Hoosier Daddy?

Just got back from the grand ol' state of Indiana. 24 total hours of driving, compared to an actual 36 on the ground, approximately 12 of them sleeping....so yeah, 24 driving hours for 24 conscious hours in Bloomington. Thankfully we were able to pull out a narrow 36-31 victory.

The Game:
Pundits will say that this game was too close and we should have won by more, and they may be right. But given the way we normally play on the road, and the fact that the Hoosiers aint half bad this year (they're still likely to become bowl eligible for the first time since '93), it was a huge win heading into the top ranked showdown with the Bucks next week. Indiana took the early lead, but our offense got into gear in the second quarter, leading 3 nice TD drives to take a 20-14 lead into half. In the second half our D got going, forcing 3 turnovers in the 3rd quarter, but our offense stalled in the red zone each time, settling for field goals. After cutting the lead to 29-24, the offense had possibly its best drive of the season, pounding it down the field and eating up clock, culminating in the TD to go up by 12. Kellen Lewis had a spectacular TD run to cut it to 5 again, but Indiana's last chance was stopped by an amazing 68 yard punt by Jeremy Boone to pin them inside their 5, and they would turn it over before threatening.

Morelli played his second straight good game, making only one dumb throw in the 1st half. Evan Royster had 68 yards on 12 carries and looked much more impressive than Kinlaw the whole game. Kevin Kelly made up for a missed XP in the 1st half with 3 FG's in the second half. The scoreboard says 31 for IU so people will think the defense had a bad game, but that wasn't really the case. QB Kellen Lewis and WR James Hardy are the real deal, both made great plays against our D and kept their team in the game throughout. That said, we still forced Lewis to fumble 4 times and caused Hardy to drop a couple, and the running game was shut down effectively. Most of their 68 total rushing yards came on the late game TD scramble by Lewis.

So kudos to the Hoosiers for showing up and making this game worth the price of admission, and to PSU for making it worth the trip. This college football season, any win in conference is a good win, especially on the road. Next week we will have Ohio State here in Beaver, in what will be the most difficult game of the season for both teams. The last time the Buckeyes lost a regular season game? If you guessed October 8, 2005 in Happy Valley, you're correct! Let's hope that date gets renewed next weekend.

The Atmosphere:
Total attendance at Memorial Stadium: 41,251. That about says it all. The stadium is about half the size of Beaver, and they still don't fill it. Maybe we're spoiled here, but the atmosphere seemed like a high school game. Traffic leading up to the stadium was non-existent, concession lines were fast and efficient, and you could walk around a bit! There was plenty of tailgating going on, which was encouraging. Our crowd of blue shirts got a few taunts and boos from IU fans, but most were polite. My favorite comment had to be after the game, some guy yelled at us, "We're gonna kick your ass in basketball!" to which our response was along the lines of "Yeah, your point?" This is clearly a basketball school, which is just bizarre to someone who's spent the last 4+ years at Penn State. Our hatred for Ohio State and Michigan is equivalent to their hatred of Purdue.

The Town/Campus:
Pretty campus, as you would expect. Architecture is very old school though, which is kinda creepy to be honest. The buildings look nice but I wouldn't want to go to class in them every day. The downtown area of Bloomington is extremely nice. Cultural food seems to be a big theme, as seemingly every restaurant had some kind of international theme. Again, great while visiting, but I think that would get annoying if I lived there and just wanted a freaking burger. Greek life seems to be pretty dominant if you're into that sort of thing. Contrary to stereotype, there is plenty of grass and trees around town, and yes even some terrain! Nothing like central PA obvi, but I was shocked to be walking up and down some gradual slopes throughout campus.

Overall Bloomington was a very good time, made better of course by the win. I'll go ahead and pull for their basketball team to win the Big Ten this year (provided Penn State doesn't do it HA!)

Elsewhere in sports, the Pens won two games this weekend, the Steelers lost a nailbiter in Denver, the Red Sox gave Cleveland people another reason to cry, and lots of other football was played.