Sunday Column: Lions ‘Flip The Script’ on the Trojans and the Pesky ‘Can’t-Win-The-Big-One Narrative

There was a feeling in this one, for most of the first half and a few parts of the second, that the chickens had again come home to roost. Or at least been packed in the luggage compartment for the flight from—ahem—Harrisburg.

Penn State was, once again, crapping the figurative bed against a marquee opponent on a marquee stage after weeks of gobbling up cupcakes. USC looked faster, sharper, better-coached, and more ready for the moment, even if the talent discrepancy between the teams was almost invisible. No, this wasn’t a game against Ohio State or Michigan but it was a game against a dangerous and desperate group led by a coach who knows a thing or two about scoring points. It was 20-6 at halftime but it felt like it could have been worse as easily as it could have been better, and the Nittany Lions knew they had to battle the southern California heat as well as a team that was gaining confidence with each drive after some disappointments of its own the last few weeks.

Instead of letting the moment take them, though, as they had so many times the last few seasons, this group of Nittany Lions took the moment and held on, emerging with an overtime win that maintained the trajectory of the season and arguably changed the direction of the program.

There was Drew Allar, dodging bodies and throwing darts (and picks!) and diving headfirst for extra yards and generally willing an offense that had squandered chances early back into the game. There was Julian Fleming, dropping balls and committing costly penalties and THEN converting not one but two huge fourth downs. There was Tyler Warren, somehow playing three or four positions at once and breaking tackles and scoring touchdowns and setting records. There was Jayden Reed, snagging an errant pass and turning what seemed like a last-second Trojan field goal into overtime. And there was Ryan Barker, the hero of the game whose name no one outside the program or in Landenberg knew two weeks ago.

There were Penn State players stepping up all over the place, in big spots, in a way they hadn’t needed to previously this season and, more importantly, in a way they hadn’t done since the 2016 campaign. And the coaches stepped up too—Andy Kotelnicki pushing the right buttons in the second half, Tom Allen once again shutting down stuff that had worked for the opponent early on when it mattered most, and James Franklin for making the tough, and right, calls on fourth down, which had not been a strength of his in previous games of this magnitude.

The sad thing that’s buried in as much joy as has surrounded the program in close to a decade is that it really only would have taken one of these wins over the last few years to stamp out the narrative that Penn State simply can’t win on the biggest stages—even if that solitary win wouldn’t have led to any more conference titles or playoff berths. This one, at this point, probably isn’t enough to crush the narrative all on its own—but it does allow the Nittany Lions to stay on track for a chance to have a season that can exorcise a lot of demons at once.

With no Michigan on the schedule this year, this game became the second most important game of Penn State’s season by default, and the Trojans, who needed a win to keep their own dying playoff hopes alive, were up to the challenge. The most important game remains—Ohio State coming to town in two weeks. Whatever demons were eradicated in the Coliseum, the mother of them all still awaits. The issues that allowed USC to put 30 points on the board Saturday probably won’t all be resolved against another potent Ohio State offense, and the Buckeyes had the best defense in the nation in terms of yards and points allowed heading into this week.

Again, though, this win, those three measly overtime points, change the tone and the terms of the season. For the first time, the Nittany Lions faced major adversity against an opponent that belonged on the field with them, and they overcame it. They didn’t win this game on the recruiting trail, as they had in their first five games, but on the field, dehydration and jet lag and referee shenanigans be damned. Where do they go from here? Who knows, but that it’s somewhere other than the “Franklin and Penn State can’t win the big ones” purgatory is a big deal. And that flight back home will seem a lot shorter than it would have if the second half had gone the way the first half did.