| Score by Quarters | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | Score |
| Penn State | 21 | 17 | 10 | 7 | 55 |
| Syracuse | 0 | 6 | 7 | 0 | 13 |
| Scoring Summary | ||
| 1st | 13:40 | PSU - Norwood 55-yard pass from Clark (Kelly kick) |
|
07:45 | PSU - Butler 17-yard pass from Clark (Kelly kick) |
| 02:54 | PSU - Dan Lawlor 1-yard run (Kelly kick) | |
| 2nd | 12:11 | PSU - Butler 15-yard pass from Devlin (Kelly kick) |
| 08:11 | SYR - Shadle 44-yard field goal | |
|
02:32 | PSU - Norwood 24-yard pass from Devlin |
| 00:50 | SYR - Shadle 44-yard field goal | |
| 00:00 | PSU - Kelly 52-yard field goal | |
| 3rd | 05:19 | PSU - Green 2-yard run (Kelly kick) |
| 01:23 | SYR - Sales 11-yard pass from Dantley (Shadle kick) | |
| 00:16 | PSU - Wagner 43-yard field goal | |
| 4th | 02:50 | PSU - Moye 33-yard pass from Cianciolo (Wagner kick) |
SYRACUSE, N.Y. — Chaz Powell stuck a football in the crook of his arm on the Penn State sideline, and clutched it tightly as Joe Paterno tried, first with an uppercut and then with an overhand smash, to knock it out of his hand.
The in-game tutorial, held shortly after Kevin Kelly’s extra point gave the Nittany Lions a 45-6 lead, neatly illustrated the challenge for Penn State’s head coach as his team romped 55-13 over a listless Syracuse outfit before a bipartisan 45,975 Saturday in the Carrier Dome. Paterno was keeping his players focused on avoiding mistakes even though it really didn’t matter how many the 17th-ranked Nittany Lions (3-0) made against the Orange (0-3).
With the exception of three lost fumbles — one by Powell, a redshirt freshman receiver who atoned for the bobble with a 69-yard kickoff return — an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty by another redshirt freshman, Stephfon Green, after his first career touchdown, and a grievance known only to Paterno and sophomore quarterback Pat Devlin, Penn State was sharp for the third straight week.
The Nittany Lions had a 28-0 lead before the Orange picked up a first down, led 38-6 when Kelly’s 52-yard field goal snuck over the goal post to end the half and were able to turn the controls of the offense over to third-string quarterback Paul Cianciolo for the final quarter. There was little to critique as far as scheme, execution and play-making was concerned.
“I think we’re a pretty good football team,” said Paterno, whose 375th career win allowed him to keep pace with Florida State coach Bobby Bowden after the Seminoles beat Chattanooga 46-7. “I just don’t know how good and I won’t know until we have some adversity.”
If that sounds familiar, it’s because the coach said it after each of Penn State’s first two wins, routs of Coastal Carolina and Oregon State. Syracuse, which has lost 31 of its 38 games under coach Greg Robinson, was not about to offer the Nittany Lions their first adversity of the season. The Orange’s two best players on the field Saturday were kicker Patrick Shadle, who drilled a pair of 44-yard field goals, and punter Rob Long, a Downingtown native who averaged a superlative 51.3 yards on seven kicks.
Walk-on quarterback Cam Dantley threw 32 passes, many of them with the breath of defensive tackles Jared Odrick and Ollie Ogbu in his face, and completed just 13 for 110 yards, an interception and a third-quarter touchdown to Marcus Sales. Tailback Curtis Brinkley, who had averaged nearly 100 yards rushing in the team’s first two games, managed 21 on 14 carries. Syracuse’s defense surrendered 393 yards in the first half alone.
But the Nittany Lions had just as much to do with those totals as the Orange, a sign that they were at least ready for their first real challenge of the season, even if it never came.
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“That’s one of the best qualities about Joe,” defensive end Josh Gaines said. “He gets us prepared mentally.”
Penn State took the opening kickoff and handed Syracuse a great chance to draw first blood. Quarterback Daryll Clark (10-of-21, 163 yards and two touchdowns) rolled to his left on a 2nd-and-1 play and collided with Orange defensive tackle Nick Santiago as he tried to get rid of the ball. Fellow tackle Arthur Jones recovered the ensuing fumble at the Penn State 36-yard line, sending the Syracuse half of the crowd into hysterics.
The Orange bled on themselves, though, when Dantley’s lateral pass on the ensuing play was bobbled by Brinkley and recovered by Penn State’s Lydell Sargeant at the Penn State 45.
“It happens. It was a turnover,” Robinson said. “You have to respond and get another turnover. We could have gone out there and responded. But we didn’t.”
The Nittany Lions did. On the very next play, Clark rolled left again and fired a strike to Jordan Norwood, who ran back across the grain and 55 yards to the end zone, and the Nittany Lions were off.
Norwood and fellow wide receiver Deon Butler each finished the half with more than 100 yards and two touchdowns receiving, and tailback Evan Royster ran for 92 yards on 11 first-half carries. The intriguing part of the half, however, was Devlin’s insertion into the offense early in the second quarter. The sophomore from Downingtown, who had played sparingly last week, immediately hooked up with Butler for a 28-yard gain, then lofted a 15-yard touchdown pass to him two plays later. Paterno had a few words with him on the sideline after the score, but Devlin wouldn’t reveal what they were.
Both quarterbacks and Paterno confirmed that the plan during the week had been to divide the reps with the first-team offense more equally between Clark and Devlin, who completed his first six passes and finished 8-of-13 for 130 yards and two touchdowns. Just as they were after the win over Coastal Carolina, the Nittany Lions were happy with the contributions of each.
“We’re both in competition, but at the same time we’re on a team,” Clark said. “As long as we put points on the board, that’s the only thing that matters.”
Touchdown runs by fullback Dan Lawlor and Green, who was assessed a 15-yard penalty on the kickoff following his celebration, and a 33-yard touchdown pass from Cianciolo (2-of-4, 51 yards) to redshirt freshman Derek Moye accounted for the rest of the Penn State scoring.
The Nittany Lions will return to Beaver Stadium to host Temple (1-2) at noon Saturday, a game that doesn’t figure to look much different than their first three. Their coach would have few problems with that.
“I’m not discouraged by anything that happened today,” Paterno said. “I just don’t want to get carried away.”