Nittany Lions Survive While Hawkeyes Tumble

A 17-12 victory was all about getting out of town for the Nittany Lions.

By John Bohnenkamp

IOWA CITY—Sean Clifford reveled in the punishment.

“You can hear it, my voice is gone,” the Penn State quarterback said after shouting his way through 60 loud, grinding minutes at Kinnick Stadium on Saturday night.

He was sore, tossed around by Iowa’s defense at every opportunity. Once, he got his eye scraped while throwing a pass. Another time, 280-pound defensive end A.J. Epenesa leaped onto Clifford’s back and jammed him into the turf for a sack.

Fine, Clifford said.

“This atmosphere is the craziest I’ve ever been a part of,” Clifford said, smiling. “I had so much fun, at the end of the day. I made a lot of mistakes. I know that, I’m going to grow from that.

“But at the same time, I’d be lying if I said I didn’t have fun. The environment, battling through the whole thing, just the grind of it all, feeling a little sore, the whole thing, it was so much fun. And I wouldn’t change it.”

His coach felt the same way.

James Franklin had watched the day’s early games at the team hotel.

“I saw a lot of teams,” he said, “who didn’t get the (win)."

No. 9 Penn State survived on this night, a 17-12 victory over the No. 17 Hawkeyes.

The Nittany Lions (6-0 overall, 3-0 Big Ten) figure to move up in the polls. But this was not about impressing anyone.

Get in, get out, go home.

“Went on the road, won in a tough place to play,” Franklin said.

The Nittany Lions punted on seven of their 12 possessions. Their first touchdown drive was a 15-play, 85-yard churn in the second quarter, the last one an 8-play, 35-yarder in the fourth quarter that was all about taking advantage of the field position gained after an interception by Jaquan Brisker.

There was also one possession when, after forcing a fumble from Iowa’s Tyler Goodson, Penn State got into the end zone twice, but had one of the touchdowns overruled by replay review and another erased by a holding call. The Nittany Lions got out of that with just a field goal.

All of this was fine with Franklin.

“We reserved the right to punt and play great defense,” he said, and so they did.

Iowa (4-2, 1-2) did a lot of punting and played a lot of defense, too, but the Hawkeyes had little to show for that. They got two field goals from Keith Duncan, but didn’t get a touchdown until late in the fourth quarter when Nate Stanley threw a 33-yard pass to Brandon Smith down the right sideline.

It was Iowa’s first touchdown in almost eight quarters, but it seemed futile because of the way Penn State was in control.

The Hawkeyes, who lost to the Nittany Lions for the sixth consecutive time, got just three points in last Saturday’s loss at Michigan—an eight-sack, eight-penalty, four-turnover game that everyone vowed they had learned from this week.

That education didn’t seem evident. Stanley was sacked three times and hurried five times. He threw the one interception, and Goodson’s fumble was caused when two Penn State defenders poured through the gaps in the Hawkeyes’ offensive line and the freshman running back was quickly swarmed.

“We're going to have to play a little cleaner, execute better,” Iowa coach Kirk Ferentz said. “Part of that's us, part of it's the opponents we played the last two weeks. Probably a combination of the two.

“That being said, there's some things we have to do better, obviously — protect a little bit better, run the ball, get back to doing that a little bit better as well.”

“We need to make a couple more plays,” Stanley said. “I think that’s what it comes down to. We stopped ourselves from scoring.”

Clifford was shaky, and he admitted that. He was 12-of-24 passing for 117 yards, and rushed for 52 yards, but he was sacked three times and took a battering from the Hawkeyes.

“I thought he was a little antsy with his feet in the pocket early on,” Franklin said. “But I’m proud of Sean. He’s a gutsy competitor.”

The Nittany Lions were content to just wear down the Hawkeyes. Running back Noah Cain, only a freshman, had 102 of Penn State’s 177 rushing yards. Sixty-seven of Cain’s yards came in the second half, including 17 on the Nittany Lions’ last possession of the game when they consumed the final 2:31.

Penn State’s defense is one of the nation’s best. Iowa had 356 yards of total offense against the Nittany Lions, but the Hawkeyes had just 70 yards on 30 carries.

That forced Stanley into a constant throwing game, and with it came the constant pressure.

“I think we have put ourselves in positions to not run the ball as much,” said Stanley, who has thrown 85 passes in the last two games. “Last two games we have been heavy pass. We put ourselves in those positions.”

The Hawkeyes’ position in the West Division is tenuous. Minnesota and Wisconsin haven’t lost a game, and Iowa gets them back-to-back to start November. It’s all divisional games to close the season, but the Hawkeyes’ margin of error is long gone.

“We are going to come out of the other side of the tunnel,” Stanley said.

“This doesn’t last forever,” wide receiver Ihmir Smith-Marsette said.

“It didn’t work out tonight,” Epenesa said.

Franklin said the flight to State College would be one big party.

“We did just enough to win,” he said. “There’s guys who felt like they didn’t play great tonight. But we played good enough to win.”

Clifford ached. It was a good ache, he said.

“Being able to take a knee at the end, that’s a great feeling,” Clifford said. “Especially after a game like that.”