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to take the lead. But the Nittany Lions still needed a defensive stop if they were to complete their comeback, and when Illinois quarterback Nathan Scheelhaase threw into the end zone on the first play of the Illini's initial overtime possession, they got it. Amos made a play on the ball but couldn't grab it. Instead, he deflected the ball, and Keiser was there to snatch it out of the air, ending Illinois' possession, and with it the ball game. "You've just got to hustle after the ball," Keiser said. "The coaches preach that all the time. Hustle, hustle, hustle. It's really [a testament to] the coaches for getting it in our head to always run to the ball, because you never know when you're gonna have an opportunity to make a play. Thankfully, I was there to finish the play after Adrian made a great play on the ball. " The interception touched off a wild celebration in the south end zone, just below the student section, which was going bonkers. The Nittany Lions were coming off a dismal defensive game at Ohio State, a game in which they surrendered 63 points, and they were eager to get back on the field and put that experience behind them. The 24-17 win over Illinois gave them the result they craved, improving their record to 5-3 overall and 2-2 in the Big Ten. "This was our time," said cornerback Jordan Lucas, who made a first-quarter interception that set up Penn State's first touchdown drive. "We couldn't walk away with a loss, and we wanted to let the world know that Penn State, we're still here. We showed that today. It wasn't pretty, but at the end of the day, we [got] the W." Not pretty? That's an understatement. The Nittany Lions committed 11 penalties, came up short on a key fourth-and-1 and couldn't turn their success on the ground – Bill Belton rushed for a career-high 201 yards – into points. They squandered a 14-point first-half lead, as Illinois kept the Lions' defense on its heels with a hurry-up attack that produced 321 passing yards. The Lions also fumbled on the Illinois goal line late in the fourth quarter, a play that seemed decisive at the time – so much so that Illini linebacker Jonathan n o V e m b e R SCORING SUMMARY 1ST 9:44 PSU 2ND 13:13 PSU 0:00 ILL 3RD 4:47 ILL 4TH 5:30 ILL 0:41 PSU 15:00 PSU OT Belton, Bill 5-yard run (Ficken, Sam kick) 7 plays, 84 yards, TOP 3:38.........................................................................0-7 Hackenberg, Christian 9-yard run (Ficken, Sam kick) 17 plays, 82 yards, TOP 7:15.....................................................................0-14 Zalewski, Taylor 20-yard field goal 12 plays, 96 yards, TOP 2:53.....................................................................3-14 Ferguson, Josh 8-yard run (Zalewski, Taylor kick) 13 plays, 88 yards, TOP 4:46..................................................................10-14 Ferguson, Josh 7-yard pass from Scheelhaase, Nathan (Zalewski, Taylor kick) 13 plays, 77 yards, TOP 3:39..................................................................17-14 Ficken, Sam 35-yard field goal 6 plays, 31 yards, TOP 1:03.....................................................................17-17 Carter, Kyle 15-yard pass from Hackenberg, Christian (Ficken, Sam kick) 5 plays, 0 yards, TOP 0:41.......................................................................17-24 Brown ran around the back of the end zone holding his index finger to his lips in a taunt aimed at silencing the Penn State crowd. The crowd was pretty quiet to begin with by that point, but it didn't stay quiet for long. Penn State's defense forced a three-and-out, and after regaining possession at midfield with 1:44 left, the Lions drove for a 35-yard Sam Ficken field goal to tie the score. In overtime, they stumbled into thirdand-11, but recovered when Christian Hackenberg hit Carter with a 15-yard touchdown pass over the middle. "We have a play there that we like," head coach Bill O'Brien said. "We had a lot of options on the play, including a run option. It's one of our favorite plays, and Christian, the line, Kyle Carter and the receivers in the back executed it well." The late-game heroics were an improvement over the first half, in which the Lions were essentially a two-man show, the two men being Belton and wideout Allen Robinson. In the first quarter, those two were the only players to handle the ball other than Hackenberg, combining for 12 rushes and six catches. Of the support they got, much of it came from the Illini. A failed third-down conversion on Penn State's first drive turned into first-and-goal after a per2 , 2 0 1 3 2 sonal foul. The penalty set up a 5-yard Belton touchdown run, and later in the first quarter, Illinois was penalized for a chop block, negating a 39-yard touchdown pass. Penn State followed with a 17-play drive – its longest of the season – which ended with a rare Hackenberg scramble, this one good for 9 yards and a touchdown. The Illini responded by scoring the game's next 17 points, taking the lead on a 7-yard pass from Scheelhaase to Josh Ferguson. After Belton fumbled at the Illinois 2yard line with 3:23 left, it looked as though that four-point lead might hold up. But Hackenberg, who finished with 240 yards passing, took over, and the Lions escaped with a victory. An ugly victory? Yeah, maybe. "It wasn't as pretty as we would have liked it to be," Lucas admitted. "But it was a great team win. When we had to make a play – on offense or defense – we made the play. " O'Brien went a step further. Dismissing all talk of aesthetics after the game, he said he didn't feel fortunate to come out a winner. "Fortunate is when you win the lottery, like 'I won $50 million, I'm fortunate to win the lottery.' We went out there and did what we had to do to win the football game," he said. "Give the kids here at Penn State a lot of credit." b l u e w h i t e o n l i n e . c o m

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