Pittsburgh Volume 82, Issue 3 Sep
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Pittsburgh Volume 82, Issue 3 Sep. 16, 2019 The 108,661 fans in Beaver Stadium and the millions watching on ABC-TV Saturday saw another classic Penn State-Pitt battle in the 100th and perhaps last meeting between the top two teams in the Keystone State. It was appropriately typical of a great number of the clashes witnessed by long-time fans of both the Nittany Lions and Panthers, since the series began in 1893. And just like the hiatus of meetings between the once-bitter rivals from 2000 to 2016, there are no more meetings scheduled in the foreseeable future. The highly-anticipated almost annual end-of-the-regular-season battle between the in-state gridiron titans slipped off the schedule, after Penn State joined the Big Ten Conference in 1993. The passions between the fan bases of the two teams were rekindled by four-year series from 1997 to 2000 and 2016 to 2019. Penn State compiled a 3-1 advantage in each of those series, after holding a 47-41-4 edge through the first 92 encounters. But no more meetings loom on the horizon. Before State joined the Big Ten, 71 Panther-Nittany Lion battles took place in Pittsburgh and only 22 in State College. Not until the 1980s did the annual game switch from one site to the other each year. There have been various attempts in this century to resurrect the rivalry, but Pitt always insisted on home-and-home series. College football has become a big business, and schools in the Power-5 conferences feel they have to play at least seven games at home each year to sustain their budgets. With the Big Ten requiring its teams to play nine conference games in a 12-game schedule, almost all non-conference games have to be played at home. Beaver Stadium was closed shortly after fans started arriving Saturday, and kickoff was delayed for 40 minutes because of the threat of lightning in the region.Through the years there have been numerous Pitt-Penn State games postponed or otherwise affected by snow or other weather extremes. But for the first time Saturday this “big game” was delayed because of the threat of lightning. Less than an hour after the Beaver Stadium gates had been opened for this noontime game, they were closed again because of an extreme weather threat in the area. Fans already inside the gates had to seek shelter behind stadium walls at the ground and concourse levels, while fans tailgating outside the stadium were urged to take shelter in their cars or the Bryce Jordan Center, Ag Arena or Multi-Sports Complex. The teams warming up on the field had to go back to their locker rooms. The stadium gates were not reopened until the all-clear signal at noon. The kickoff was delayed for 40 minutes, while the fans were again allowed to enter the stadium, and the teams resumed their warmups. Once underway, it quickly became clear that this game would not be a runaway like last year’s 51-6 drowning of the Panthers on a rain-lashed Heinz Field in Pittsburgh. The home team scored first on a 98-yard touchdown drive propelled exclusively by Journey Brown’s 85-yard breakaway on a third-and-nine play from the Penn State three-yard line. State’s sophomore speedster was finally brought down at the Pitt-12, after entering the record books with the Nittany Lions’ second longest non- scoring run in history. While Brown rested, freshman Devyn Ford replaced him and ran for the touchdown. It was much shorter than his 81-yard gallop to his first score as a Penn Stater in the opening contest against Idaho. But while the first quarter ended with a 7-0 lead for the home team, the visitors controlled the second frame with two monstrous scoring drives that ate up 11 minutes and 40 seconds and gave the Panthers a 10-7 lead until the final second before halftime. Tailback Ricky Slade catches 40-yard pass to set up Jordan Stout’s record 57-yard field goal at end of first half.The Nittany Lions’ only show of life came on a two-minute 11-play drive leading to newcomer Jordan Stout’s record-breaking 57-yard field goal on the last play of the half to tie the game at 10-10. It was two yards longer than the three 55-yarders booted by former Penn State soccer and football player Chris Bahr at Temple, Ohio State and Syracuse in 1975. The former Virginia Tech walk-on entered the transfer portal in the off-season looking for a scholarship and came