East Roundup: Paterno Ties Record as Penn State Defeats Northwestern

Silas Redd ran for 164 yards and a touchdown, Matt McGloin threw for 192 yards and 2 scores, and Penn State clamped down in the second half to give Paterno another milestone victory.

Paterno will try to move ahead of Robinson, of Grambling, for the Division I record next weekend when the Nittany Lions (7-1, 4-0 Big Ten) host Illinois. But he is still far behind John Gagliardi of St. John’s of Minnesota in Division III, who has 481 wins and counting.

Paterno, 84, is in his 46th season leading the Nittany Lions. In Evanston, Ill., on Saturday, he coached from the press box again. He is recovering from injuries to his right shoulder and pelvis sustained after a receiver ran into him in practice on Aug. 7.

Paterno had been feeling better and had been on the sideline for parts of some games, but on Oct. 8, during a 13-3 win over Iowa, two of his players pulled him back to avoid another collision.

That left him sore, he said, and he expressed concern that he might be a distraction to his players on the sideline.

Tying the record against Northwestern (2-5, 0-4) was fitting. When Paterno tied Bear Bryant with 323 wins, he did it against the Wildcats. No. 400 came at their expense, too, last season when Penn State rallied from 21 behind to win, 35-21.

This time, Penn State led, 27-24, at halftime, after Stephfon Green scored on a 1-yard run with six seconds left in the second quarter.

Redd made it a 10-point game early in the third when he ran it in from the 19 after Gerald Hodges returned an interception 63 yards.

VANDERBILT 44, ARMY 21 Zac Stacy set career highs with 198 yards rushing and 3 touchdowns, and quarterback Jordan Rodgers made the most of his first career start, as Vanderbilt (4-3) defeated Army (2-5). Rodgers, younger brother of Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers, rushed for 96 yards and a score and passed for 186 yards and another touchdown.

BOWLING GREEN 13, TEMPLE 10 Matt Schilz threw a 24-yard pass to Shaun Joplin with 7 minutes 41 seconds left for Bowling Green (4-4, 2-2 Mid-American Conference). Both of the game’s touchdowns came in the final quarter, as Bernard Pierce’s 2-yard scoring run gave Temple its only lead, 10-6, with 11:02 to play. For Temple (5-3, 3-2), two players rushed for more than 100 yards: Matt Brown with 119 and Pierce with 107.

DARTMOUTH 37, COLUMBIA 0 Nick Schwieger, the leading career rusher for the Big Green, carried 29 times for 157 yards and 3 touchdowns as Dartmouth (3-4, 2-2 Ivy League) routed visiting Columbia (0-6, 0-3).

BROWN 35, CORNELL 24 Kyle Newhall-Caballero threw for two touchdowns and ran for two more as Brown (5-1, 2-1 Ivy League) won in Ithaca, N.Y. Jeff Mathews threw for 402 yards and 2 touchdowns for Cornell (2-4, 0-3).

HARVARD 56, PRINCETON 39 Collier Winters passed for 403 yards and 5 touchdowns and rushed for a score to lead Harvard (5-1, 3-0 Ivy League) in Cambridge, Mass. Princeton (1-5, 1-2) amassed 556 total yards, 4 yards less than Harvard.

PENN 37, YALE 25 Billy Ragone threw for three touchdowns and ran for one and Pennsylvania (4-2, 3-0 Ivy League) outscored visiting Yale (3-3, 2-1) by 27-5 in the fourth quarter. Brandon Colavita rushed for 156 yards on 18 carries for Penn.

LAFAYETTE 45, FORDHAM 24 Lafayette (3-4, 1-1 Patriot League) overcame a 413-yard passing performance by Ryan Higgins for visiting Fordham (1-6, 0-3).

RHODE ISLAND 38, DELAWARE 34 Behind Robert Bentsen’s three touchdown passes, Rhode Island (2-5, 1-3 Colonial Athletic Association) beat visiting Delaware (4-4, 2-3) for the first time since 2002.

ALBANY 63, CENTRAL CONN. 35 Dan Di Lella threw a team-record five touchdown passes for Albany (5-2, 4-0 Northeast Conference) in a rout at Central Connecticut State (2-6, 1-4).

