San Francisco Chronicle - (Sunday)
Hoosiers’ gambles produce rare victory over top10 team
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. — Quarterback Michael Penix forced overtime with a 2point conversion run with 22 seconds left, then scored on a diving 2point conversion to give Indiana a seasonopening 3635 win over No. 8 Penn State on Saturday to end the Big Ten’s longest streak of consecutive losses to top10 teams at 42.
The winning play — Penix barely broke the plane with the ball, his outstretched 6foot3 frame lunging forward — 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 top10 foe for the first time since a 3110 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 60yard touchdown pass to Jahan Dotson with 2: 30 left in the fourth quarter, coach Tom Allen instructed his defense to let Penn State score.
Devyn Ford obliged with a 14yard run with 1: 42 to go. Penix then took the Hoosiers down the field, scored on a 1yard TD run with 22 seconds to go and added the 2point conversion.
The game wound up in overtime when Jordan Stout’s 57yard fieldgoal try came up short with 3 seconds left in regulation.
Penn State made it 3528 when Clifford hooked up with Parker Washington in overtime, but Whop Philyor caught a 9yard TD pass for the Hoosiers and Penix won it when he dove for the goal line and the ball hit the pylon.
“We’d been close so many times, and I was tired of being close,” Allen said of going for two points in OT. “It felt like the right thing to do.”