Penn State defense trying to put blowout loss to Irish behind it
STATE COLLEGE, Pa. (AP) – Minutes after Penn State suffered its worst loss in three years, Paul Posluszny was trying to look ahead. There wasn’t much for the All-American linebacker to dwell on after the Fighting Irish routed the Nittany Lions.
Mistakes piled up and snowballed. Turnovers proved costly. Notre Dame’s offense ran up points against a Penn State defense employing seven different starters from last season.
“The thing about this loss is that we did so many things that helped them out,” Posluszny said following Saturday’s 41-17 defeat. “We made a lot of simple mistakes that we normally don’t make, but this loss won’t be hard to put behind us.”
AP Top 25 poll voters dropped the Nittany Lions six spots to No. 25 in the poll released Sunday. It was Penn State’s worst loss since a 41-10 defeat at Michigan State on Nov. 22, 2003.
Coach Joe Paterno now must ready his team for Division I-AA Youngstown State on Saturday at Beaver Stadium before preparing for another tough road contest the following week at top-ranked Ohio State.
“That’s my job,” Paterno said. “Go home, go to work, keep our heads up, keep our mouths shut. Let’s see if we can get better.”
The Nittany Lions haven’t beaten a ranked opponent on the road since a 34-31 win at No. 19 Wisconsin on Oct. 5, 2002.
Notre Dame’s Heisman hopeful, quarterback Brady Quinn, was 12-of-16 passing for 150 yards and two touchdowns in the second quarter alone. The Irish scored on all six of their red-zone chances in the game.
The middle opened up as Quinn found tight end John Carlson down the seams and Darius Walker out of the backfield for completions, with some of those plays eluding Posluszny.
By halftime, Notre Dame’s offense had run nearly twice as many plays (45) as Penn State (23).
That made for a tired Penn State defense. Posluszny said he even asked out for one play on the final drive of the second quarter to catch his breath.
“Pos” finished with 12 tackles to move him into fourth place on the Penn State career tackle list with 275. Dennis Onkontz is third on the list with 287 tackles.
When asked if Posluszny was a step slower than last year, Paterno said he thought his star linebacker played “pretty darn good” considering Notre Dame’s attack.
“Got tired. Had the ball so long,” Paterno said. “We asked him to do so darn many things.”
Posluszny has said that he is fine after spending the offseason rehabilitating from a serious right knee injury sustained in the Orange Bowl in January.
The defensive line, which had some success in the opener against Akron with linebacker Tim Shaw playing rush end, also tired against the Irish. Senior tackle Ed Johnson registered the line’s only sack and a tipped pass.
Penn State also came agonizingly close to a couple of potentially momentum-changing interceptions, including one nearly picked off by safety Anthony Scirrotto on third-and-14 deep in Nittany Lion territory. The Irish ended up settling for a field goal on the next play.
Despite the score, there were a couple of bright spots. Penn State managed 158 yards on the ground, including 74 from Tony Hunt, after Paterno targeted his offensive line for a poor showing in the season opener.
New quarterback Anthony Morelli had good spurts in his second career start, though most of the attention might have been on his botched option pitch that led to a turnover and on a deep heave down the field that was intercepted in the third quarter.
“You just try to put it behind you and move on to the next play,” Morelli said.