IN OTHER GAMES Dontra Peters rushed for two touchdowns in a 27-21 victory for New Hampshire (5-2, 3-1 Colonial Athletic Association) over Massachusetts (4-3, 0-1) in Foxborough, Mass. ... Larry McCoy ran for three touchdowns as Duquesne (6-2, 4-1 Northeast Conference) beat visiting Wagner (1-6, 1-3), 37-21. ... Kyle Essington threw for two touchdowns and ran for one as visiting Stony Brook (4-3, 2-0 Big South Conference) defeated Virginia Military Academy (1-6, 1-2), 42-14.

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Saints Set Points Record, Beat Colts 62-7

He might as well have had both feet up by the middle of the third quarter.

Drew Brees completed 31 of 35 passes for 325 yards and five touchdowns, and the Saints set a franchise record for points and victory margin in a 62-7 demolition of the hapless Indianapolis Colts on Sunday night.

"I was real proud of how we played tonight, how we handled the week of practice," said Payton, standing on crutches after the game. "We spent a lot of time during the week just talking about us beginning to play our best football, because we really felt while we were 4-2, we hadn't done that."

Payton had called offensive plays from the sidelines since he took his first head coaching job with New Orleans in 2006, but that changed after he was caught up in a tackle along the sideline during a loss at Tampa Bay last week and was injured. Payton had surgery on Monday and didn't attend a practice until Thursday.

Sitting high up in the Superdome for the game against the Colts, he had to like what he saw down below, where offensive coordinator Pete Carmichael Jr. called plays for the first time.

Brees had two touchdown passes to Marques Colston and one to Darren Sproles in the first quarter. His fourth and fifth touchdown tosses went to second-year tight end Jimmy Graham in the third quarter.

It seemed the Saints (5-2) could do whatever they wanted, also rushing for 236 yards.

"We had a great game plan. We played with a lot of confidence. Pete did a phenomenal job," Brees said. "It was just our night, one of those games that doesn't come along too often. ... We needed a win like this, especially after the past week and everything we've gone through."

The Saints' point total tied the most in a game by any team since the AFL merged with the NFL in 1970.

The Saints previous franchise high for points in a game was 51 on three occasions and their largest previous victory margin was 42 over Denver in 1988.

When the large video board in the Superdome showed Payton peering out from the booth, the crowd erupted. By the time the third quarter ended, there wasn't much of a crowd left.

Colston had seven catches for 98 yards.

Brees wasn't intercepted before he was replaced by Chase Daniel late in the third quarter, a move that prevented New Orleans' starting quarterback from extending his NFL record of four straight games with at least 350 yards passing.

Mark Ingram rushed for 91 yards on 18 carries but limped to the locker room early in the fourth quarter with what Payton said was a heel injury, adding that X-rays were negative. Sproles carried 12 times for 88 yards, including a 16-yard touchdown.

The Saints had 557 yards and a team-record 36 first downs.

The winless Colts (0-7) are guaranteed to have fewer than 10 victories in a season for the first time in nine years, and at this rate they might not win many games at all.

"That team played better than we did in every area and we just got whooped across the board," Colts coach Jim Caldwell said. "It's one of those things that once you don't do the little things right, there is a lot of bad things that happen to you. Obviously, I have to take responsibility for our team and the way that they played."

Colts quarterback Curtis Painter was only 9 of 17 for 67 yards and had an interception returned 42 yards for a touchdown by Leigh Torrence.

"We just didn't play near well enough," Painter said. "We made a few too many mistakes in the beginning, and any time you're playing a team as good as them, they're going to make you pay. We just kind of got off to a rough start and you've got to credit them. They played well."

For the seventh game this season, Colts star quarterback Peyton Manning was forced to watch because of a neck injury that has sidelined him all season.

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Paterno Ties Record, PSU Beats Northwestern 34-24

Silas Redd ran for 164 yards and a touchdown, Matt McGloin threw for 192 yards and two scores, and the Nittany Lions clamped down in the second half to give their storied coach another milestone victory as he watched from the coaches' box.

Paterno will try to move ahead of Robinson, the Grambling State legend, when the Nittany Lions (7-1, 4-0 Big Ten) host Illinois next Saturday. That starts a tough stretch that also includes a home game against Nebraska before trips to Ohio State and Wisconsin.

Paterno still has a long way to go to catch John Gagliardi of Division III St. John's, Minn. (481 and counting), the only other coach with more wins, but this was another big notch for an icon in his 46th season leading the Nittany Lions.

That he got it against Northwestern (2-5, 0-4) was fitting, too.

