Daily Local News (West Chester, PA)
Penn State
Tom Allen decided to end the game one way or the other and went for two points.
Penix sprinted around the left side and reached for the pylon in the left corner of the end zone with safety Jaquan Brisker draped over him. The officials on the field ruled that Penix reached the end zone, but television replays showed that the ball touched the ground short of the pylon and out of bounds.
After a lengthy review, the Big Ten crewruled that the play stood, andtheHoosiers had their first win over a top 10 since 1987 and only their second over the Lions in 24 meetings.
“It stunk,” Penn State tight end Pat Freiermuth said. “You never want to leave the game up to the refs. We want to end the game on our terms. To be honest, we were lucky to be at that point because of the (three) turnovers.
“I was by myself. I saw the replay. I’m going to leave my opinion out of it.”
The Lions were in position to win, despite two interceptions by Sean Clifford, a fumble by backup quarterback Will Levis, 10 penalties for 100 yards and multiple special teams mistakes, including three missed field goals.
After Clifford threwa 60yard touchdown pass to Jahan Dotson to give Penn State a 21-20 leadwith 2:30 to go, Shaka Toney sacked Penix twice before Penix threw an incompletion on fourth down. The Lions had the ball at the Hoosiers’ 14 to go and could have run out the clock because Indiana had one timeout left.
Clifford handed off to Ford, who ran towards the end zone before he slowed down, but it was too late. His momentum carried him into the end zone.
“It’s my job as the head coach to make sure everybody clearly understands those situations and that didn’t happen,” Penn State’s James Franklin said. “We
went through that situation this week (in practice). We went through that situation on the sideline.
“Obviously we could have handled it better and I could have handled it better. But I don’t want to make it about that one play.”
Indiana still had to drive 75 yards for a touchdown and convert a two-point conversion against a defense that had limited the Hoosiers to 133 total yards to that point.
Penix, whowas pressured most of the afternoon, completed 5-of-5 passes for 54 yards and scored a touchdown on a sneak. He also ran off the left side to tie it with 22 seconds to go. Indiana also took advantage of a facemask penalty on defensive end Adisa Isaac and an offsides call.
“Just penalties, that’s all I can say really,” Penn State cornerback Joey Porter Jr. said. “We put them in the game with penalties that shouldn’t have been thrown. We’ve just got to be better in situations like that.”
Indiana kicker Jared Smolar then inexplicably hit an onside kick that Penn State’s Daniel George recovered at the Indiana 49. That gave the Lions another chance to win in regulation, but Jordan Stout’s 57-yard field goal try was just short.
Penn State trailed 17-7 at halftime and couldn’t have played much worse on offense and special teams. Jake Pinegar missed two field goals, and the Lions turned it over three times, once inside their 10 and once inside the Indiana 10.
The Lions also lost sophomore running back Noah Cain in the first quarter because of an ankle injury. That forced Ford to carry the loadwith freshmen Caziah Holmes and Keyvone Lee spelling him. Penn State already was without Journey Brown, who mightmiss the season with a medical condition.
Clifford rushed for 119 yards and one touchdown, a brilliant 35-yard run that ended the third quarter. He also passed for 238 yards
and three touchdowns, but the Hoosiers converted his two interceptions into 10 points.
“I don’t think our attention to detail was great, including myself,” Freiermuth said. “We started
fastbut we have to continue that momentum. We clearly didn’t do that. We had good opportunities in the red
zone, but we turned the ball over too many times. You can’t win the game by doing that.