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Psu football

QB’s injury a KO punch to Wildcats

Kafka exits in 2nd period; Wildcats’ attack sputters. PSU offense controls 2nd half.

By Derek Levarse dlevarse@timesleader.com
Sports Reporter

EVANSTON, Ill.— He still wore his helmet, but Mike Kafka could do nothing but throw his hands on top of it as everything fell apart.

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Penn State quarterback Daryll Clark celebrates after scoring a touchdown against Northwestern in Evanston, Ill., Saturday.

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The senior quarterback had Penn State’s top-ranked defense tired and frustrated in the first half. Then a harmless-looking scramble undid everything.

An unidentified leg injury sent Kafka to the sideline midway through the second quarter. He took Northwestern’s upset hopes with him.

Penn State shut down his replacement, Dan Persa, and used touchdowns on three consecutive plays on offense in the fourth quarter to pull out a 34-13 win Saturday at Ryan Field.

Brandon Beachum broke a 13-13 tie with a 2-yard charge up the middle early in the fourth. Then Derek Moye scored on a 53-yard pass from Daryll Clark to start the next drive and Evan Royster went 69 yards on a run for another touchdown on the first play of the next.

While the No. 12 Nittany Lions (8-1, 4-1 Big Ten) eventually exploded on offense to decide the game, there was no question in Joe Paterno’s mind as to what turned the contest around.

“The adjustment we made is that their quarterback got hurt,” the Penn State coach deadpanned after the game. “(That’s) big. Kafka’s a heck of a football player.

“We played a little bit more aggressively in the second half, but I don’t think we quite realized just how good they are offensively. It took awhile to kind of speed up to the tempo. ... I think you need to understand that when their quarterback is out all of a sudden, that’s a big loss for them.”

Kafka ran a hurry-up offense to great success, going 14-for-18 for 128 yards while adding 42 yards and a touchdown on the ground.

He also scored from 7 yards out on a designed draw to give the Wildcats a 10-3 lead early in the second quarter.

“We underestimated him a little bit I think,” senior defensive end Jerome Hayes said.

That all changed on a scramble by Kafka in the second quarter that ended with him pulling up lame and heading to the locker room with 8:15 left in the second quarter. He was believed to have injured a hamstring, but Northwestern didn’t provide an official update beyond “leg injury.”

Northwestern (5-4, 2-3) was forced to turn the offense over to redshirt sophomore Persa, a Pennsylvania native who played for a PIAA title in 2006 at Liberty High School in Bethlehem.

Persa completed an 18-yard pass from midfield to set up a 45-yard field goal by Stefan Demos that gave Northwestern a 13-10 lead heading into halftime. Collin Wagner had a 32-yard field goal set up by a Jack Crawford fumble recovery and Daryll Clark scored on a 2-yard scramble for the Lions in the first half.

Little went right from there for the Wildcats.

Wagner hit a 23-yard field goal to tie the game on the first drive of the second half.

From there, Persa and the Wildcats couldn’t sustain drives as they had in the first half, allowing the Penn State defense to get fresher and more aggressive.

“It changed the whole style of play that they had planned,” Lions defensive coordinator Tom Bradley said of Kafka’s absence. “The other guy doesn’t have the same arsenal that he does and we made a couple of adjustments to change up on him.”

Persa’s numbers weren’t horrible -- 14-of-23 for 115 yards passing, 42 yards rushing and one lost fumble with the game out of reach.

“I thought he was running for his life for a bunch (of plays) in the fourth quarter,” Northwestern coach Pat Fitzgerald said. “I thought he competed hard and gave us a chance. We have a pretty good idea of what Danny’s strengths are, and we were comfortable with both guys being able to execute our entire game plan.”

That comfort level wasn’t always apparent, however, based on the play calling.

After Penn State had taken the lead at 20-13 early in the fourth quarter on Beachum’s score, the Wildcats botched the kickoff return and had to start at their own 6-yard line. Northwestern called three straight runs -- two of them keepers for Persa -- and the Wildcats booted it away,

Clark hit Moye down the right sideline for a demoralizing score on the next play. Northwestern ran just four plays on the next drive before punting again and Royster found daylight on the next play.

“The momentum went our way after that, and the offense made big plays,” captain Sean Lee said. “I think a lot of that was Kafka not being in. He’s their leader. He’s their guy that gets them going. And I think once we were able to make some plays like that, it kind of stalled them.”