Penn State-Purdue Takeaways: Tyler Warren shines again for Lions
By Greg Pickel
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — Penn State became the latest team to blow out Purdue this season on Saturday. The No. 4 Nittany Lions throttled the Boilermakers 49-10 at Ross-Ade Stadium. The win improved the visitors to 9-1 while head coach Ryan Walters’ team fell to 1-9.
Here are our top takeaways from the Lions’ latest win.
Tyler Warren’s awards push continues
Tyler Warren feels like a shoo-in to win the Mackey Award, which is given to the nation’s best tight end. But, he might also be on the conversation for a number of other honors, like the Paul Hornung and Maxwell Award, even if he doesn’t win them. This game was another example of why that is the case. He did everything for Penn State yet again. The tight end rushed three times for 63 yards and a touchdown. He also caught eight passes for 126 yards, 96 of which came after the catch. The Lions’ offense runs through Warren. It has all season. And, it certainly did today. That will lead to much recognition once the regular season concludes.
How healthy is Penn State leaving town?
This will be a question we won’t get an answer to until next week. But, questions will come up. Penn State cornerback Cam Miller spent some time down on the field but returned to play and seems to be fine. Safety Tyrece Mills left the field and did not come back. The same goes for backup guard JB Nelson. Cornerback Elliot Washington II went to the locker room early before halftime and did not return. Freshman defensive end Jaylen Harvey was hurt and needed hep to get off the field in the fourth quarter. And at multiple moments, quarterback Drew Allar and safety Jaylen Reed both seemed to be dealing with injuries though neither missed any time. Everyone is banged up at this time of the year, of course. But how healthy the Lions are to start Minnesota week will be worth watching.
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Let’s talk receivers, again
While it’s true that Warren’s big day took away some opportunities in the passing game, the fact of the matter is that it jumps off the stat sheet that Penn State receivers had just three targets before the backups came in. One of them was a 46-yard scoring strike from Allar to Trey Wallace. Without that, the Lions’ receivers would have had two catches for 10 yards before the backups came in. It didn’t matter on this night. But it will be against better opponents, assuming Penn State makes the Playoff as it currently trajects to. Some of it is them not getting open. Some of it is Allar either not seeing them or not throwing to them. Either on the Wallace strike, it took a long time for Allar to find him.
Odds and ends from Penn State-Purdue
—Abdul Carter might lead the nation in creating holds not flagged. James Franklin was pretty furious on the sideline and with good reason. He still finished with a team-high five tackles (two for loss) and a quarterback hurry.
—Nick Singleton was back in the lineup after missing much of the second half last week. He carried seven times for 40 yards and a score.
–We’ll have a full recap in the redshirt report later this week but Penn State got a ton of young players reps as it hoped to.
