Scarcella

Indiana did the only thing it could do by offering no resistance. Clifford handed off to Ford, who ran through the hole unscathed, slowed down inside the 5 and looked down at the goal line, but it was too late. His momentum had carried him into the end zone.

Ford looked sheepish, like a child who had been caught with his hand in the cookie jar. None of his teammates congratulated him right away. He made a mistake and so did Franklin, an even bigger one.

If Ford had fallen down inside the 4- yard line, Penn State would have picked up a first down and could have run out the clock.

But if Franklin had instructed Clifford to take a knee four times and not risk a fumble, Indiana would have gotten the ball back with about 10 seconds and 80 yards to go, by my estimation, without a timeout. In other words, the Hoosiers would have needed a miracle to tie it.

“What we wanted to do was get as much as you can and get down, OK?” Franklin said. “That’s the situation. We’ve covered it. We went through it during the game.”

Taking four knees would have been the simplest path to a win and would have not put the responsibility on the shoulders of Ford, a sophomore seeing his most significant playing time.

“I talked to Devyn and told him to stay off social media,” tight end Pat Freiermuth said. “I told him to put his head down and that I’m going to have his back. I’mgoing to be there for him. It didn’t come down to that one play.”

Even after the gaffe and after Penn State had taken a 28- 20 lead, Indiana still had to drive 75 yards and score a 2- point conversion to tie it. Penix completed all five of his passes on the drive, and the Lions were penalized twice for 20 yards. He scored the touchdown on a sneak and the conversion on an improvised run.

In overtime, Penn State scored first when Clifford threw a 9- yard pass to freshman Parker Washington. Indiana answered when Penix did the same, finding Whop Philyor. Hoosiers coach Tom Allen then decided to end the game, one way or the other, by going for two.

Penix rolled around the left side with Jaquan Brisker bearing down on him. He stretched his left arm toward the goal line and eventually hit the pylon with the ball. The official on the field called it successful, but replays and photographs showed that the ball was out of bounds and short of the goal line before it hit the pylon.

“We just let the quarterback get outside of that box,” safety Lamont Wade said. “We didn’t want to do that. Brisker was hunting him down. It looked like the ball was out of bounds before it touched the pylon.”

Penn State, though, should have put away the game earlier. The Lions outgained the Hoosiers 488- 211 and owned a 2- to- 1 advantage in time of possession. They ran 87 plays to 62 for Indiana and held Indiana to 3.4 yards a snap.

All the numbers pointed to a Penn State win, except the turnovers, the penalties and the missed field goals.

“I thought our defense played pretty well,” Franklin said. “I thought they were in some tough situations with the turnovers. Without the turnovers, I think it’s a completely different story. To me it’s turnovers and penalties.

“Over the last six years, that’s very uncharacteristic for us.”

Indiana picked up its first win over a top 10 team since 1987 and beat the Lions for only the second time in 24 meetings. With Ohio State visiting Beaver Stadium, Penn State now faces the prospect of starting 0- 2 for the first time since 2012.

It’s not exactly the way the Lions wanted to begin this truncated season.

“I don’t think our attention to detail was great, including myself,” Freiermuth said. “We started fast but 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.

“We have to flush that game down and get ready for Ohio State.”

Easier said than done.