Penn State Football: 3 reasons Nittany Lions beat Indiana

1. Penn State remembers last year

Publicly the Nittany Lions will stick with James Franklin’s “1-0” mantra and saying they do not believe in revenge games. But deep down, this group really, really wants to beat Indiana.

Everyone remembers what happened last season in Bloomington. Michael Penix scored a controversial two point conversion in overtime to upset Penn State. The Hoosier win sent their season skyrocketing and they finished 6-2. Penn State’s season, on the other hand, nose dived as they started 0-5 en route to a 4-5 finish.

While what is in the past cannot be reversed, there is a little extra motivation and juice for Penn State. They absolutely do not want to lose to Indiana again, especially in front of the Beaver Stadium crowd where they have never lost to the Hoosiers. The Nittany Lions own a 22-2 advantage in the series dating back to their entrance to the Big Ten in 1993.

Speaking of juice the crowd will likely be extra “juiced” with this being another night game, a 7:30 PM kickoff. Instead of a White Out, Penn State fans will be doing a Stripe Out.

Penn State will be looking to get Penix off his game and not have this one come down to a referee’s decision. In two wins this year, Penix has thrown for 443 yards, scored four touchdowns and had zero turnovers. In the Hoosiers two losses,  he has 380 yards, scored two touchdowns but has turned over the ball a whopping six times. The Nittany Lion defense will look to create turnovers and turn those into points of their own.