Fernando Mendoza shook his head and exhaled on the sideline. The Indiana quarterback’s dazzling game-winning touchdown pass to wide receiver Omar Cooper Jr. with 36 seconds left had just been upheld, and the Hoosiers escaped a trap game at Penn State with a narrow 27-24 comeback win.
Penn State entered this matchup on a five-game losing streak with a fired coach and a season down in the dumps. But the Nittany Lions showed energy and flair – the defense regularly got pressure on Mendoza and Penn State quarterback Ethan Grunkemeyer showed improvement since he took over for an injured Drew Allar. They rallied from a 20-7 deficit and nearly knocked off the No. 2 team in the country.
But in the end, Indiana overcame its first taste of adversity and remains undefeated with all of its goals still intact.
Here are my takeaways from one of the wildest finishes of this season:
1. Mendoza’s Heisman moment?
After allowing Penn State to come back from a 20-7 hole and take a 24-20 lead with 6:27 remaining, Mendoza led Indiana on an epic game-winning drive with no timeouts left and under two minutes to play.
Here’s how it unfolded:
The drive started when Penn State defensive tackle Zane Durant sacked Mendoza for a loss of seven yards, knocking him back to his own 7-yard line. The Nittany Lions were getting pressure all day — they had three sacks and an interception — but Mendoza made plays when he needed to and proceeded to throw dime after dime to get his offense down the field.
There was a 22-yarder to Cooper on second down to give his offense some breathing room. Then there was a 12-yard pass to WR E.J. Williams, a 29-yard ball to TE Riley Nowakowski up the middle, and a 17-yarder to WR Charlie Becker to get inside the 10. After two incompletions, Mendoza found Cooper in the back of the end zone on third-and-goal for one of the most jaw-dropping catches of the season.
Indiana’s Omar Copper makes INCREDIBLE toe-tap catch for a 7-yard TD
Initially, Mendoza’s pass looked like it may have been slightly overthrown, but Cooper made an unbelievable play and got his left foot down in the back of the end zone to save Indiana’s perfect record and potentially Mendoza’s Heisman campaign. Penn State got the ball back with 36 seconds left, which ended up not being enough time for a last-ditch effort.
“Didn’t draw it up in the dirt, but I mean we saw what they were doing and it’s a great throw and catch,” Indiana head coach Curt Cignetti said after the game. “And you know what? This was an unbelievable game. I’ve seen a lot of stuff in my days. I’ve never seen anything quite like this.”
2. This is the Nick Singleton we were waiting to see
Penn State running back Nicholas Singleton is one of several Penn State players who decided to delay the NFL and come back for one more college season. After making it to the College Football Playoff semifinal last year, he and some of his teammates wanted another run at a title.
Singleton and Kaytron Allen were supposed to be the best running back tandem in the league this season, but things haven’t gone as planned in Happy Valley. Entering this game, Singleton had only amassed 292 rushing yards and seven touchdowns this season. His longest run was for 16 yards against FIU in Week 2.
But he showed up late vs. Indiana, breaking free for a 59-yard run to the 2-yard line in the fourth quarter. Two plays later, he scored to make the score 20-17, IU. The Hoosiers turned the ball over on their next drive and when Penn State got the ball back, Singleton scored again to give his team a brief lead.
Ethan Grunkemeyer connects with Nick Singleton for a 19-yard TD
For a few moments, Singleton and Co. showed flashes of what we thought Penn State might look like all season.
3. This could have been a massive moment for Penn State
Penn State started the year ranked No. 2 in the country and a favorite to win the national championship. Then everything fell apart after a 30-24 double overtime loss at home to Oregon in late September. The Nittany Lions proceeded to lose to UCLA and Northwestern in the ensuing weeks, which resulted in James Franklin getting fired.
Since then, the Nittany Lions’ losing streak has extended to six games after dropping this one at home to Indiana.
One of the reasons Franklin was fired was because of Penn State’s inability to win big games. What an incredible turn of events this would have been had interim coach Terry Smith been able to turn this thing around and knock off the second-ranked team in the nation. Especially since Penn State hasn’t beaten a top-five team since Ohio State in 2016.
Indiana head coach Curt Cignetti shakes hands with Penn State interim head coach Terry Smith after the game at Beaver Stadium. (Photo by Isaiah Vazquez/Getty Images)
Franklin is gone, but the team still couldn’t seal a top-five win.
4. We’re on a crash course for an Indiana-Ohio State Big Ten championship game
There’s still four weeks left in the regular season and a lot can and will happen. But in the Big Ten, we seem to be hurtling toward an Indiana-Ohio State Big Ten championship game.
Now that Indiana has gotten past Penn State, it only has two games left against Wisconsin at home on Nov. 15, then at Purdue on Nov. 28. No. 1 Ohio State, which beat Purdue 34-10 on Saturday, doesn’t have any more bye weeks left and faces UCLA and Rutgers before ending the season against Michigan in Ann Arbor.
4 ½: What’s next?
What would a trip to the Big Ten championship game mean to the Hoosiers and their fan base?
How about this: Indiana has not won a Big Ten title since 1967 and only one other before that in 1945.
Laken Litman covers college football, college basketball and soccer for FOX Sports. She previously wrote for Sports Illustrated, USA Today and The Indianapolis Star. She is the author of “Strong Like a Woman,” published in spring 2022 to mark the 50th anniversary of Title IX. Follow her at @LakenLitman.
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