Give Joe Tiller some credit. The Purdue head coach schemed some nice blitzes, and his quarterbacks ran some nice options, and his team was more competitive than its winless conference record reveals.

The surprise party the Nittany Lions have been hosting for much of the season lost a little bit of its luster Saturday, when the Boilermakers disrupted the groove just enough to keep the contest interesting.

But when they needed to make plays to prohibit a colossal collapse against the underachieving Purdue team, the Lions made them, coming away with a 33-15 victory in front of a Penn State homecoming-record crowd of 109,467 at Beaver Stadium.

Penn State (8-1, 5-1 Big Ten) scored on four Kevin Kelly field goals, with several hustle plays by Ethan Kilmer on special teams and a bruising performance from Tony Hunt.

The junior tailback carried the ball 24 times for 129 hard-fought yards on Saturday, and the Lions needed all of them.

When a team unexpectedly returns to the national spotlight, frontrunning in its conference, someone will eventually notice. So when quarterback Michael Robinson had the half of a lifetime against Illinois last weekend with six touchdowns, Tiller began plotting.

"We just felt like if he has a lot of time to sit back there, he can be pretty accurate. If he doesn't have a lot of time, he can be not so accurate," Tiller said. "We tried to disrupt the throwing and force some bad throws."

In the first half, it worked, as the Boilermakers harassed Robinson into awkward throws, some that airmailed, some that were tipped, some that never got off. Purdue put more pressure on Robinson than any other team this season.

"A couple of throws were a little bit off in there," Robinson said. "But it was one of those things that they were getting such a charge up field and things like that."

And in the second half, instead of spreading Purdue's defense out and taking shots downfield like they've done most of the year, the Lions chose to go through the Boilermakers instead of going around them.

"We let Purdue hang around and hang around," Penn State coach Joe Paterno said. "I thought, 'We are going to blow this one.' "

Hunt has been spectacularly quiet for most of the season, solid on recognizing blitzes and refusing to go down on the first hit. His perseverance in the second half, complemented by two touchdowns from fullback BranDon Snow, were the main reason the Lions pulled away in the end.

Snow's scores on dive plays were reminiscent of how Paterno utilized Sean McHugh in short-yardage situations in 2003.

The Lions don't have the liberty of playing under the radar anymore -- not as a team, anyway. It suddenly becomes tougher to surprise teams with a revamped offense, steered by a quarterback who has emerged as a playmaker.

The problem with blitzing, Tiller knew, is the threat of Robinson scrambling, and Robinson came close to another 100-yard rushing game.

The Lions have been a part of some memorable finishes in 2005, and they were just happy to finish this one on top.

Tiller said the Lions were the tougher team in the final two quarters and deserved to win.

"I think they set their draw, and they ran the ball. It looked to me like there was some determination and some resolve on the Penn State sideline," Tiller said. "We didn't line up any differently or do anything differently. They just played well."