It would be silly to say Penn State beat Purdue on Saturday because of divine intervention.

It would be ludicrous to say the hapless, 1-4 Nittany Lions upended the then-No. 22 Boilermakers and Drew Brees, the nation's premier quarterback, 22-20, in front of 96,000 fans at Beaver Stadium because of a man lying partially paralyzed in a hospital bed, 180 miles away.

But denying the influence that injured freshman cornerback Adam Taliaferro had on that game, easily the biggest win for Penn State this year, would be sacrilegious.

"It was just with pure emotion," defensive end Justin Kurpeikis said. "That's all it was. That's the way the game was meant to be played. And I hope everyone understands that now that it was shown to everyone."

It started immediately. Brees' passes — all three of them — found nothing but turf on the game's first drive, thanks to a relentless secondary led by the brash James Boyd. Earlier this week, Boyd had predicted that Penn State's secondary was among the top five in the country.

Moments later, Penn State quarterback Rashard Casey completed a play-action short pass to tight end Tony Stewart, who barreled his way upfield for 26 yards. A six-yard rush by Omar Easy set up a 46-yard field goal by Ryan Primanti — the first game this year in which Penn State scored first.

Purdue answered two drives later, when Brees ran a draw play for 19 yards, setting up Boilermakers placekicker Travis Dorsch for a 44-yard field goal.

Dorsch would hit another one from 25 yards, but the only one he cared to speak about was one he missed, from 46 yards with 2:27 left to play in the game.

"It felt all right, then I looked up and saw it was to the left," Dorsch said. "I thought it was a good strike."

Dorsch also serves as Purdue's punter, although Scott Kurz handled the pooch efforts.

Two of Dorsch's punts, however, never found their way into the air. In the third quarter, freshman outside linebacker Derek Wake penetrated Purdue's protection and caught Dorsch at his own 11-yard line. Four plays later, another freshman, Paul Jefferson, rammed into the end zone for the 15-13 lead.

"We practiced going after the punter hard all week in practice," Wake said. "The rest of the punt return team opened the hole for me. I was working on adrenaline on the second one. I had a lot of confidence.

"It was amazing," he added. "I've never made such a big play in such a big venue."

On Purdue's next drive, Wake found Dorsch trying to punt again, this time at the Purdue six. Wake surrounded him immediately, dropping him. Moments later, Casey, on a rollout, scored the game-winning touchdown by diving over the right pylon.

A Hail Mary pass from Penn State's 45 by Brees, on the game's last play, would prove futile.

"We played a great game, I want to say," said tailback Eric McCoo, who accounted for 106 yards on 16 carries. "They played a great game, we both played a great game. It came down to four seconds, a Hail Mary pass, it didn't happen. I mean, we both played great games. They got breaks, we got breaks. It's all a part of football. It was just two great teams playing a great game."

Coach Joe Paterno agreed.

"If we had lost that football game and played hard and played better I could have walked off the field and felt 'hey, we're making progress.' It's a big relief for me to have them understand what it takes to win a tough football game."

Perhaps no one knew that better than the seniors.

"This year has been a real high and low," Kurpeikis, a senior, said. "Pitt (a 12-0 defeat two weeks ago) was probably one of the worst moments I've had, and this was probably one of the best, because everything gets included with Adam."

Following the game, the team dropped to one knee at midfield, and, led by senior safety Russ Manney, said a prayer, where they thanked a higher power for the win.

They also asked for a little more.

"Maybe Adam woke them up a little," Paterno said.