to Penn State, where he has boomed all except one of his 25 kickoffs into or through the end zone and converted 53-yard and 57-yard field goals on his only two attempts. The majority of State’s 48 yards in that two-minute drive came on sophomore quarterback Sean Clifford’s 40- yard pass to sophomore running back Ricky Slade on a 3rd-and-eight play and Slade’s three-yard rush on a 4th-and-one situation. Penn State dominated the third quarter almost as much as Pitt had the second, controlling the ball with a 9:20 time-of- possession, while mounting a 13-play 88-yard drive to the game’s final touchdown. In the Lions’ tailback-by-committee rotation, freshman Noah Cain got his only opportunity in the third period and made the most of it. Cain, who fills the role of the team’s power back, was responsible for 53 of the 88 yards, as well as the touchdown in the game-winning drive. He rushed for 40 yards on six carries and hauled in a critical 13-yard pass from Clifford, who also threw for 13 yards to Jahan Dotson and eight yards to Cam Sullivan-Brown on a third-and-four play. Cain climaxed the drive by blasting through a hole created by the offensive line for the final 13 yards into the end zone and his third TD of the season. After that it was the job of the Penn State defense to prevent the visitors from putting any more points on the scoreboard in the final 21 minutes of the centennial contest. But, as in so many Pitt-Penn State encounters in the past, the spectators stayed in their seats till the final whistle, while the outcome hung in the balance. This last scheduled meeting of the Panthers and Lions was more like Pitt’s 42-39 escape from Heinz Field in the series’ 2016 resumption than Penn State’s 33-14 and 51-6 walk-aways in the last two years. The visitors nearly scared to death the home fans, while advancing perilously close to the leaders’ end zone and testing their defense. Dan Chisena crunches Pitt punt returner Maurice Ffrench, but officials’ ruling that he didn’t give Ffrench room to catch the ball was disputed by Coach James Franklin.In the middle of the final frame, Dan Chisena, playing on State’s punt coverage team, blasted Pitt’s kick returner Maurice Ffrench and knocked the ball loose at the UP-19. However, a controversial kick-catching interference penalty against Chisena, gave the Panthers the ball at the UP-34. It became the Kenny Pickett show from there, as the Pitt quarterback passed nine yards to running back A.J. Davis, then on a 4th-and-one at the UP-43 faked a hand-off to Davis and completed a 36-yard pass down the middle to tight end Nakia Griffin-Stewart. Pickett threw a short pass to Ffrench, but Lion linebacker Jan Johnson forced a fumble. Ffrench recovered the fumble at the PS-20. Pitt was called for holding on the next play and the 10-yard penalty moved the Panthers back to the PS-30. Pickett calmly tossed a 29-yard pass to Pitt’s leading receiver Taysir Mack, who was knocked out-of-bounds at the PS-1. Backed up against the goal line, the Lions defense stiffened. As Pickett rolled right looking for a receiver, linebacker Cam Brown pressured him into throwing an incompletion. Then Pickett attempted to rush through the left side, but safety Garrett Taylor and linebacker Jesse Luketa stuffed him for no gain. On third down, Brown again pressured Pickett into throwing an incompletion. So, on 4th-and-one with 4:54 remaining on the clock, Pitt Coach Pat Narduzzi called on place- kicker Alex Kessman to attempt a chip-shot field goal of 19 yards. After the game, Narduzzi explained that he thought Pitt could get the ball back and score the winning touchdown on their next drive. But Kessman, who had booted a 25-yard field goal in the second quarter, bounced this attempt off the left upright, and Penn State had the ball at its own 20-yard line still holding a seven-point lead. An 18-yard pass from Clifford to Justin Shorter and two rushes by Journey Brown took the ball to the PS-45 from where Blake Gillikin punted 47 yards to the UP-8. French returned it eight yards before Jonathan Sutherland pushed him out of bounds. And the drama continued. With 1:36 on the clock Pickett passed to Mack for 21 yards, then was sacked by Shaka Toney for a seven-yard loss. Pickett passed five-yards to Mack and, on 4th-and-12, connected with Mack on a 28-yard aerial to the PS-37. And Penn State fans still had their hearts in their throats.