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Penn State 35, Purdue 31: What Twitter Had to Say

How did Twitter react to Penn State’s season opener at Purdue?

By Marty Leap
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NCAA Football: Penn State at Purdue Trevor Ruszkowski-USA TODAY Sports

On Penn State’s second series of the night true freshman Nick Singleton was at running back. On series three it was Kaytron Allen. It did not take long for the true freshmen to impress the fan base.

Moving froward, Singleton and Allen need to be getting the majority of the touches at running back. It is already clear that they are head and shoulders above the other running backs on the roster talent wise, as evident by a 2nd down run by Keyvone Lee in the 2nd quarter when he lacked the burst to hit a hole that would have likely led to an easy first down with Singleton or Allen in the game.

With Penn State trailing 3-0 in the 2nd quarter Mitchell Tinsley hauled in a Sean Clifford pass and scampered into the end zone. It was a play of firsts. It was Tinsley first catch and touchdown as a Nittany Lion, as well as Penn State’s first touchdown of the game and 2022 season.

In the first half there were some interesting moments for the Penn State defense. This included a dropped would be pick-6 by Joey Porter Jr. that resulted in a Purdue reception for a first down, eventually leading to a Boilermaker field goal.

Later in the half, true freshman Abdul Carter made his collegiate debut. After garnering praise throughout fall camp and being given the legendary no. 11 at linebacker, Carter was ready to make an impact. Well, on his first play Carter made an aggressive, violent, all around great football play. Leading with his shoulder, Carter hit a Purdue receiver in the shoulder as he went after a ball that had not yet been ruled a fumble or incomplete pass. Well, after a review Carter was wrongly called for targeting and ejected from the game.

Worst of all, the penalty sparked a drive that resulted in a Purdue touchdown.

Right before the half Zakee Wheatley forced a fumble that Porter Jr. recovered. Not only id this thwart what looked like a potential Purdue scoring drive, it led to a long touchdown strike from Clifford to Brenton Strange right before the half to give the Nittany Lions a 21-10 lead at the break.

The second half got off to a terrible start for Penn State. Sean Clifford missed a series due to an apparent back issue, Purdue scored the first 14 points of the half, and the Nittany Lion offense looks dead in the water as they trailed 24-21.

Well, early in the 4th quarter KeAndre Lambert-Smith made up for multiple drops earlier in the game by hauling in a pass from Clifford, and then proceeding to take a tackler miss before running past the Purdue defense for a 29-yard touchdown to give the Nittany Lions a 28-24 lead.

Late in the game with Penn State leading 28-24 the Nittany Lions were a scoring drive away from icing the game. With Tinsley wide open in Purdue territory it appeared the Nittany Lions were on the brink of putting themselves in position to pull off such a drive. Well, Clifford made a god awful throw to overthrow Tinsley resulting in a go-ahead pick-6 for Purdue. We don’t want to harp on Cliff too much, so we’ll simply present this Stewart Mandel Tweet that all Penn State fans can relate to.

In the final minutes of the game Clifford led one of the best drives you will ever see. This drive results in the Nittany Lions taking a 35-31 lead with less than a minutes to go. Enjoy it, Nittany Lions fans.

After Clifford’s touchdown led drive, the Nittany Lions were able to get a big defensive stop. It was capped off by a Chop Robinson sack as the clock expired.

It was not easy, but Penn State is 1-0. That’s all the matter and it’s made better by them being 1-0 in Big Ten play. A bad Ohio team is next up for the Nittany Lions before they head to Auburn.

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