Penn State football proved their resilience against Indiana

Penn State football’s win against Indiana may have been more important than people realize.

Against Indiana, this Penn State football team showed they have the resilience and mettle that may have been missing the past couple of years.

After heartbreaking defeats against Ohio State in 2017 and 2018, the Nittany Lions followed it up with letdowns the next week. Those letdowns were against inferior but good Michigan State teams, and it killed Penn State’s playoff hopes each time.

After a heartbreaking defeat last week in Minneapolis, many believed the Lions could be heading toward another letdown.

Indiana came into this game 7-2 with their only losses to Ohio State and at Michigan State. They were No. 24 in the AP and were ready to fight due to being disrespected by the CFP committee. Nittany Nation hoped their team was not still caught in a hangover from last week because Indiana would easily exploit it.

Penn State struggled at times and faced adversity throughout the game, but the Nittany Lions were able to pull off a win over Tom Allen’s scrappy Hoosiers 34-27.

The 2017 and 2018 teams were great football teams with nationally prominent players. But qualities that this 2019 team can claim are resilience and mettle. They were able to handle adversity and fight hard to gain a victory over a solid team.

That’s not to say that the 2017 and 2018 teams didn’t have those qualities to some degree. Both teams proved their resilience and mettle, and the 2017 team even capped their season with a Fiesta Bowl victory.

But those teams weren’t able to overcome the hangover from heartbreaking defeats in time for their next game. This 2019 Penn State football team was able to overcome their heartbreaking defeat, and lots of adversity in this game, too, to avoid another upset.

Minnesota got lucky on multiple occasions against Sean Clifford, but he was determined to atone for it. Clifford was solid against the Hoosiers’ defense. He had no turnovers, rushed for two touchdowns and threw for another.

After losing KJ Hamler to an injury in the first half, the offense stayed focused. Journey Brown had an impressive touchdown run in the third quarter, and the offense put together a nine-minute drive late in the fourth quarter. That nine-minute drive ended with a touchdown that put the game on ice.

The defense, subject of much criticism lately, whiffed on a couple of plays that set up two Indiana touchdowns in the first quarter. After that, though, Brent Pry dialed down the blitzes a little, going with a bend-don’t-break approach and only allowed 13 points in the remaining three-and-a-half quarters.

Three of those points came in garbage time during Indiana’s desperate attempt to get back in the game.

A loss to Indiana would’ve been a knife in the heart to Penn State’s playoff hopes. With the win, though, Penn State’s hopes are still alive as they head into the regular season’s culminating event- a showdown with the Ohio State Buckeyes to determine the Big Ten East winner.

The Nittany Lions are underdogs and rightfully so. The Buckeyes are unbelievably good this year. It will take a massive, epic effort to win in Columbus.

But if Penn State can pull it off and make a magical run to end the season, fans can point back to the Indiana game where the Nittany Lions fought to avoid the consecutive letdowns that plagued them the last two seasons.