Alabama Is Humbled by Penn State : Nittany Lions’ 23-3 Win Is Tide’s Worst Loss in 10 Years at Tuscaloosa

The reason Penn State always seems to hunker into town is that it’s shouldering the considerable burden of Eastern football. How else to greet these annually apologetic giants? “Oh, nice win over Temple,” or, “Gee, you really smoked Rutgers again. Congrats.” This said with enough winking and snorting to signal a full-blown seizure.

Then every year, done with the ECAC or Ivy League or whatever conference it seems to play in, Penn State hunkers into some big-time college football town and smokes the winkers and snorters. Saturday, under gray skies and in front of about 60,000 fans, Penn State sent second-ranked Alabama the way of Boston College.

Except Penn State beat the So-So Tide by a convincing score, 23-3, worst such in 10 years here. Hey, Boston College put up a front, give Eastern football that.

But Alabama, undefeated in 13 previous games, couldn’t put up a front, much less penetrate one. The Nittany Lions (7-0) ran relatively unchecked, rushing for 210 yards, about twice as many as Alabama (7-1) usually gives up. And John Shaffer, a shrewdie but not exactly the man with the golden arm, kept apace with Alabama quarterback Mike Shula, 168 yards to 172 passing. Penn State tailback B.J. Dozier and his backup, Blair Thomas, had more yards rushing than all of Alabama, by nearly 40.

Oh, the domination was complete. Fans, can you say, Low Tide?

Question: Didn’t we do this story last season?

Well, yes, except that last season Penn State had to ease by Alabama with a field goal, and that at State College, Pa. So the burden of Eastern football was not entirely unshouldered. This time, the Penn State game of football was so authoritative we don’t merely have to rethink Penn State’s position, vis a vis Alabama, we have to think about Eastern football, vis a vis the world.

Hey, we’re getting a little carried away, but you can understand Penn State’s point of view. “This Eastern football crap,” bristles defensive tackle Matt Johnson, “it can get under your skin a little. It’s basically why we never get any respect. Maybe it fires us up to play.”

Penn State Coach Joe Paterno was fearful enough that it wouldn’t, that in fact the easy-schedule talk might allow Alabama to intimidate his team, so he gave his team a long and complicated lecture before the game. “I said, don’t let anybody intimidate us with this talk we don’t play anybody. Take Boston College. . . . “

Thereupon Paterno explained how Boston College beat such and such which beat such and such and so on. Writers let their pens lapse as they listened to the logic and were soon inclined to vote Alcorn St. No. 1.

But it worked on the players. Penn State linebacker Shane Conlan, perhaps convinced by the score as much as Paterno’s talk, said: “The schedule talk doesn’t matter to us, we know how good we are. We’re all veterans, we’ve been in this type of game before. It’s no big deal, not like we’re a high school team coming in here for the first time.”

Penn State might have considered the rap on its schedule momentarily, especially after Alabama scored a field goal on its second possession. But that was all the Penn State defense was to yield. And a Van Tiffin kick was all they were unable to defense.

Was Alabama a little predictable on offense? “Well, somewhat,” said Conlan. “Personally, I knew when they’d run a sweep or pass.” Just somewhat predictable, you understand.

But more than guessing right, Penn State played the ball, eliminating the big play, forcing Shula to pass. “By forcing him to throw the short stuff,” Penn State defensive tackle Tim Johnson said, “we were able to intimidate their receivers.” About all Shula was successful with was the screen pass, but only in the sense that it was completed.

Shula was not having his best day. On one second-quarter series, he badly overthrew his receiver and then, on the next play, compensated by badly underthrowing him. He was intercepted. Apologized Alabama Coach Ray Perkins, mindful of Penn State’s pass rush: “It’s tough for him when he has to dodge those bullets.”

And that was the Alabama offense. Penn State, which was known to throw a safe screen pass or two, at least demonstrated some flair. You are misled when you are told that Penn State scored its second touchdown on a reverse from the three-yard line with Shaffer making the key block. It wasn’t all that razzle-dazzle.

On the other hand, for a team that was comparatively deficient in speed, the Lions looked awfully fast. Dozier, who finished with 63 yards and a touchdown on 15 carries, was explosive on his 19-yard touchdown run up the gut, and also on a screen pass, 24 yards of it his own making. Yet, amazingly, he is probably not Penn State’s best back. That distinction goes to sophomore Blair Thomas, a high school gymnast from Philadelphia who now has Paterno doing somersaults. He’s nifty. Saturday he rushed for 57 yards and a touchdown in 8 carries. Nice, but well below his 11-yard average.

The offense was sufficient to render Alabama All-American linebacker Cornelius Bennett fairly useless. Penn State counter plays used Bennett’s speed to his disadvantage. He was first in the play, but on the wrong guy. “He might be reckless to a fault,” suggested Penn State center Keith Radecic.

Afterward Perkins, who has never been this humiliated, heaped praise on Penn State. “I said they were a great team and they went about things like a great team,” he said. “I said they deserve to be in the top five teams in the country and I think there’s no question about that after today. They’re by far the best team we’ve played since we’ve been here.”

Meanwhile Penn State, having beaten Alabama to gain its 18th straight regular-season victory, was busy taking care of Eastern football. “We never got the credit,” said Paterno, who took his team to a 11-1 record last season, “because everybody wants to ridicule our schedule. People that do that don’t think things through. Take Temple. . . . “ And he was off thinking it through for everybody.

But his case had been made minutes before, and the 14 scouts from the 9 bowls had already filed out of the stadium, having murmured appreciatively in favor of Eastern football. There is little else to prove unless Penn State wants to knock somebody off in a major bowl, as well. The thinking is, it does.