Penn State robbed of touchdown after awful replay reversal vs. Iowa

Pat Freiermuth, Penn State Nittany Lions. (Photo by Randy Litzinger/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
Pat Freiermuth, Penn State Nittany Lions. (Photo by Randy Litzinger/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)

Penn State Nittany Lions tight end Pat Freiermuth gets robbed of a touchdown by the officials. Penn State would have to later settle for a field goal.

When the Iowa Hawkeyes do give Color Rush a try in an attempt to blind the Penn State Nittany Lions with the brightest shade of yellow this side of the Mississippi River, it turns out that it unintentionally blinded the alleged neutral party zebras instead.

Who would have thought the age discrepancy between the officials and the players would decide how much yellow one’s retinas could tolerate, but here we are. So how do we know that the much yellow has hurt this game besides the discourse on social media? Well, it might have cost the Nittany Lions a touchdown in the third quarter in their game against Iowa.

Penn State quarterback Sean Clifford completed a 15-yard pass from the Iowa 16-yard line on a first and goal after a Nittany Lions holding penalty to tight end Pat Freiermuth. He dives towards the goal line, but the officials said his knee was down before crossing the goal line. But was it? You be the judge.

First off, it was a cool play in a game that lacked a lot of cool plays. This is what happens when you face an Iowa team that hasn’t scored a touchdown in over seven quarters. The officials realized this, as well as being mesmerized by the all-maize uniforms, and decided that it was not a trip to pay dirt for the Nittany Lions so Iowa still had a fighting chance in this ball game.

Penn State couldn’t punch it in on the next play. Follow that up with two consecutive offensive holding penalties and then a six-yard scamper from Clifford back at the Iowa 15-yard line and Penn State had to take a 33-yard field goal, which placekicker Jake Pinegar made easily.

So whether the referees wanted them or not, Penn State got some well-deserved points on that shortened drive that was set up by an Iowa fumble. However, the Nittany Lions were completely and utterly and disgracefully robbed of four additional points in Iowa City because Freiermuth was “down” or whatever.

Penn State has had its issues of late winning games on the road against ranked teams. So even if your tight end decides to leave his feet to leap towards the goal line, just know that he’ll be called down because somebody possibly wearing black and white stripes 100 percent has the under in this ball game. This was the easiest bet of the week, but don’t be so blatant about it, guys!

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