Workin’ overtime
Illini stun No. 7 Nittany Lions in NCAA’s 1st ever 9OT game
STATE COLLEGE, Pa. — Over the course of an unprecedented nine overtimes, Illinois survived Penn State’s botched attempt at a trick play, lost its quarterback and a powerful running back to injury, and failed to gain just three measly yards again and again.
When Casey Washington finally came down with the winning catch Saturday, he hardly knew what to do.
“I actually cried,” he said. “It just felt good.”
The Illini came out victorious in the NCAA’s first ever nine-overtime game, edging the seventh-ranked Nittany Lions 20-18 on Washington’s 2-point conversion catch from Brandon Peters to end a string of goal-line stalemates under college football’s recently rewritten overtime rules.
The sides were tied at 10 after regulation, exchanged field goals in the first two overtimes, then began to alternate one-and-done drives from the 3-yard line in the third OT as part of a format tweaked ahead of the 2021 season.
Penn State tried to win it then and there with a variation of the famed “Philly Special” play the Eagles used to win Super Bowl LII. Quarterback Sean Clifford — still suffering from an unspecified injury sustained Oct. 9 against Iowa — was wide open near the goal line on the trick play, but tight end Tyler Warren’s pass attempt missed its mark.
Quarterback Artur Sitkowski missed a receiver on Illinois’ first try, and both defense held firm for the four OTs that followed.
Illinois attempted three more passes that fell incomplete, and Josh McCray was stopped at the goal line in the seventh overtime.
Meanwhile, Clifford missed his next two 2-point passes while Noah Cain was stuffed to start the fifth and seventh overtimes.
Sitkowski — normally the backup — was injured in the sixth OT and replaced by Peters, the regular starter who had been sidelined by injury. McCray, who had 142 yards on 24 carries, also left and didn’t return after being pulled down and slamming his helmet off the grass.
Finally in OT No. 8, Isaiah Williams ran one in to put Illinois up 18-16, only to have Cain keep the game alive with a 2-point run of his own.
In the ninth OT, Clifford’s pass to Parker Washington was broken up by linebacker Khalan Tolson.
Peters then found Washington near the back of the end zone for the winning completion.
“I just had to hold onto it for the team,” Washington said.
When Washington caught the ball, his teammates piled on him. Others ran to center field to cartwheel or do backflips — surprising energy after a game that lasted 4 hours, 11 minutes.
The 2-point conversion shootout format was introduced in 2019, the season after LSU and Texas A&M played a seven-overtime game that left both teams badly beaten up. The rule was tweaked this year, with the 2-point conversion possessions beginning with the third overtime instead of the fifth.
Bullish backs Chase Brown and McCray blasted through wide-open holes and flanked Penn State’s defense for a combined 365 rushing yards and a touchdown and James McCourt kicked three field goals, including 39- and 32-yarders in overtime, on a soggy day at Beaver Stadium. The Illini (3-5, 2-3 Big Ten) outgained the Nittany Lions 370 yards to 207 in regulation and battled back from an early 10-0 deficit.
“To see our locker room right now is pretty special,” Illinois coach Bret Bielema said. “They fight for one another.”