Game Wrap and Reaction: Penn State 34 Indiana 27
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Written by Sammy Jacobs (@Hoosier_Huddle)
Opponent: No. 9 Penn State Nittany Lions
Location: Saturday November 16th, 2019 State College, Pennsylvania
Why They Played: The Hoosiers and Nittany Lions met for the 23rd time as member of the Big Ten
What The Game Meant: Here we are in the middle of November and IU has seven victories and are simply playing for an improved bowl position. In addition, it is still feasible that Indiana could reach a record for wins in a season and a climb up the polls would undoubtedly follow with a win in State College. IU had never won at Penn State and the Nittany Lions wanted to make sure that did not change. Penn State still controls their own destiny, despite the loss to Minnesota. If they can win out, they would represent the Big Ten East in the Big Ten Championship game and have a shot at the College Football Playoff.
Top Offensive Performers:
Peyton Ramsey, QB, Indiana- Ramsey had another career day as he threw for 371 yards on 31-of-41 passing. He shook off two bad passes in the first half that could have been disastrous and moved the ball through the air at will the rest of the afternoon. Ramsey accounted for all three of Indiana’s touchdowns (2 rushing, 1 passing).
Ty Fryfogle, WR, Indiana-Fryfogle has quietly put together a nice season behind Whop Philyor and he exposed the Penn State defensive backs on Saturday. He caught five passes for 131 yards including a touchdown.
Sean Clifford, QB, Penn State- Clifford did not ‘wow’ in the passing game, but did enough and then he dominated when he could with his legs. Any time Indiana had good man coverage, Clifford found the holes and burned the Hoosiers with his legs. He was 11-of-23 passing for 179 yards and a touchdown. Clifford also rushed for two touchdowns and had 71 non-sack rushing yards.
Journey Brown, RB, Penn State- Brown accounted for 120 all-purpose yards and had a dagger touchdown run after the ill-fated fake punt. He ran for 100 yards on 21 carries.
Top Defensive Performers
Kahlil Bryant, DB, Indiana-Bryant led the Hoosiers in tackles with 10. He has become the senior leader the Hoosiers have needed as the young safeties have struggled.
James Miller, LB, Indiana- Miller broke out last November and now put up another big November game as he steps in for Thomas Allen. Miller made seven tackles including a sack and a forced fumble.
Micah McFadden, LB, Indiana-McFadden has become Indiana’s most disruptive linebacker. He only tallied four tackles, but he pressured Clifford three times and forced him to rush throws.
Micah Parsons, LB, Penn State- Parsons fills up the stat sheet. He made seven tackles, forced a fumble, broke up a pass and had one quarterback pressure.
Special Team Performance
Outside of Logan Justus and the kick-off coverage team, the Hoosiers did not have a good day on special teams. It started early as Whop Philyor misplayed a punt into a fumble (it didn’t look like he touched it, but he needs to stay away from the ball) that lead to Penn State’s first touchdown.
Punter Haydon Whitehead, who had been so good this season, did not have his best day. Whitehead punted three times for a net average of 34.3 yards and only pinned Penn State inside their own 20-yard line once. He failed to flip the field all afternoon.
Finally, the miscommunication on the fake punt that was not supposed to happen is inexcusable. Yes, it was waved off, but if it was always going to be a punt, just line up normally and boot it otherwise let Ramsey and the offense go for it.
Key Stat(s)
18/9:01
The drive that sealed the game for Penn State was an 18-play 75-yard trek that took 9:01 off the clock in the fourth quarter. The Hoosier had cut the Nittany Lion led to 27-24 when Penn State imposed their will on the ground. The Lions ran the ball on 16 of 18 plays and capped it off with a one-yard touchdown run by Sean Clifford to make the score 34-24. The Hoosiers had their chances to get off the field, but the Nittany Lions converted on a third-and-nine and two short fourth downs.
Turning Point
The turning point started on a bizarre sequence of action as Indiana took an early timeout on fourth-and-one at the 10:58-mark of the third quarter at their own 44-yard line. The Hoosiers ended up getting stuffed on a fake punt that was not supposed to happen. The Hoosiers probably should have punted and probably did not need to take a time out that early in the half. However, if Allen and the staff really wanted to roll the dice and go for it on fourth down, they should have just kept the offense out there. Penn State really could not contain IU’s offense much all day and the Hoosiers had been pretty solid in short yardage situations.
