The statistic that jumps out at those in the know for this game is that OSU never punted the football during this game.  Here’s how it looked in the box score:

PUNTING  No.  Yds  Avg  Long  In20  TB 
Totals…     0       0   0.0   0       0      0

Now that is a bad thing if you have 10 turnovers.  But OSU only had one turnover this game.  OSU could have left A.J. Trapasso at home (but for the fact that he is now kicking the ball off at the start of the game and after the many scores from OSU’s offense (and defense, these days).

Let’s start where it always starts, the offensive line.  They did a great job Saturday night against the seventh ranked defense in college football.  This is team that rarely blitzes, yet leads the Big 10 in sacks (35).  That is one of the sure indicators that you have a great defense.  Another good indicator that you have a great defense is that you held OSU to under 40 points.  That wasn’t very hard to do early in the season when everyone was still getting used to each other, but now this offensive line is clicking and I can’t think of a defense anywhere that could stop them.

Nothing illustrates it better than this quote from a PSU DE:  “It felt like it was seven guys against five,” said Penn State defensive end Josh Gaines. 

For those of you OSU haters out there, here is another warning quote from Mr. Gaines, a man who played them rather than someone who sits in an easy chair watching the games:  “They’re a good team. I’m not going to deny them, I’m going to give them credit.”  OSU might have had an easy first 8 games, but that doesn’t mean that they are a bad team.

You have only to look at the touchdown Boeckman threw to Brian Hartline.  Though it was a pass into the flats, Alex Boone was 14 yards downfield knocking one guy into next week and pushing another guy off of the line he had chosen to pursue Hartline.  It was just enough for Hartline to get inside the endzone before going out of bounds.

This line gave Boeckman time to throw all day long and consistently opened up holes for RBs Chris Wells (133) and Maurice Wells (55).  When PSU stacked the line with 8 to 9 guys, Boeckman threw for 253 yards, getting them in big gulps down the middle. 

Speaking of talented offensive linemen, how about those OSU tight ends?  Always there for a first down or a touchdown pass.  Here’s PSU linebacker (soon to be the career leader in tackles as PSU) Dan Connor:  “That is what killed us,” said Connor. “Every single time they converted on third down.”  He also said:  ”They ran it on us and that opened up the pass, and vice versa,” added Connors. “They spread it out a little bit and hit a long pass, and that opened the run back up,” Connor said. 

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