Plenty of blame to go around in Penn State loss
Because of its three turnovers, 10 penalties for 100 yards, three missed field goals and a fourthquarter blunder, Penn State violated a cardinal rule in sports Saturday at Indiana.
“NEVER put the game in the refs’ hands,” wide receiver Jahan Dotson tweeted hours after the game.
Dotson was right. Even though it appeared that Hoosiers quarterback Michael Penix didn’t reach the pylon before going out of bounds on the controversial game-winning two-point conversion, the Nittany Lions put themselves in position for their fate to be decided on an arbitrary call in overtime.
Penn State lost 36-35 to Indiana in its season opener because Sean Clifford threw two interceptions that led to 10 points, Will Levis fumbled, the defense committed two penalties for 20 yards on the Hoosiers’ game-tying drive and — the most critical mistake — Devyn Ford scored an accidental touchdown.
After they made a tremendous defensive stop with 1:47 to go in regulation, the Lions held a 21-20 lead and the ball at the Indiana 14. The only way they could lose control of the game was by giving the ball back to the Hoosiers,
which had just one timeout left.
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