We all know what happened though. Freshman long snapper Sean Wratcher did not know that the fake was waved off and instead snapped the ball directly to Peyton Hendershot who was taken down for a four-yard loss and two plays later Penn State running back Journey Brown raced into the end zone for a 27-14 lead.
I Knew it Was Over When…
Penn State quarterback Sean Clifford ran into the end zone to cap off an 18-play touchdown drive.
Players of the Game
Peyton Ramsey, Indiana-Ramsey had three total touchdowns and over 400 yards of total offense.
Sean Clifford, Penn State-Clifford ran for two scores and threw another one. He avoided the big turnovers that killed him against Minnesota.
What I took away from the game
I have seen a few people say that IUFB fans are happy about Indiana’s loss at Penn State and that they have accepted these types of losing as what this program has become and is becoming. That’s just plain wrong. Indiana went into Penn State to face a top-10 team and battled them until the final whistle. They lost 34-27. Is the team happy? No. Are fans happy about the loss, absolutely not. However, being pleased with the progress this program has shown and celebrating a close loss are two different things.
The Hoosiers are a good football team. They are 7-3 (4-3) and had they played their ‘A-game’ they walk out of Penn State with a win. Good teams make mistakes, it happens to everybody. These are college players after all. I would say IU played their ‘B-game’. They overcame a misplayed punt from Whop Philyor, a handful of missed calls from referees and played in a really good football game. It is fair to say that IU shot themselves in the foot all day. If you want to get really picky one can say that IU handed Penn State 21 of their 34 points and took four points off the board themselves. Seven of Penn State’s points came off the Philyor misplay, seven more came after Juwan Burgess could not recover a fumble and the other seven came after Indiana botched a fake punt situation and Donavan Hale dropped a touchdown pass and Indiana had to settle for a field goal.
There were other issues as well for the Hoosiers. They lost the field position battle by 14 yards and the net punting battle by nine yards. Those are the hidden yards that close the gap between Indiana outgaining Penn State 462-371. The Hoosiers failed to get off the field on Penn State’s final drive that lasted 18 plays and chewed up over nine minutes of clock.
The Hoosiers are a good football team, but did not play well enough to beat a very good football team. IU threw the ball at will, even with Philyor missing more than half of the game and the defense showed what it still needs to do. The Hoosiers are still building. This is not a finished product, heck most coaches will probably saw there is no such thing as a finished product in sports, and there is still work to be done on the field and on the recruiting trail. Indiana had every opportunity to fold up shop and say, ‘it’s not our day, nothing is going our way. Let’s try again next week’. They didn’t and while the performance was not good enough, people who cannot accept that Tom Allen is making progress at IU are either ignorant or just don’t understand the history of the program. Indiana is not a flawless football team, heck no one is, but they are a good team who just happened to not play their ‘A-game’ against a top-10 team.
Now, on to the officiating. The officials did not cost Indiana the game, I want to get that out of the way, but they did embarrass themselves and the conference. After watching several replays it was pretty clear that Philyor did not touch the football on the misplayed punt. It doesn’t change the fact that he should not have put himself in that position, but it was pretty clear it did not touch him. Even more disturbing was the non-call, non-review of a very blanent targeting that put Whop Philyor into concussion protocol. Philyor took not one, but two helmet-to-helmet shots on a play that not only caused a lost fumble, but knocked IU’s leading receiver out of the game and possibly longer.
They play was reviewed, but it was to take a look at the fumble, at least according to the official on the field, and not for an obvious targeting hit. The Big Ten and NCAA have been gung-ho on cleaning up those kinds of hits out of the game and preach player safety at every opportunity. To not even review it for that penalty is a complete and utter joke to that notion. Maybe they review it and don’t call it, fine. However, to not even review it should lead to some kind of reparations to the officiating crew. Tom Allen, Whop Philyor and the Hoosiers need an explanation from the head of Big Ten officials especially seeing that a player was knocked out of a game and possibly could be out longer.