After all, when he tied Bear Bryant with 323 wins, he did it against the Wildcats. No. 400 came at their expense, too, last season in Happy Valley when Penn State rallied from 21 down to win 35-21.

This one wasn't quite as dramatic, although it was wild in the early going.

Penn State led 27-24 at halftime after Stephfon Green scored on a 1-yard run in the closing seconds, and Redd made it a 10-point game early in the third when he ran it in from the 19 after Gerald Hodges returned an interception 63 yards. A defense that got picked apart in the first half took over from there, sending Northwestern to its fifth straight loss in a miserable season.

That had to make Paterno feel a little better being away from the sideline, still recovering from right shoulder and pelvis injuries suffered after a receiver ran into him in practice Aug. 7.

The Wildcats simply couldn't stop Redd, who has four straight games with 100 or more yards. He also had a 44-yard run late in the second quarter that set up Green's TD.

McGloin wasn't bad either, completing 17 of 26 passes. Devon Smith had six catches for 110 yards, including a 45-yard touchdown, and once the defense got going, Northwestern had no chance.

Ranked among the stingiest in the nation coming in, Penn State's defense gave up 406 yards, but it also delivered seven sacks — two by Jordan Hill. That includes a pair of big ones on Kain Colter in the fourth quarter right after Dan Persa hobbled off the field.

He came up grabbing his left ankle and limped off the field after a 4-yard run that put the ball on the Penn State 13.

A 17-yard sack by Hill on Colter and an 11-yarder by Sean Stanley drove the Wildcats all the way back to the 41 and forced them to punt, helping preserve the win.

Persa threw for 294 yards, completing 26 of 34 passes, but he got sacked four times and was largely a non-factor in the second half.

The same goes for Colter.

He ran for 51 yards, including a 46-yarder in the second quarter that led to his own 4-yard TD run. He also caught a 12-yard touchdown pass, his first scoring reception, but got shut down in the second half — just like the rest of the Wildcats.

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Record Day for QBs Davis, Moore and Keenum

While Keenum and Moore were expected to put their names in the NCAA record books Saturday, Davis did so with a remarkable show of accuracy for East Carolina at Navy.

Davis completed his first 26 passes to break a record held by Tennessee's Tee Martin and California's Aaron Rodgers — heard of him? — and led the Pirates to a 38-35 victory.

Davis also set a record for most completions over more than one game. He had completed his final 10 passes against Memphis last week, so his stunning first half against Navy gave him 36 completions in a row — breaking the NCAA mark of 26 set in 2004 by Rodgers, now a star with the Super Bowl champion Green Bay Packers.

After going 26 for 26 for 251 yards before halftime, Davis' streak ended when he misfired on his first attempt in the third quarter. He finished 40 for 45 for 372 yards, two touchdowns and no interceptions.

Funny thing is, it wasn't until he reached the locker room that Davis learned just how special his numbers were.

"I had no idea until after the game," the 6-foot-3 quarterback said. "When they told me, I was like, 'Wow, really?' It's amazing, but when you do your job and put the ball in your receiver's hands, that's what happens."

In Houston, Keenum became the Football Bowl Subdivision's career leader in total offense, throwing for 376 yards and tying his career high with six touchdown passes in No. 21 Houston's 63-28 win over Marshall.

The senior quarterback needed 130 yards to eclipse the record (16,910 yards) set by Chang from 2000-04. He moved past Chang on a 30-yard pass to Justin Johnson with 3:56 left in the first quarter.

Keenum completed 24 of 28 passes — 15 in a row during one stretch — and also crept closer to the major college football career records for passing yards and touchdown throws. He needs 802 passing yards to move ahead of Chang's record (17,072) and five TD passes to eclipse the mark (134) set by Texas Tech's Graham Harrell from 2005-08.

Houston coach Kevin Sumlin awarded the game ball to Keenum at midfield, where the Cougars gathered behind him. Keenum turned to his teammates and hoisted the ball.

At Boise, Idaho, Moore threw three touchdown passes and No. 5 Boise State beat Air Force 37-26 to give the senior his 45th career victory as a starter.

That put him in a tie with the former Texas star McCoy for the most wins all-time by a college quarterback. His second TD pass of the day, a 19-yarder to Matt Miller, gave him 122 for his career and pushed him past former BYU quarterback Ty Detmer for fourth best all-time.

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