Boilermakers convert third down with Orton in the middle of the field. No one else around. It was Elliott's first official pass of the season.

Elliott is at least moving Purdue, which is more than Painter could say. Painter's thrown for exactly zero touchdowns against PSU in four games. He does have three interceptions, though.

Elliott converts with Orton on another third down. Sargeant in for the first time today.

Sargeant shows his rust. Drops an easy, easy interception.

Heading down to the field.

***

Now a Purdue player slipped. He's got to be at least the seventh player to slip.

Purdue ball at the 18 with 13:00 left. Interestingly, Painter was pulled in favor of Joey Elliott. Painter 13-22 for 112 yards after three quarters. Guess he's not passing 10,000 career throwing yards today.

****

Someone said earlier it looked like PSU was playing on ice. Add Stephfon Green slipping to the list of guys who haven't had their footing. Green slipped on a pitch play for a loss of 1 on 3rd and goal from the 2.

Shuler hurt on the play

Kelly splits the uprights for a 20-yard FG and 20-0 lead with 13:06 left.

****

Jeremy Boone just boomed a nice punt to the Purdue 7 after Daryll Clark nearly was picked off.

Clark wanted tight end Andrew Quarless down the seam and went for the long ball, but Purdue safety Torri Williams had other plans.

Williams nearly came down with the pick but collided with Quarless and the ball fell harmlessly to the grass.

Stephfon Green has to be disappointed with that. The speedy freshman squirted loose on big runs of 28 and 16 yards.

Penn State still leads 17-0 with a minute to go in the quarter.

Painter was just intercepted by Drew Astorino. Penn State will get the ball in good field position after the pick.

HOW'S MY BLOGGING?

*****

Purdue's Kory Sheets had 25 yards rushing in the first half. He nearly doubled that on one big 19-yard run on the Boilermakers' last drive.

But Purdue was forced to punt after the offense winked out at midfield.

*****

Penn State's offense is moving like a locomotive right now and there isn't a dang thing the Boilermakers can do about it.

Clark handed off to Evan Royster who took the ball up the middle for the touchdown. Royster also added hard runs of 12 and ten yards on that drive.

Deon Butler was the guy, though. Butler made a fantastic adjustment on a Clark deep ball along the right sidelines. The wideout turned, found the ball, cradled it in his arms and touched a toe down in bounds for the drive's longest and prettiest play.

PSU 17, PURDUE 0

7 plays, 61 yards, 3:30 TOP

*****

On his first drive of the second half, Clark threw nice deep comebacks to Butler and Zug for first downs, but two handoffs to Evan Royster up the middle and then an incompletion to Williams forced the Lions to punt.

PSU 10, PURDUE 0 11:45 3RD

*****

Painter and the Boilermakers stalled after a big Aaron Maybin sack and Purdue's kicker booted a 45-yard field goal wide right.

Now, Penn State's offense has the ball and just crossed midfield.

Clark hands the ball to Royster who patiently waits for holes to open for a 23-yard gain.

Williams and Butler are split out wide for Penn State and Clark wants to go to Williams. No one is open and Clark just gets rid of it.

On 3rd and 7, Clark zips a nice pass over the middle that is hauled in by Graham Zug on the five.

Clark's under center and pitches to Williams, who loses two yards.

Clark takes off on the QB draw up the middle. He lunges with the ball for a gain of six, but is stopped short of the goal line at the one.

Dan Lawlor jumps over the pile, but does not get in. 4th and goal from the one.

Oops, wait, the zebras are reviewing Lawlor's leap. The play will stand, but Clark falls across the goal line on a QB keep for the game's first score.

PSU 7, PURDUE 0 - 7:34 2ND

*****

Travis here. There's just over four minutes left in the first quarter and so far, this game has yielded four punts. Not a whole lot going on yet. Penn State looked like it was moving the ball well on its first possession, but stalled at midfield.

We still haven't seen Jordan Norwood or tight end Mickey Shuler on the field for Penn State.

A.J. Wallace started at cornerback for Penn State in place of Lydell Sargeant. Sargeant missed practice time last week due to personal reasons. Sargeant is on the Penn State sideline, but is helmetless. It looks like Wallace will be seeing most of the reps at corner.

Painter and the Boilermakers are driving now. The Purdue offense is gaining yards in chucks. The "blacked out" Purdue student section is going wild.

Painter keeps the ball, and Penn State's Drew Astorino makes the stop after a two-yard gain. Purdue has the ball on Penn State's 23 yard line.

PSU 0, PURDUE 0, END OF THE 1ST QUARTER

*****

Hello everyone, this is Travis coming to you live from the press box at Ross-Ade Stadium, the site of today's noon game between No. 6 Penn State and Purdue.

The big story today? Joe Paterno might coach from the coach's box again.

Paterno coached the second half of the Temple game two weeks ago from the press box due to a sore leg.

One of Paterno's players is also dealing with a lower body injury. Senior wide receiver Jordan Norwood traveled with the team, but has a hamstring injury and has been downgraded to questionable for today's game. Norwood missed last week's game against Illinois. He was previously listed as probable for today's game.

The team is on the field now, warming up and Norwood is dressed. He looks to be OK. He's running around and stretching out -- something he did not do last week.

On to the players that we know for sure will play today and more specifically, a tale of two linebackers.

Penn State's Josh Hull will play in the middle of the Nittany Lion "D" while Anthony Heygood will anchor the Boilermaker unit.

Penn State is known as Linebacker U, but the best linebacker on the field today might be Heygood.

The Lions lost the poster boy of their defense earlier this season when Sean Lee tore his ACL. Hull stepped in to replace him and has come under fire recently.

Heygood, a 6-foot-2, 230-pound 'backer, is in his fifth year for the Boilermakers and is second in the Big Ten in tackles per game. The Chester, Pa. native averages 10 tackles per game.

I talked to Heygood in Chicago earlier this summer at Big Ten Media Days and he remembered a lot of things going wrong for he and his teammates last year when they visited Beaver Stadium.

Here's what Heygood had to say when I asked him what he remembered about last year's game:

"I remember a lot from that game. A lot of things went wrong for us. I remember the opening kickoff, defense had two personal fouls, fumble on the one yard line, the ref kept the clock going when Selwyn stepped out of bounds."

Heygood admitted he was overly excited at Beaver Stadium and committed a personal foul that hurt his team.

"It's definitely my favorite road game. It's really vicious actually -- 107,000 or 111,000 people yellin' at you and none of them want you to win. It's fun. It's a great atmosphere to play in to get you prepared for anywhere."

Heygood will have to have a big game today at home if the Boilermakers want to have a chance to win this ballgame. The Purdue defense isn't that great. They give up 194.5 rushing yards per game and 244.75 passing yards per game.

Yikes!

We'll keep our eyes on Norwood and Paterno, but I'll be turning it over to Wible back in State College who is going to be blogging the rest of the game.

--TJ