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The 108,247 Beaver Stadium inmates -- or at least the 85% who didn't bolt when their No. 12 Penn State Nittany Lions were trailing 8-point underdog Iowa 35-13 with 7 minutes left in the third quarter -- were turning the storied football palace into the occasional nuthouse that gives the Nitts one of the biggest home field advantages in college football.
Somehow, in a pig-slopper of a game that saw the Lions' defense shredded for 470 yards -- 209 rushing -- in a nearly 2-1 Iowa possession advantage, Penn State had parlayed a massive sense of desperation into a fourth quarter miracle that erased the entire deficit.
When Bryant Johnson ran a perfect fade pattern into the right corner of the end zone, outleaping Iowa's D.J. Johnson for an 8-yard T.D. reception with 1:20 left and Robbie Gould converted, the explosive reverbrations bounced off the Nittanies and rattled dishes in Bellefonte, Houtzdale and Lemont Furnace.
Somehow, this moribund production would find a way to produce the happy ending in both teams' Big Ten season opener that would give the Lions some needed momentum as they contemplated road games against two ranked teams -- Wisconsin (5-0 and No. 16 in The Associated Press poll, No. 21 in the coaches') this Saturday, followed by No. 14 Michigan (4-1).
The 90,000-plus dreamers allowed themselves to envision the great escape. And then...fzzzzzzt...there were the Iowa kids running off the field after a 42-35 stunner that left the huge stadium in shocked silence, save the ravings of a couple thousand cloistered Hawkeyes fans in the northeast corner.
For Penn State, it was an unwanted revisitation to some of the annoying problems of the last couple of seasons. Sluggishness for one.
"We were a little flat," defensive tackle Jimmy Kennedy admitted to gopsusports.com. "I tried to get guys up in the locker room, but no one responded. I have no clue why. It felt like no one was going out there and playing with a passion."
Forget for a moment a less-than-brilliant day for the officials, who blew two overtime judgement calls that could have produced a completed Penn State comeback and that turgid two-point runback rule on failed extra point attempts.
No, instead focus on some sobering realities...
* Penn State simply appears not to have the correct muscular ingredients to consistently win Big Ten line battles. Iowa's lines won this game. "(Quarterback) Zack Mills has been tattooed the entire day by that Iowa defense," game color analyst Jack Ham declared.
* The Lions were dealing with one of the Big Ten's brighter young offensive minds, Kirk Ferentz, a native Pennsylvanian. The 4-1 Hawkeyes threw a diverse package of west coast jailbreak plays combined with the pounding rushes of Fred Russell, who carried 35 times for 142 yards and ran 20 yards for the second Iowa touchdown in a 17-0 first quarter Penn State meltdown.
* Defensive coordinator Tom Bradley's troops seemed a step late on Brad Banks' continuous zig-zag passing game as the Hawks' bright veteran hit C.J. Jones for two touchdowns, including the 6-yard overtime game-winning slant over the middle among his 18-for-30, four-t.d., 261-yard efforts.
"We'll see (about the game's effect on the next few weeks)," coach Joe Paterno told gopsusports.com afterward. "I was worried with everyone getting all enamored with (Iowa's) tricky stuff and all the other stuff.
"That stuff is ok, but the team that lines up and is as sound as they (Iowa) are, you have to make some things happen. You have to catch the football, you have to block people and you have to be a little smarter than we were on a couple occasions."
The warning signs came early when Banks, facing a third-and-14 on his on 16 and the crowd at full throated roar, executed a perfect quarterback draw that produced a 17-yard gain and was the key play of an 80-yard drive ending in a 4-yard Banks-to-Jones flip that silenced the crowd and, unfortunately, set the tone.
Russell's 20-yard T.D. bolt, two long Nate Kaeding field goals (47 yards and 55, the latter bouncing off the left upright at the first half's final gun) and a 22-yard Banks-to-Ed Hinkle (an Erie, Pa., native) pass were answered only by a 28-yard Mills to Bryant Johnson pass that came with the Lions down 23-0.
But along with the line play, another decider was the fact that Penn State, which had benefitted hugely from spotty opponents' special team play and good field position, spent the day working the long field. Of Penn State's 14 regulation possessions, eight began inside its 20, two more just outside it.
