The Penn State Nittany Lions were down by four with less than two minutes left against Iowa, but used a heroic final drive from Trace McSorley to win
For much of their Week 4 contest against the Iowa Hawkeyes, the Penn State Nittany Lions were in control. Outside of star running back Saquon Barkley, it wasn’t always pretty for Penn State on the road. However, they were still able to secure a 15-7 lead and seem to be in full control. Things changed quickly in the fourth quarter, though.
After being bottled up by the Nittany Lions for much of the game, Iowa running back Akrum Wadley started making big plays. He started off by taking a short wheel route throw in open space and going to the house for a long touchdown. After a missed two-point conversion, the Hawkeyes got the ball back. It was Wadley who again came up big with a touchdown run that gave Iowa the lead, 19-3.
Penn State got the ball back with only 1:42 left on the clock, though they had two timeouts left. With the way that quarterback Trace McSorley had played, though, it was hard to feel wholly confident in what he was going to be able to do.
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Maybe we should’ve had a little more faith. The Nittany Lions pieced together a clutch drive, including a monster fourth-down throw by McSorley to get a big first down. Once in the red zone, though, it all came down to one final play with four seconds left. With the spotlight the brightest, McSorley stepped up with a touchdown pass to Juwan Johnson for the walk-off touchdown:
Just amazing pic.twitter.com/EkKWLaAo4Z
— Jack Crosby (@JCrosbyCBS) September 24, 2017
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Penn State still looks like a College Football Playoff contender. Iowa is a very good football team, and the Nittany Lions took their best shot and outlasted them — even if it took them each of the 60 minutes on Saturday night to do so.