September 22, 2012 at 8:51 PM

If all of Penn State’s penalties had occurred on one drive, Temple could have marched from endzone to endzone without running a play.

Officials flagged the Nittany Lions nine times for 100 yards in their 24-13 win over the Owls on Saturday. The Lions haven’t lost that many yards on penalties in a single game since they played Louisiana Tech in 2000.

“That’s one of the things we pride ourselves on,” coach Bill O’Brien said. “In the first three games, we did a good job of not being penalized and today we took a step back on that.”

In its previous three games combined, Penn State totaled 11 penalties for 95 yards lost.

“It was kind of insane,” linebacker Glenn Carson said. “Yellow flags getting thrown everywhere. Never really seen anything like it.”

On one play, Kyle Carter got caught committing offensive pass interference even though quarterback Matt McGloin’s pass wasn’t thrown to him. O’Brien said the official told him Carter was blocking while the ball was in the air.

On another play, center Matt Stankiewitch was called for hold on a left-side run block. He was quick to defend his block’s legality after the game, but he said he would go back and look at the tape. He hopes Penn State can reduce the number of flags moving forward.

“Luckily, we were on the winning side of so many penalties,” Stankiewitch said. “Of course, we’re going to try to minimize them. But penalties happen, but you have to minimize them the way you practice and the way you play.”