With their Big Ten schedule looming, don't look for Joe Paterno and Penn State to be too fired up about running away from Temple in Happy Valley today.
Penn State has had trouble covering huge lines this season because their offensive line is having trouble running the ball, which is something they'll try to do with a huge lead late in a game.
The Nittany Lions have averaged just 3.9 yards per rushing play behind an offensive line that lost two All-Americans and an All-Big Ten performer from last season. Quarterback Daryll Clark is performing well with his new group of receivers and Temple is sub-par in pass defense, so the Lions ought to be able to score early to build a lead. They just probably won't be able to run up the score with a sub-par rushing attack.
Temple, meanwhile, outgained a good Villanova team (they'd be about an average 1A team) 7.9 yards per play to 5.2 yppl in their 24-27 opening week loss, as quarterback Vaughn Charlton looked more than capable of taking the place of star quarterback Adam DiMichele, who was good enough to be invited to an NFL training camp. Charlton threw for 317 yards on 28 attempts (11.3 ypa) and appears good enough to lead a few drives against Penn State's stingy defense.
My ratings only favor Penn State by 26 points and it could be closer than that if Charlton really is a better than average quarterback.
Projected Final Score: Nittany Lions-36 Owls-10
Free Pick: Temple +29½
© Copyright 2009. Reprinted with permission of the author.