Penn State football gets tune-up opportunity vs. ailing Purdue in Week 6

After a dominant performance last Friday, Penn State football heads back to Happy Valley to take on the Purdue Boilermakers.

The Penn State Nittany Lions are 4-0 (1-0 Big Ten) and fresh off a big-time win in their conference opener where they dismantled the Maryland Terrapins. They’re starting to gain the attention from everyone in the college football world.

Their offense hasn’t missed a step despite the departures from a season ago, and their defense is not only one of the best the program has had in recent years but also one of the best in the nation this season.

The Purdue Boilermakers’ season has been flat-out disappointing. Purdue is 1-3, but it should be 3-1 or 2-2. While dropping games to Nevada, TCU and Minnesota, the Boilermakers’ only win came against Vanderbilt in Week 2. Rondale Moore, who is one of the country’s top players, has been contained the past two weeks as well as injured, which has exposed Purdue and made it vulnerable to defeat.

Penn State looks to continue its momentum, while Purdue looks to pick up another desperate, upset win in this Week 6 Big Ten matchup.

Here’s how you can watch Saturday’s game between Penn State and Purdue:

Date: Saturday, Oct. 5
Time: 12 p.m. ET
Location: State College, Penn.
Venue: Beaver Stadium
TV: ESPN
Live Stream: WatchESPN

Keys to Victory

The Penn State Nittany Lions need to stay humble and continue doing what they’re doing. Despite a rainy game versus Pitt, Penn State has been phenomenal in all three aspects of the game. Last week, Penn State went to KJ Hamler early and often so expect the same to start off this game.

On defense, Penn State needs to pressure the quarterback. If it can do that, it could have another shutout on the resume.

For the Purdue Boilermakers, their offense needs to find a way to put the ball in Moore’s hands, but he may not even play. Throw it to him, hand it to him, heck, even snap it to him but they will need all the Moore they can get to keep up with this Penn State team — so this might be a losing situation.

Defensively, Purdue can’t make any mistakes as this Penn State offense has plenty of weapons to use. Aside from Maryland, Penn State has been one of the worst teams on third downs, so Purdue needs to work on putting them in tough third-down situations.

Betting Odds

Odds courtesy of Bovada

Point Spread: Penn State -28.5
Over/under: 55.5

Prediction

This isn’t Ohio State and Purdue from last year. The atmosphere of this game does not match what that game had last year and will many napping or changing the channel halfway through. The “Lawnboys” (yes, I said it and I love it) will total over 200 yards on the ground and will open up the pass game for Sean Clifford who has been impressive in his first year as the starting quarterback. Hamler could score one of the ground, through the air and via the punt return game as Penn State KOs Purdue.

Final Score: Penn State 55, Purdue 17