Penn State ran for 269 yards and held the ball for more than 43 minutes in a 31-17 win over Purdue on Halloween night. The 3-5 Boilermakers return home to host Maryland for Homecoming.
Three weeks ago, Purdue was 3-3 and riding a two-game Big Ten winning streak. After Saturday night in Happy Valley, the Boilermakers are 3-5 and running out of time.
Penn State (4-4, 1-4 Big Ten) snapped a four-game losing streak with a 31-17 win at Beaver Stadium, giving Matt Campbell his first Big Ten victory as the Nittany Lions’ head coach. Penn State ran for 269 yards after coming into Saturday as one of the worst rushing offenses in the conference. Dominating the time of possession battle 43:27 to 16:33 helped keep Purdue (3-5, 2-3 Big Ten) out of the red zone all night. This Nittany Lions win marks 12 straight in the series, as Purdue hasn’t beaten Penn State since the “Malice at the Palace” happened.
“Offensively, we couldn’t get anything going all night,” Barry Odom said after the game. “I’ve always said it: if we can’t run the ball, we’re going to struggle offensively.”
How Penn State Pulled Away in Happy Valley
Penn State set the tone on its first possession. Carson Hansen broke off a 42-yard run, and when Purdue’s defense forced a fourth-and-7 in the red zone, Campbell called a fake field goal, a shovel pass to tight end Ben Brahmer that went for 13 yards. Two plays later, Rocco Becht hit tight end Andrew Rappleyea from four yards out to finish a 12-play, 96-yard drive.
Purdue answered right away. Ryan Browne found a streaking Asaad Waseem down the sideline for 38 yards, then scrambled right and threw off his back foot to Xavier Townsend for a 33-yard touchdown to tie it 7-7. It turned out to be the only touchdown Purdue’s offense scored all night.
On the Nittany Lions’ next possession, Cam Wallace’s 48-yard run set up a 6-yard Becht touchdown run, and Penn State led 14-7 after one quarter. Purdue’s special teams tied it with 8:52 left in the half. Bisi Owens got a hand on Nathan Tiyce’s punt, and Jalil Hall scooped it up and went 31 yards for the score. It was Purdue’s first blocked punt returned for a touchdown since Mike Conway did it in the 2008 season opener against Northern Colorado.
Penn State answered when Hansen scored from a yard out on fourth down with 1:39 left in the first half, sending the Nittany Lions into halftime up 21-14. They held the ball for 22:05 of the first 30 minutes.
The second half belonged to Penn State’s defense, which held Browne to 2-of-14 passing for 30 yards and two interceptions. Jamison Patton’s interception at midfield set up Ryan Barker’s 44-yard field goal. With 9:23 left in the game, Wallace’s 2-yard touchdown run pushed the score to 31-14. Jacobo Echeverria Lozano’s 49-yard field goal, a new career long for the true freshman, closed the scoring for the game.
Purdue Loses the Line of Scrimmage…Again
This one was supposed to come down to which team could run the ball. Purdue’s ground game had been hit or miss in Big Ten play, and Penn State hadn’t topped 100 rushing yards since its conference opener against Wisconsin.
The Nittany Lions blew past that by halftime. Wallace ran for a career-high 135 yards on 22 carries, Hansen added 96 yards and a score, and Penn State finished with 269 rushing yards, its most since September 19 against Buffalo. Becht went 16-of-24 passing for 175 yards and a touchdown without Penn State’s top two receivers, Chase Sowell and Koby Howard.
“On the line of scrimmage, we did not play well enough on either side,” Odom said.
Purdue’s run game, meanwhile, has disappeared. The Boilermakers ran 15 times for 33 yards against a Penn State rush defense that ranked near the bottom in the conference, with Fame Ijeboi held to 20 yards on 11 carries. Ijeboi has just 39 yards on 24 carries since his 196-yard night against Minnesota. The whole offense has gone in reverse, from 464 yards against the Gophers to 371 against Washington to a season-low 175 at Penn State, where Purdue went 2-of-11 on third down.
The defense that held Illinois and Minnesota to 30 points combined is starting to feel like a fluke, too. Purdue now ranks last in the Big Ten in total defense, has allowed a conference-high 45 plays of 20 yards or more, and lets opponents convert 47.3% of their third downs, placing them 128th out of 138 FBS teams. Curt Neal’s two sacks were one of the few bright spots.
Special Teams Keep Purdue in It
The blocked punt wasn’t a one-off. Special teams has been Purdue’s most reliable phase all season, and it was again Saturday.
Echeverria Lozano hit from 49, and Dylan Drennan dropped three of his five punts inside the 20. Add it up, and special teams accounted for 10 of Purdue’s 17 points.
“Coach Shibest and the two guys that work with him, they do a great job every single week giving us what they feel like is an advantage, either in the punt game or tonight in the punt return,” Odom said of special teams coordinator James Shibest.
Looking Ahead: Purdue Hosts Maryland for Homecoming
A bowl game is still possible on paper, but Purdue would need to win three of its last four, with two of those being on the road. The bigger goal for the final month is finishing strong. In a sport where rosters get built through the transfer portal every winter, how Purdue plays in November will shape how its own players, recruits, and prospective transfers see where the program is headed in year three under Coach Odom. Here’s what’s left:
- Saturday, Nov. 7: vs. Maryland (Homecoming)
- Saturday, Nov. 14: at Iowa
- Saturday, Nov. 21: vs. Wisconsin
- Saturday, Nov. 28: at Indiana (Old Oaken Bucket)
He also believes the foundation is already stronger than it was a year ago, when Purdue went winless in Big Ten play.
“We’re light years ahead of where we were last year at this time,” Odom said. “But I also know this is a results driven business. I get that, and we all want the wins to come faster than they are.”
What to Watch For Against Maryland
Maryland (2-6, 0-5 Big Ten) shows up in worse shape. The Terrapins have lost six straight, and Mike Locksley is gone after he and the school parted ways Oct. 21, days after a 37-30 homecoming loss to Rutgers. Interim coach Aazaar Abdul-Rahim lost his debut Saturday when Illinois hit a 26-yard field goal as time expired for a 20-17 win in College Park.
The series is tied 2-2, with every meeting coming since 2006. Purdue has won the last two, a 40-14 Homecoming rout at Ross-Ade in 2019, played in uniforms made to look like astronaut suits, and a 31-29 win in College Park in 2022 that helped send the Boilermakers to the Big Ten Championship Game. Purdue opens as a 6.5-point favorite for Saturday’s game on Big Ten Network at 12:30 p.m. ET. Bisi Owens, a Cooksville, Md. native, gets a shot at his home-state school a week after his blocked punt.
The biggest thing to watch is Browne. After throwing one interception through Purdue’s first six games, he has thrown four in the last two. Maryland’s Malik Washington, who threw for nearly 3,000 yards as a true freshman last year, is a second-year starter still looking for his own breakout.
Purdue’s preseason win total was set at 3.5. A Homecoming win would clear it and give this team something to build on for the final three weeks.
