Indiana gamble pays off vs. PSU
Coach had team let Penn State score to get the ball back
Michael Penix Jr. forced overtime with a two-point conversion run with 22 seconds left, then scored on a diving two-point conversion to give Indiana a season-opening 36-35 upset victory over No. 8 Penn State — ending the Big Ten’s longest streak of consecutive losses to
Top 10 teams at 42.
The winning play went to a replay review before the officials announced the initial call stood.
Indiana beat the Nittany Lions for the second time in 24 matchups, and beat a Top 10 foe for the first time since a 31-10 victory at Ohio State on Oct. 10, 1987.
And it took every trick in the book to get it done.
“All I’d seen was an opportunity, an opportunity to go out and show the world what the Indiana Hoosiers are all about,” Penix said. “They were playing man, so we’ve got to score to win the game and I wasn’t going to let my team down, so I went out and gave it my all.”
After Indiana failed to gain a first down after
Sean Clifford threw a goahead 60-yard touchdown pass to Jahan Dotson with 2:30 left, coach Tom Allen instructed his defense to let Penn State score.
Devyn Ford obliged with a 14-yard run with 1:42 to go. Penix then took the Hoosiers down the field, scored on a 1-yard TD run with 22 seconds to go, added the two-point conversion and eventually wound up in overtime after Jordan Stout’s 57yard field goal came up short with three seconds left in regulation.
“In really six years at Penn State and 10 years of being a head coach, we’ve not been a team to commit penalties and we’ve not been a team to get turnovers, and tonight we had both,” Penn State coach James Franklin said. “We finally got into a rhythm in the second half a little bit, but you can’t not play well on the road in the Big Ten against good opponents.”
Penn State made it 35-28 when Clifford hooked up with Parker Washington in overtime, but Whop Philyor caught a 9-yard TD pass for the Hoosiers and Penix won it when he dove for the goal line and the ball hit the pylon.