Indiana needs near perfection to stop No. 4 PSU

STATE COLLEGE » Although No. 4 Penn State needed a touchdown pass in the final seconds last week to keep its dream of a playoff berth alive, the down-to-the-wire game hasn’t shaken the Nittany Lions’ confidence.

“We consider ourselves the best offense in the country,” lineman Ryan Bates said. “We know how special we can be with the offensive threats we have.”

The top two among them, running back Saquon Barkley and quarterback Trace McSorley, have been focal points for opposing coaches for a while now. It’s no different for Indiana coach Tom Allen whose Hoosiers (2-1, 0-1 Big Ten) will try to slow the Nittany Lions (4-0, 1-0 Big Ten) at Beaver Stadium on Saturday.

Allen has seen plenty of Barkley and McSorley in the past week and knows his banged-up defense will have to have a near perfect game plan to take away Penn State’s best options.

Barkley racked up 358 yards on 43 touches against Iowa and leads the country with 253 all-purpose yards per game.

“(Barkley’s) making runs that are impressive, and he can catch the ball out of the backfield,” Allen said. “and the quarterback is just, man, McSorley is just special. He’s just got that moxie that you want in a quarterback and that core confidence and that belief.”

It showed up when McSorley led a final two-minute drive ending with a dart over the middle to Juwan Johnson for the game-winning touchdown.

Even though he had his offense replicate the two-minute drive in practice, Penn State coach James Franklin would rather not have to watch another comefrom-behind series. He’s glad his team has the experience to bank on, however.

“We’ve just got to be a little bit better,” Franklin said. “We’ve got to be a little bit sharper. We’ve got to sustain blocks a little bit longer. That was probably the difference.”