PENN STATE Paterno credits front wall for win

Penn State's offensive line recovered in the last quarter against Temple.
STATE COLLEGE, Pa. (AP) -- A lot of things went wrong with Penn State's offense in its season-opening win against Temple -- dropped passes, fumbled snaps, coverage sacks.
But despite the lack of experience and the question marks going in, the offensive line held its own.
Coach Joe Paterno on Tuesday praised the play of his mostly inexperienced offensive linemen, saying they held their own against a hard-nosed Temple defense.
"I think we did a pretty good job," Paterno said. "As they got in there and got a little bit more comfortable, they got better, and they did it against well-conceived defensive schemes."
Paterno might not have been so charitable early in the game. Through three quarters, it was the Owls who dominated the line of scrimmage. Only Temple's inability to get into the end zone prevented the Owls from taking the lead.
"Our entire team was struggling," offensive tackle Damone Jones said. "They weren't the attacking-style defense that we initially thought, they were a more reading-style defense, and we got lulled to sleep by that."
But the line recovered, Jones said, picking up on the subtleties of Temple's defense and reacting accordingly.
The numbers bear that out. More than half of Penn State's 245 rushing yards came in the fourth quarter; Michael Robinson set up the last Nittany Lion touchdown with a 53-yard run, and 30 of Austin Scott's 69 rushing yards came in the last quarter.
Line is factor
By then, the bigger Penn State line had begun to wear down Temple's defense.
But more important was the long-awaited game experience that allowed the Nittany Lion line to gel into a cohesive unit. Penn State's five starters -- seniors Jones and David Costlow, juniors Nick Marmo and Scott Davis and red-shirt freshman Levi Brown -- came into the season without a start among them. Among their backups, only Chris McKelvey had any substantial game experience.
Paterno said the measure of how much the line has improved will come Saturday, when the Nittany Lions face Boston College, a team Paterno said was quicker and more talented than Temple.
"First games are first games," Paterno said. "I've always said, you'll find out how good your football team is by how much improvement you have between the first and the second."