Still hard to believe Penn State beat Ohio State
Like many of you, I sat there on the couch for a few moments, kind of speechless, and confused, and just plain puzzled.
What did I just see?
ABC aired a replay. And then another. And yet another.
And I was still in disbelief.
What just happened?
Signature win: Penn State shocks No. 2 Ohio State
At the beginning of the fourth quarter, Penn State seemed dead in the water. More than dead in the water. It appeared the game was over. Ohio State led 21-7 after scoring a safety after a botched punt snap. Nothing, at that point, seemed to be going right.
Penn State responded by going 90 yards for a touchdown. Then, the Lions added a field goal and the score was suddenly 21-17.
Any glimmer of hope evaporated when Ohio State then marched down the field and set up for a 45-yard field goal that would give the Buckeyes a touchdown lead with just over four minutes left.
They make this field goal and it would seem hopeless. Sure, Penn State's defense played a great game and the offense had shown flashes. But quarterback Trace McSorley had completed only eight passes all night. Running back Saquon Barkley had a few nice runs, but still hadn't broken the 100-yard mark. A touchdown lead at this point, well, it seemed over.
Then, it happened.
Safety Marcus Allen – arguably among the best defensive backs to ever play at the Penn State – broke through the line and blocked the kick. The ball bounced right to cornerback Grant Haley, who snatched it and took it to the north end zone.
Suddenly, after the extra point, Penn State was leading 24-21 with 4:27 to go.
Penn State was leading a game it had no business leading. All of the stats favored Ohio State. Ohio State outgained Penn State, 413 to 276. Ohio State had made 19 first downs to Penn State's 13. There was no statistical category that favored Penn State. None.
And they won.
Penn State stuns college football world (column)
Perhaps it was an omen that just before Penn State's improbable win, the Chicago Cubs beat the L.A. Dodgers to make it to the World Series for the time since, well, forever. The Cubs. Weird things were happening in the sports universe.
It was bound to happen. Just as it was bound to happen that the ball would bounce the Lions' way one of these days.
Like many of you, I faced Saturday night's game with a sense of dread. Ohio State was rolling along. The week before, it survived a game against Wisconsin, a Top 10 team, but most weeks, it was steamrolling over the middling schools of the Big Ten, a group that, for good or ill, included Penn State. Penn State was coming off a pretty good win, but that was Maryland and well, it was Maryland.
Like many of you, I was having flashbacks to the 2013 game, when Ohio State hung 63 on the Nittany Lions.
It didn't look good.
On paper, it looked awful. Ohio State was favored by three touchdowns and lot of us felt that seemed kind of low.
I know, last week, my prediction for this game was to watch something else. I still watched it because it's what I do. I had to watch, even if it was going to be a train wrecking into a dumpster fire. The best-case scenario heading into the game is that it would give me an excuse to throw some chicken wings in the smoker and enjoy a few beers while sitting on the couch with the dogs who would forever be traumatized by the cursing directed at the TV.
I had never been so glad to have been so wrong.
As Ohio State looms, it's a bad week for Penn State fans (column)
This is what it's like to be a Penn State fan, or sports fan, in general. It doesn't matter whether you think your team is going to be beaten like a rented mule. You still watch. You have hope, just a small, flickering flame of hope, that remains ignited despite having a metric ton of sand being poured on it.
You have that hope that something good will happen.
It's been a long time since anything good happened for Penn State fans. Since the darkest days – deserved dark days – when the Sandusky scandal hung over the program, Penn State football has kind of stumbled around. It hasn't been pretty, both on and off the field, as the university is still embroiled in legal proceedings resulting from the sins of the past.
The Ohio State game wasn't just a win. It was like a catharsis, or maybe an exorcism, the university finally seeing a way to put its past in the rearview and move forward.
Or maybe that’s reading way too much into it.
It's just one game, one game in which the ball, for once, bounced the right way, and Penn State was in a position to take advantage of it.
And it was just a game, not nearly enough to cleanse the university of past ills.
Nothing more.
Sure, there were some tears shed in the stands at Beaver Stadium, as shown during the aftermath of the big win. And there was a general sense of relief, that finally Penn State had beaten someone it had no business beating. And there was a sense of wonder that somehow, this team had pulled off nothing less than a miracle on the order of the fishes and loaves.
There was something about that moment, the moment just after Haley dove into the north end zone, that was, well, unreal.
I just watched it again, on Monday morning, on the Internet.
It's still hard to believe that it happened.
Penn State has five games left this season and, believe it not, it could still get to the Big 10 championship game. The scenario is kind of complicated. If Ohio State and Michigan win the rest of their games, the winner of the OSU-Michigan season finale would go to the Big Ten title game. (Penn State's Pitt loss, for some reason, would serve as the tie-breaker.) But if Michigan loses before it faces Ohio State, and Ohio State beats Michigan, then Penn State, if it wins the rest of its games, goes to Indianapolis.
There's no way that could happen, right? Just like there was no way Penn State could have beaten Ohio State.
I'll believe it when I see it. And even then, I'll have my doubts.
This week's completely uninformed prediction: Purdue. Huh. Let's see. The only team both have played so far this season was Maryland. Purdue lost to Maryland, 50-7. Penn State beat Maryland, 38-14. So that means, Penn State should beat Purdue by 67 points, right?
OK, maybe not.
Mike Argento's column appears Mondays and Fridays in Living and Sundays in Viewpoints. Reach him at 717-771-2046 or at mike@ydr.com.