State College, PA – Penn State’s offensive line held Auburn’s tough, front seven to one, single sack, and enabled QB Sean Clifford to complete 28 of 32 passes for 280 yards and two TDs for a great 28-20 Penn State victory over Auburn (2-1).  WR Jahan Dotson, the recipient of 10 catches for 78 yards and a TD, including several tremendous catches, also tossed a 22-yard completion on a PSU scoring drive.  Horrible and questionable officiating by the SEC crew kept this closer than the final result should have been. The two ranked teams battled in front of 109,538 of mostly PSU fans, all clad in white in a “white-out” game in raucous Beaver Stadium.    Auburn orange dotted the scene throughout for the first game their Tigers played at a Big Ten venue in 90 years.

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Tigers score first

     Auburn halted the initial Penn State possession on downs and took over to score first.  PK Anders Carlson booted a 45-yard FG for the early Tiger lead.   An exchange of punts put the Lions back on their 12.  Three consecutive pass completions put the Lions on AU’s four.  Clifford’s next pass to Jahan Dotson, who made a leaping catch at the back of the end zone before going out of bounds, gave PSU the 7-3 lead heading into Q2.

SEC! SEC! SEC!

     Auburn continued its next drive into the second period, finishing a 75-yard TD drive on Tank Bigsby’s four-yard TD to retake the lead by three.  Penn State’s next series was thwarted by the SEC crew’s first officiating debacle.  On a first and ten, Clifford’s pass sailed over his intended receiver who turned the wrong way and got flagged for intentional grounding??? If that was the case, officiating crews at both the collegiate and pro levels could learn from this bunch.  To add insult to injury, well, read the official play by play on the ESPN website.

      PSU got penalized five yards after the first down play with a loss of the down.  On supposedly second and sixteen, Dotson caught a pass for five yards.  On third and 11 from the 33, the Lions’ Jordan Stout punted. The SEC officiating crew including the replay monitor insisted this was fourth down despite the protests of PSU HC James Franklin!  After that, the mistake was admitted, but nothing could be done at that point to reverse the damage.

Nittany Lions overcome

     Penn State forced AU to punt on a real fourth down from their 45.  The Lions strung together a drive mixing up passes with runs by Noah Cain (19 carries for 51 yards, one TD).  A two-yard TD reception by TE Brenton Strange (4 catches, 71 yards, TD) gave the Lions a 14-10 lead.  Before the half expired with 47 seconds left, PSU’s possession ended on a Clifford pass from the 41 toward the end zone that got intercepted at the three where AU took a knee to end the first half.

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Pre-game pleasantries

    Our six-hour tailgate in Happy Valley for the first time in years on a bright, beautiful, albeit very hot day was great.  Great company, great food, great drinks (cold beers and bourbon concoctions) with a majestic view of Mount Nittany!  We have to thank our tailgate neighbors who noted Guest Game Analyst John Massimilla’s (PSU alum) Pittsburgh Steeler folding chairs.  They insisted they if we helped them set up their 13’X13’ canopy, we could use the shade while they partied elsewhere.  It turned out to be a game-saver for us under the intense sun.  They never came back before we went into the game and were gone when we returned around midnight! Thank you, fellow fans!

    Also, we don’t remember more spacious parking in Happy Valley than we had today.  So easy to get in and out, that fellow tailgaters Shane and Laura were able to tailgate with their French Bulldogs, Millie and Macie.  Two hours before the game, they left to bring them home, and they returned to park back in the same space in time to go in with us. 

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Flipside Frustrations

    The flipside of the pleasantries at our tailgate turned to the questionable calls of a suspect officiating crew which is being blistered in social media. Such arrangements by these “objective” officiating crews called into question after, especially since the “spineless” NCAA allows conferences to take the responsibility which offers the freedom to manipulate the outcome of a game.  Ball spotting and non-calls fell in favor of the visitors were flagrantly incorrect as the game continued.  Instant replay comes into question as reputable as well.  It can be as manipulative as those on the field if the “wrong” people are in place.

      Without taking control out of the jurisdiction of the conferences, this can continue to be a problem.  Online comments include statements such as, “Did the SEC officiating crew return home on the same flight as the Auburn football team?”  Most likely, since flights to Alabama are limited heading out of State College Airport.  We figure these individuals would have been in the stands with the rest of the Auburn fans with orange shakers in hand if not making calls on the field.  Worst one-sided job ever witnessed personally regarding non-conference visiting officials among our 617 college football games to date.  An investigation should be made, but won’t be.  Just ignore what happened.

