It seemed as if Penn State had gone and won the game.
Minutes into the fourth quarter, after converting a clutch third down, the Nittany Lions had the ball on their 47. Quarterback Sean Clifford dropped back, took the time he needed and threw a pass, high and deep over the middle of the field. Wide receiver KJ Hamler blew past Michigan safety Josh Metellus.
It was as easy as a 53-yard touchdown could look, giving No. 7-ranked Penn State a 14-point lead over the 16th-ranked Wolverines.
But then, Michigan pushed back, driving 75 yards on nine plays, punching it into the end zone with a 1-yard quarterback sneak from Shea Patterson to draw within seven.
The Nittany Lions gave the ball back on a three-and-out, and the Wolverines moved it down the field again, bringing the game down to a fourth-and-goal. Patterson dropped back, scrambled to his right and fired into the end zone, where wide receiver Ronnie Bell had his man beat. On what would have been the tying score, Bell dropped it, and the White Out crowd — the fourth-largest in Beaver Stadium history — went into a frenzy.
Penn State iced out the clock on its next drive, and the Nittany Lions, 7-0 overall, 4-0 in the Big Ten Conference, escaped with a narrow, 28-21 win.
“We didn’t play, I would say, our best in all three phases today, but we played well enough to win the game,” coach James Franklin said after the game. “We played really good complementary football. We made plays when it was needed. We made big plays on defense when it was needed. We made big plays on offense when it was needed and same thing on special teams. So we’ll critique the heck out of this, find a way to get better. We’ll enjoy it the rest of the night.”
The thing about it was the fourth-down stop seemed like the umpteenth opportunity Penn State had to put the game away, as they originally leaped out to a 21-point lead in the second quarter.
The Nittany Lions got their first scoring drive going with a 37-yard strike down the left sideline to wide receiver Jahan Dotson, bringing the ball into the red zone. On the next play, Clifford floated one into the right corner of the end zone, where tight end Pat Freiermuth was waiting, and Penn State got out to an early 7-0 lead.
On the Nittany Lions’ next possession, they got another chunk play, this time from running back Ricky Slade, who ripped it up the middle for a 44-yard gain deep into Michigan territory. After defensive penalties moved the ball closer, Clifford punched it in from the 2, stretching Penn State’s lead to 14.
A little more than seven minutes later the Nittany Lions got the ball back on an interception by cornerback Tariq Castro-Fields, who jumped a screen pass. Moments later, Clifford lobbed a 25-yard pass over the top of Michigan’s defense, finding Hamler to make it a three-possession game halfway through the second quarter.
“I think the approach was win your 1/11th, win your one-on-one matchup at all times, from the linemen to the running backs to the receivers on offense,” Hamler said. “We knew that they were a tough team, their corners are very good, the corners, the safeties, the DBs. The whole team was very good, so we just knew we had to execute better and give everything we had.”
But even then, the Wolverines answered. Michigan running back Zach Charbonnet took a 12-yard carry around the right end with 2:55 left in the second quarter to cut it to 14 again.
Then, when Penn State couldn’t convert its offensive chances in the third quarter — it had just 16 yards the entire quarter — Michigan struck again, on another 12-yard run from Charbonnet.
That’s when Hamler, who finished with six catches for 108 yards and two touchdowns, took the top off the Wolverines’ defense for what was ultimately the game-winning score.
“We really had to stay calm,” Hamler said. “I think the defense really did a heck of a job on that goal-line stand. I think that really helped us and gave us way more confidence. And coming out and, just, executing how we needed to execute was the thing.”
At the time, it felt like that would be the end of the dramatics, with the Nittany Lions finding the spark they so desperately needed in the second half.
As it turns out, the statistics are unkind to Penn State. It lost the yardage battle and the possession battle. But Michigan blinked when it really mattered. The Nittany Lions closed it out, and they will be perfectly happy with that.
Mike Persak: mpersak@post-gazette.com and Twitter @MikeDPersak.
First Published: October 20, 2019, 4:27 a.m.
