Scoring a touchdown is almost always the goal in football, but it actually cost Penn State dearly in their 36-35 loss to Indiana at Memorial Stadium in Bloomington, Indiana on Saturday.
Indiana was down 21-20 with just under two minutes left in the game and threw incomplete on fourth down at its 14 to turn the ball over to Penn State on downs. Indiana had only one timeout, so Penn State just needed to run down most of the clock to seal the win. Instead, the Nittany Lions screwed up.
Indiana decided to let Penn State score, and running back Devyn Ford took the bait.
Rather than go down short of the end zone so his team could run out the clock, Ford went in for the touchdown on the first-down play. He didn’t realize his error until it was too late.
Ford’s touchdown gave Penn State a 28-20 lead, but it also gave the ball back to Indiana. The Hoosiers drove to tie the game with 22 seconds left on a Michael Penix Jr. touchdown run. They tied it on a two-point conversion by Penix.
And, of course, Indiana won the game in overtime on this controversial play.
After the game, Penn State coach James Franklin and tight end Pat Freiermuth confirmed the team talked about not scoring in that situation.
Unfortunately for Penn State, Ford failed to go down, and the Nittany Lions ended up losing.
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