Tom Allen and the Hoosiers were unable to capitalize on a primetime opportunity in Happy Valley to take down their first ranked opponent and their first Big Ten opponent of the 2021 season. The Hoosiers were defeated handedly by the Nittany Lions in a 0-24 loss, while also being in front of a sell out crowd that counted over 100,000.
On an evening filled with white in the stands, the road team just simply could not create any momentum for themselves, despite having a number of scoring opportunities including an interception by Raheem Layne that put the Hoosiers at the Penn State 13-yard line and a Jack Tuttle drive to field goal range in the third quarter.
Each attempt came up empty for the Hoosiers.
The bad news this evening was headlined by Indiana potentially losing their starting quarterback Michael Penix Jr. for an extended period of time. In the third quarter, Penix went down with an apparent shoulder injury. He suffered the injury on busted pocket protection that resulted in a one-yard loss for the Hoosiers. The junior, who had suffered a number of season-ending injuries in his career at Indiana, would not return for the rest of the game and was replaced by quarterback Jack Tuttle.
Penix finished his night with 118 yards on 10 of 22 throwing. He had one interception.
Picking up where Penix left off, Tuttle looked decent in his first drive on the field. Tuttle hit 3 of 5 passes for 58 yards getting Indiana into field goal territory; however, on a night where nothing was going right for the Hoosiers, the field goal attempt by Campbell was blocked by Penn State’s special teams.
Tuttle wrapped up his evening with 77 yards on 6 of 12 throwing, and he also had one interception in the game.
Next Up: Michigan State in Bloomington
After a one week break, the Hoosiers will have an opportunity to play for a home crowd once again on October 16. The Hoosiers will host No. 17 Michigan State, who is coming off of a win against a mutual opponent Western Kentucky. The undefeated Spartans have accumulated impressive wins against Miami, Northwestern, and Nebraska.
Featured Photo: IndianaHQ (Collin Ebel)