PSU 44 - Minnesota 14

Minnesota won the toss, and elected to receive. PSU kicked off, with their starting running back Maroney returning to the Minnesota 15. PSU's defense quickly forced a punt, and PSU's offense went to work, holding the ball over 4 minutes on a touchdown drive that featured 9 runs and only 2 pass attempts.

Penn State had a great first half, taking a 20-0 lead before allowing a 49 yard TD pas with a minute and a half to go in the 2nd quarter. Minnesota's other five drives featured 3 3 and outs, one fumble, and one missed field goal. Penn State drove down to attempt a 51 yard field goal as time expired in the half, but just missed wide right.

At the half, Penn State found itself up a little better than 3:2 in time of possession, a stat they found themselves on the bad side of a 2:1 ratio, or 40 minutes held by Northwestern and only 20 by Penn State. The first half touchdowns were runs by freshman receiver Derrick Williams.

Minnesota opened the second half by kicking off, and for the first time in three years, did not onside kick the opening kickoff, which they had done the last two years to open the game, recovering both. But the third quarter belonged to Penn State, scoring 17 points on the strength of 2 touchdowns by Tony Hunt and a 3rd field goal by Kevin Kelly. Score 37-7. The third quarter saw both Hunt and PSU QB Michael Robinson top the 100 yard mark rushing the ball.

Minnesota scored early in the fourth quarter, after barely (by the nose of the football) converting a fourth down. Penn State came right back down the field, run after run, with Robinson coming out in favor of Morelli with 7 minutes to go. Morelli directed the rest of the drive, ending in a 10 yard TD run by Rodney Kinlaw.

Minnesota drove down again, but was picked off in the endzone by Penn State with 2 minutes remaining, final score 44-14 Penn State over #18 Minnesota, taking the lions 5-0 on the season for the first time since 1999, and extending their overall winning streak to 7 games dating back to last season. The win was Paterno's 348th as Head Coach, making 350 now very makeable this season with 6 games remaining.

All told, PSU held the ball for 35:18, or a heck of a lot better than the 20:12 the week before. This was a complete win for PSU, the first real complete win this year. (yes, they beat Central Michigan 40-3, but they turned the ball over 3 times that game) They now must get ready to host Ohio State next saturday night -- Ohio State was off this week, something Penn State won't see until their 10th game on November 5, where they get a week off before playing Michigan State.

AP recap can be found here on foxsports.com. This win should vault PSU into the rankings, and with the losses by #18 Minnesota, #11 Michigan State, #22 Purdue, #23 Iowa State, #5 Florida, and #14 Arizona State, PSU could jump in to the lower teens, like Wisconsin and Minnesota had last week, after their wins over Michigan and Purdue, respectively. One would expect Michigan to break back in, even at 3-2, after beating #11 Michigan State. Today should surely improve in the computer rankings as well.

Beefcake has pointed out that PSU ranks unseemly high in some of the computer polls, as high as #1 in two different ones and #5 in another after the Minnesota win.