Nittany Lions Get Back to Basics

Penn State learned its lesson and made Purdue pay for it.

“We had to go out there and establish a running game. It’s Big Ten football, and you have to run the ball, like Michigan did on us,” said Curtis Enis, whose four touchdowns led the No. 6 Nittany Lions over No. 19 Purdue, 42-17, Saturday at West Lafayette, Ind.

A week earlier, top-ranked Michigan embarrassed Penn State, 34-8, the worst home loss in Joe Paterno’s 32 years as coach.

“Regardless of how you get it done, you have to make sure you keep the ground game positive. The pass game will come off that ground game,” said Enis, who rushed for 186 yards and three touchdowns and caught a 67-yard touchdown pass from Mike McQueary.

The victory gave Penn State, 8-1 overall and 5-1 in the Big Ten, a slim chance for a share of the Big Ten title and a trip to the Rose Bowl, depending in part on Michigan’s showdown next week with Ohio State. Purdue (7-3, 5-2) was eliminated from Rose Bowl contention, but a victory next week over Indiana would likely clinch a bid to a bowl game, the Boilermakers’ first since 1984.

“For us, we just wanted to go out and prove to people that we’re still a good football team, regardless of what happened last week,” Enis said.

“We have to understand everybody’s a critic. We have to stay within ourselves. We’re a close-knit team . . . we’re a family. We just care about how we feel about each other . . . and not worry about what everybody else says about us, because we know we’re a good team.”

The Boilermakers, who scored 12 points in the final two minutes to beat Michigan State a week earlier, trailed by 11 on Saturday and were poised for another comeback after scoring on Billy Dicken’s second touchdown pass early in the fourth quarter. They threatened on the next series before Jason Collins intercepted a pass at the Penn State nine and returned it 53 yards.

It took only three plays for Penn State to score, and a 29-yard touchdown run by Enis with 7:20 remaining put the game out of reach. Maurice Daniels intercepted Dicken’s pass and returned it 27 yards for the final touchdown with just over three minutes to go.

“As I told the players after the game, the bad news was we didn’t finish the game off like we wanted to,” Purdue Coach Joe Tiller said. “The good news is we go on the road next week and can demonstrate the kind of football team we are.”

Enis had a career-high 269 all-purpose yards.