Lions avoid eerie situations in Evanston

Vinny Pezzimenti

EVANSTON, Ill. — Penn State fans could be forgiven for possessing the creeping feelings of “here we go again.”

AP photo/Nam Y. Huh

Penn State Derek Moye (6) celebrates his 53-yard touchdown catch with teammate Chaz Powell during the fourth quarter on Saturday.

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As night slowly descended on Ryan Field on Saturday and the third quarter turned into the fourth, the scoreboard read: Northwestern 13, Penn State 13.

On Halloween of all days, the Nittany Lions sure seemed in for some twisted trick, a loss that would wipe away every one of their BCS bowl game aspirations.

Though Penn State was a 17-point favorite, history told us to expect anything but a blowout. The last three meetings between these teams here were wild and wacky, filled with comebacks and collapses.

But then running back Brandon Beachum scored from two yards out on the fifth play of the fourth quarter. And then the Nittany Lions produced touchdowns on their next two offensive plays.

The 34-13 Penn State victory will serve as a tasty treat. Maybe a bit of a relief, too.

After all, Northwestern created an eerie feeling that it would be in this one until the end.

“We fully expected to win that game,” Wildcat kicker Stefan Demos said. “Playing with Penn State for three quarters is in no way a moral victory at all. We thought we had that game.”

Through 30 minutes, the Wildcats moved the ball steadily behind quarterback Mike Kafka, running 19 more plays than the Nittany Lions and holding the ball more than six minutes longer.

They also shut down Penn State’s running game, and even their beat-up secondary — walk-on Ricky Weina started in place of top cornerback Sherrick McManus — contained quarterback Daryll Clark and his stable of receivers (a few big drops by Graham Zug didn’t hurt matters).

What’s more, Northwestern made the Nittany Lions pay for a few of their mistakes and the Wildcats found a way not to compound theirs. Take a look:

Northwestern continued to march toward a first-quarter field goal when a Penn State penalty for too many men on the field on fourth-and-three kept the drive alive. If that wasn’t bad enough, the Nittany Lions were one short on players on Demos’ 34-yard kick.

That kick — through winds gusting between 15 and 24 mph — was an adventure for Demos. According to the kicker, his boot started in the middle and blew left through the uprights. The interesting thing about it was that the flags on top of the uprights were blowing right.

Of the wind, Demos said, “I didn’t know what it was doing.” No problem.

Demos also made something out of nothing when he dropped a punt snap in the second quarter. Inside his 20, he evaded a rushing Nate Stupar and flipped the ball to Mark Woodsum for nine yards and first down.

The play kept the Wildcats’ 10-3 lead intact.

“That was the farthest thing from a college fake,” Demos admitted.

To complete his wild first half, Demos connected on a 45-yarder into the wind with three seconds left after Northwestern quickly marched into field goal range.

Go figure, the Wildcats led 13-10. Here we go again, or so we thought.

“We had 30 minutes left to play,” coach Pat Fitzgerald said. “We need to go make some plays. That’s a good football team we played. There’s a lot of good football teams in this league. You’ve got to make plays. End of discussion. If you want to win games it’s about big plays and execution and playing physical and doing it for 60 minutes. Right now as a coaching staff, we’re not getting our guys to do that consistently enough. That’s on us.”

But despite racking up just two yards on nine plays in the third quarter behind backup QB Dan Persa, who took over for an injured Kafka in the second quarter, the game was still tied.

“We played a great game for three quarters,” Demos said. “That’s just not enough to win a Big Ten game against a team like Penn State.”

Indeed, following Beachum’s score the eerie feelings were no more. Take a look:

Returner Jeravin Mathews dropped the ensuing kickoff, starting Northwestern at its own 6. Following a three-and-out, Clark faked to running back Evan Royster, rolled right and found a wide open Derek Moye deep for 53-yard touchdown. Backup safety Brian Peters was beaten badly on the play.

The Wildcats were beaten again moments later when Royster burst untouched for a 69-yard score. By then, the only reason for the home fans to stick around was a the fireworks show that would follow.

“Penn State took advantage of it when we didn’t do our job,” safety Brad Phillips said. “I feel like a broken record because that’s what’s been happening in the games that we’ve been close. Teams have taken advantage of us when we don’t do our job appropriately.”

Meanwhile, Persa, who played his high school at Bethlehem Liberty in the Lehigh Valley, struggled to spark Northwestern’s short-pass, fast-paced offense. He was sacked four times and couldn’t replace Kafka, who connected on 14 of 18 passes for 128 yards and added 46 yards rushing on eight carries.

Said Fitzgerald, “I thought we lost our attitude.”

So in the end, Penn State didn’t need a Zack Mills 4-yard touchdown pass to Eric McCoo with 22 seconds left as it did in 2001, or a 36-yard strike from Michael Robinson to Derrick Williams as it did in 2005.

Those were memorable victories. Fortunately, for the Nittany Lions and their fans, this one wasn’t.

Vinny Pezzimenti covers Penn State football for the Centre Daily Times. He can be reached at 231-4629 or vpezzime@centredaily.com.