WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — Sean Clifford avenged his biggest mistake Thursday night with a masterful final drive.
It may have saved Penn State’s conference title hopes.
The sixth-year quarterback connected with Kayvon Lee on a 10-yard touchdown pass with 57 seconds left, rallying the Nittany Lions to a 35-31 victory in their first season at Purdue.
“It was very impressive,” coach James Franklin said when asked about the eight-play, 80-yard drive. “We work on the 2-minute drill all the time and it worked out right there. You can learn a lot in games like this and I’d rather learn them by winning.”
It was quite the night as Clifford opened his sixth college season.
He narrowly missed a right leg injury in the first half, then dealt with cramps in the second half that forced him to miss a third-quarter drive.
He appeared to put the Nittany Lions in control by hooking up with Brenton Strange, who broke two tackles en route to a 67-yard score with 2 seconds left in the first half. That gave the Nittany Lions a 21-10 lead.
He didn’t complete a pass after returning in the third quarter and then nearly gave the game away when he overthrew Mitchell Tinsley and Chris Jefferson picked off an errant pass and returned it 72 yards for a touchdown to give the Boilermakers a 31-28 lead in middle of the fourth quarter.
And then he was able to give Penn State its 10th straight win in the series. Clifford finished 20 of 37 for 282 yards and four scores
It certainly wasn’t easy in front of a near-full house crowd and a game that featured seven lead changes.
“It was a gutsy win,” Franklin said. “We showed a lot of character. Obviously we need to play more in attack.”
Penn State’s defense also had to struggle with a little bit of everything. King Doerue ran for two scores, Aidan O’Connell threw for 356 yards and another score, and he celebrated his 24th birthday by connecting with childhood friend Charlie Jones 12 times for 153 yards and a 17-yard TD pass.
Still, they came up with one first down — and maybe one review that negated the late catch — short.
“Every loss hurts and we had this one right where we wanted it — a chance to seal the game, another first down, we win the game,” Purdue coach Jeff Brohm said. “We apologize (to the fans) for not being able to do that.”