Instant reaction: Sean Clifford delivers thrilling win for Penn State at Purdue
It certainly wasn’t looking pretty for Penn State after 55 minutes of football had been played. Fortunately for the Nittany Lions, college football is a 60-minute game, and quarterback Sean Clifford made the most of it with some late-game heroics. Clifford hit running back Keyvone Lee for a 10-yard touchdown with 57 seconds left in the game to give Penn State a 35-31 victory at Purdue on Thursday night.
Clifford passed for four touchdowns and ran for one more in the victory. It all happened on a night when he temporarily left the game in the third quarter, and he ended his season debut with 282 passing yards and 11 rushing yards.
Penn State held a 21-10 lead at halftime thanks in large part to tight end Brenton Strange scoring on a 67-yard pass in the closing seconds of the first half, courtesy of some broken tackles and solid blocking as he chugged the remainder of the field. But Purdue quarterback Aidan O’Connell led Purdue to a strong third quarter that saw the home team score two touchdowns and work the Penn State defense to perfection at times. Penn State’s offense was out of sync in the third quarter as Clifford left the game briefly for an undisclosed reason, leaving the keys to the offense temporarily in the hands of true freshman Drew Allar. Allar led the offense for just one series before Clifford returned for the remainder of the game.
A season after struggling to run the football, Penn State showed there is still room to improve with its running game in 2022. The Nittany Lions spread the ball around for most of the game and got four different running backs involved, including freshmen Nick Singleton and Kaytron Allen and veterans Keyvone Lee and Devyn Ford.
Mitchell Tinsley scored his first Penn State touchdown in the second quarter, and KeAndre Lambert-Smith made a nice play to give Penn State a lead with a catch and run and broken tackles in the fourth quarter. On Penn State’s next offensive series after taking a 28-24 lead on Purdue, Clifford overthrew Tinsley over the middle and was easily picked off by Jefferson, who returned the interception for the go-ahead score and the play of the game at that point.
Next up for Penn State is the home opener at Beaver Stadium next Saturday against Ohio. Purdue will host Indiana State.
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