Damn... From what you're describing, PSU sounds like a much better matchup than I thought next weekend for Purdue. Shaky secondary, difficulty getting pressure, inconsistent offense? That's sort of the ideal team for Purdue to face.
Hoping PSU crushes Maryland, lulling them to sleep against "lowly" Purdue and they get caught looking ahead to the Iowa matchup the following week.
Penn State actually has a really good secondary, and in the running for the best secondary in the B1G. Unfortunately, if the defensive line can't pressure the QB that doesn't really matter. You can't expect Cornerbacks to cover guys forever, no matter how good they are. Fortunately, against Maryland the PSU defensive line was in the backfield almost before the ball was snapped. That's the first PSU was able to put consistent pressure on the QB this season.
As for the PSU offense, up until Maryland it was super inconsistent. I don't know how much of that has been fixed, or how much of that was due to Maryland's inept defense. Probably some of both.
4 weeks in and I'm still not 100% sure what to make of this PSU team.
As for Purdue, I think they do match up well against PSU, but it seemed like half your team is injured.