Don't Think I Missed This, PSU

In Saturday's epic battle for the chance to the King of the Little 9, Penn State got some serious help from the men in stripes.


Holding a ten point lead with under four minutes to go, Penn State watched Curtis Painter start to move the ball effectively against the prevent defense. Passes were thrown for first downs, or to sidelines, allowing Purdue to conserve all three timeouts.

On first and ten from PSU's 31, Painter went through his progressions, and ended up throwing to Selwyn Lymon on a comeback for about four yards. Realizing that he had no chance to turn around and go upfield, Lymon wisely stepped out of bounds.

Then it got interesting.

The ref signalled for the clock to keep running. Lymon looked shocked. Joe Tiller's head nearly exploded. The play-by-play was stunned.

This wasn't a case of Lymon being tackled with some question as to whether or not he was in bounds. He caught the ball and simply stepped out. And yet, the clock continued to roll.

Purdue was forced to burn a timeout.

Three plays later, they kicked a field goal to bring the score within 7. An onside kick failed, and Penn State had the ball with 1:46 left to play. The Nittany Lions kept it on the ground, forcing Purdue to use it's last two timeouts. The defense held on third down, and Penn State was forced to punt. Of course, if the ref had properly called the earlier pass, Purdue could have stopped the clock one last time, saving about forty seconds.

As it was, they received the ball on their own 11 with thirteen seconds to play. In those thirteen seconds, Painter was able to move the ball 37 yards on three completions, setting up a hail mary from their own 48. It was batted down at the end zone, and the Penn State seniors got a win in their last home game.

Would the extra forty seconds have made a difference? Maybe not. But it's impossible to say that the play was called correctly, or that it had no impact on the game.

Penn State is well known in these parts as the most conspiratorial, whiny fanbase in the Big Ten. They constantly imagine persecution at the hands of the conference. When they essentially steal a game, however, there is nary a mention of it on BWI (though there are multiple threads about Mike Hart and "scUM" arrogance).

Similarly, no mention of this blown call was made in the AP reports, SportsCenter highlights, or in any other media I could find outside of the Purdue student newspaper (by the way Purdue: "The Exponent"? Seriously?).

Purdue got robbed of a better chance to score and send it to OT. I trust that the Nittany Lion faithful who so loudly complain about the "Referines" and Big Ten conspiracies will immediately begin to petition to have this officiating crew suspended.

After all, anything else would be hypocritical.