"Any time you play Penn State -- especially now, this looks like Penn State again," Iowa coach Kirk Ferentz told gopsusports.com, "they're a very talented football team so that was a big part of it."
When the score reached 35-13 after Maurice Brown had countered Larry Johnson's early third-quarter 1-yard line smash by taking a bubble screen pass right from Banks, and hip-hopping past safety Chris Harrell to convert it into a 54-yard T.D., a sizable chunk of the faithful left the shrine.
Even the second Penn State touchdown had a downside as D.J. Johnson deflected Robbie Gould's conversion attempt that would have cut it to 26-14 and, with a fortuitous bounce, scooped it up and ran it back for two points that instead upped the Hawkeyes' margin to 28-13.
The Lions did seem to be in 2001 replay mode. But Mills' magical efforts, despite the constant harassment of Colin Cole, Howard Hodges and a rotating collection of linebackers, brought Penn State all the way back.
"Execution was the difference," Mills said. "Once we started getting on a roll and started making plays that got them on their heels a little bit, that gave us confidence."
Suddenly, the Lions' passing game applied a little Johnson's wax to a belabored Iowa secondary. First it was Mills hitting Larry Johnson for a 36-yard touchdown with 7:13 left to cut it to 35-20 with Gould's kick. Finally, the Penn State defense picked up a little momentum and began rushing Banks' throws and after a 13-yard David Bradley punt Lions finally got some good field position on Iowa's 45
With stunning suddenness, Mills took advantage of rare good pass blocking and hit Tony Johnson for a 44-yard T.D. and Chris Ganter, son of offensive coordinator Fran Ganter, ran in the two-point conversion off the fake kick to bring State within 35-28 with 3:51 left.
The defense fed off the offensive momentum and crowd. "...We knew it was going to be a 60-minute football game and that's exactly what it was..." Ferentz said to gopsusports.com.
Another quick stop, with timeouts at a premium, and suddenly the Lions found themselves with the ball on their own 36 and 2:23 left.
Mills gobbled up 42 yards in a hurry with completions to Larry Johnson (18 yards) and Casey Williams (24)...and a gadget play pass to kicker Gould, a versatile athlete, got Penn State to the Iowa 8, from where Mills hit Bryant Johnson for the T.D. that jacked up the volume to deafening levels.
Gould's extra point created a euphoria that resembled the second half of the Nebraska game.
"We could have given up," Gould said to gopsusports.com, "but we bounced back and tied the game up. We gave ourselves a chance to win..."
But a highly-questionable possession ruling in overtime on Banks' first-and-15 sideline pass to Maurice Brown that set up second-and-short gave the Hawkeyes the needed momentum and shortly thereafter Banks hit C.J. Jones for a 6-yard score.
By way of contrast, Penn State was victimized when Mills' pass for Tony Johnson on the left sideline was ruled incomplete, even though replay clearly showed the receiver had his right foot on the ground as he one-handed the ball and fell out of bounds, not a dissimilar situation to the one Charlie Rogers had when catching the go-ahead touchdown against Notre Dame last Saturday for Michigan State.
The officiating had been such that a vaunted Lion alumnus, 1999 All-American linebacker LeVar Arrington, now with the Washington Redskins, was tossed off the sidelines for taunting the referees, establishing a level of hostility.
And Paterno wasn't bashful about a few choice post-game editorial comments to the seemingly step-slow crew. "I thought they made a couple of lousy calls on the other side of the field," was all he'd tell the media afterward, but it had become abundantly clear the game's speed and precision had passed by some of the men in stripes.
But in the end, Penn State was left to wonder how it would regain some form of the earlier momentum as it wanders out to Camp Randall Stadium in Madison to face another typical Big 10 smashmouth unit in Wisconsin.
"We have to put this loss behind us and focus on the next eight games," Bryant Johnson said to gopsusports.com. "We showed a lot of confidence by making a comeback and kept fighting, knowing we were never going to give up."
They will need all of it to derail a Wisconsin team that is ready to rejoin the Big Ten's elite. |
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Paul Smith is the midwest correspondent for collegeBLITZ.com
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