Indiana

Audio/Story posted November 14, 2019 in CommRadio, Sports by Andrew Field

Host Logan Bourandas and analysts Gabe Angieri, Ben Serfass, and Matt McClure look ahead to Penn State's next matchup against the newly ranked Indiana Hoosiers. They discuss both sides and give game predctions for the upcoming game:

Penn State suffered its first defeat last week against Minnesota, coming up short in a 31-26 score. The Nittany Lions fell to No. 9 in the College Football Playoff rankings and now face yet another team coming off the bye week in Indiana as the Hoosiers come to Beaver Stadium on Saturday.

The Hoosiers are 7-2 on the season and 4-2 in Big Ten play as they are tied for third in the Big Ten East with Michigan. Their only two losses came to Ohio State and Michigan State, both on the road. Indiana is on a four-game winning streak and is coming off of conference wins against Maryland, Rutgers, Nebraska, and Northwestern.

Indiana have never won in Beaver Stadium and the last time the Hoosiers beat the Nittany Lions was 2013 in Bloomington during the Bill O’Brien era by a score of 44-24. A majority of the games played at Indiana are close and have come down to the wire but when the Hoosiers come into Beaver Stadium, something changes.

Tom Allen, the Hoosiers head coach, spoke in his weekly press conference about the mindset he expects of his team coming into the game.

“If you don’t believe that we can go to Penn State and win at Penn State for the first time in program history, then don’t get on the bus,” Allen said.

Indiana’s starting quarterback Michael Penix Jr. is out with a season ending injury as junior quarterback Peyton Ramsey will take the reigns. Ramsey is an experienced player who’s thrown for 1,302 yards with nine touchdowns and three interceptions on the season. Ramsey was the starting quarterback for the Hoosiers last year so losing Penix means that there’s no drop off in leadership.

Sean Clifford is coming off a career high three interceptions against Minnesota. Before that game, he had three total interceptions on the season. One of the keys to success on the season that James Franklin was pleased with was the fact that the Nittany Lions haven’t turned over the ball and that Clifford made smart decisions with running and passing options. If the Nittany Lions want to get back on track, they’ll have to take care of the ball.

The status of Noah Cain has been questioned over the past couple weeks. The freshman from Louisiana did not play against Minnesota and it will be interesting to see how many carries he will get against the IU defense. Journey Brown stepped up in Cain’s absence for a career high 124 rushing yards and two touchdowns.

The Penn State wide receivers had multiple drops and penalties that defused the comeback efforts. Players like Justin Shorter and Daniel George had particularly rough days so it will be key for them to bounce back and give Clifford more viable options in the passing game.

Penn State will use the Minnosta loss as fuel to power them past Indiana this week. The Hoosiers will put up a fight, but the Nittany Lions defense will be too much as they get back to being 1-0.

Prediction: Penn State 31, Indiana 17

 

 

Andrew Field is a junior majoring in broadcast journalism. To contact him, email aaf5329@psu.edu.