Back to the Hard-hitting Action

     To start the second half, PSU got the break it needed to extend their lead.  Auburn’s Kobe Hudson fumbled on their first play from scrimmage, and Derrick Tangelo recovered at AU’s 20.  TE Tyler Warren took it over from the two four plays later on a dive over the middle from the ”Wildcat” for their 21-10 lead.  Auburn responded with a 75-yard TD drive as RB Tank Bigsby (23 carries, 102 yards, two TDs) did the brunt of the work breaking tackles to pick up key yards for his six-yard TD to bring AU back to trail by four, 21-17.

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     On Penn State’s subsequent possession, another officiating mistake thwarted a Penn State drive.  At the Auburn 43 on a fourth and one from punt formation, the ball was snapped to 6-4, 326-lb blocking back/DT PJ Mustipher. Initial contact held him up briefly as he continued to drive his legs. A surge from behind pushed him ahead to an apparent first down as the whistle finally blew.  The crew moved it back short of the first down back to where the initial contact was made, but the play continued. AU took over on what should have been a PSU first-down.  How many chances could these zebras off the Tigers?

When will these officials knock it off?

    Auburn started Q4 continuing a drive from its 43. The possession resulted in Carlson’s FG from 43, but again, not without officiating controversy – a flagrant non-call.  Penn State’s pass rush trapped Bo Nixon (21 for 37, 185 yards) who sprinted away from the line of scrimmage and threw an errant pass over the PSU bench from the pocket with no receiver even close.  It warranted an illegal grounding call as he clearly never came out of the tackle box.  No flag from this officiating crew.  Instead of pacing off 15 yards back to the 50, the Tigers remaining at the 35 on second down and such kept Auburn in range to convert another Carlson FG to close the gap, 21-20, with 14:55 left to play.

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     The next Lion drive started from the 25 to take some time off the clock. However, key pass completions to John Lovett for 18 yards out of the backfield and the next to TE Brenton Strange put the Lions on the Auburn three. Following an Auburn timeout, Cain took the hand off and made a cut to his left behind OT Rasheed Walker’s block to put the Lions up, 28-20.  The Lion defense had to step up to hold off a game Tiger offense for the rest of the game.

Auburn continues to threaten

     Bigsby demonstrated he was tough to stop.  When called on, he ran over and around PSU tacklers behind good blocking.  However,  HC Bryan Harsin insisted on using Nix to move the Tigers more often through the air against a tenacious Nittany Lion secondary.  He seemed willing to rely on getting some favorable calls on pass interference, but the Penn State DBs focused more on playing the ball while in the air.  AU punted from their 34.  PSU gave the ball back on a punt to give the Tigers the ball with 7:02 left.

     The Tigers drove all the way to the Lion ten for a first down. After an incompletion, Bigsby added a yard. Nix completed a pass to TE John Samuel Shenker at the two. On fourth down, Nix lofted a pass over the right corner of the end zone well out of bounds to Kobe Hudson who got tangled up with S Jaquan Brisker who played the ball perfectly to avoid any interference call.  The Lions took over on their two.

     On second and eleven from the two, Clifford led Dotson down the right sideline with a pass, and interference was called against Auburn to allow PSU to maintain possession. They eventually punted from the 13. Punter Jordan Stout’s high kick went 49 yards to the Auburn 38 where the Tigers took over with 38 seconds left.  Nix led his team to the 26 and stopped the clock with a spike.  With seconds left, Brisker read his last past to knock it down as time expired.  The intense, hard-hitting game ended in the 28-20 victory for the Nittany Lions (3-0). 

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Meet again, but under definitely has to be under better circumstances

The Lions moved up to No. 6 in the AP Top 25 and Auburn slipped to No. 23. There’s lots of time ahead to see what these two teams will do in future conference games to challenge for CFP positioning.  A rematch would be fantastic, and we hope better officiating will be available to remove too many questionable calls in evidence this evening.  Next season, the Nittany Lions will venture down to Auburn for a rematch.  Hopefully, Big Ten officials replacing the SEC’s will be much more professional and objective to what we witnessed in our 617^th game.

Extra points:

PSU will host FCS No. 8 Villanova next Saturday at Beaver Stadium – unlikely to be played before 109,000 fans.  Auburn goes back home again versus Georgia State (1-2), 20-9 winner over Charlotte on Saturday after humbling losses previously to Army and to North Carolina.  Maybe AU can score enough points in this one to get their PPG average back up to 61!  Collegefootballfan.com looks forward to going to Bowling Green, Kentucky for the first time.  There the Western Kentucky Hilltoppers (1-1) will host Indiana (1-2) who fell to No. 8 Cincinnati Saturday, 38-24, and to No. 5 Iowa, 31-6, to open the season.

This past weekend marked the 111^th game Penn State game we’ve attended (86-25).  This was our 12^th with Auburn for a record of 5-6-1.