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good. When we're clicking on all cylinders, I don't think there's anyone who can stop us." The Badgers certainly couldn't. Penn State came roaring back from a 14-7 deficit late in the second quarter, scoring the next 24 points and holding Wisconsin off the scoreboard until only 5:38 remained. The Badgers put together a 13-play touchdown drive to cut Penn State's lead to 31-21, and they added a 48-yard field goal by Jack Russell to make it a one-score game with 4:13 to play. But the Lions were able to hold on, as Ryan Keiser intercepted Joel Stave on a Hail Mary pass into the end zone in the final seconds. Penn State had been a 24-point underdog going into the game, and while Bill O'Brien had downplayed the doubledigit betting line during his news conference earlier in the week, he admitted in the media room afterward that it had stuck in his craw. "I thought it was ridiculous," O'Brien said. "I thought Wisconsin was a very, very good football team. I thought they had a great year and I thought that we were close in some games and we had shown some resilience and we had some good players and that we matched up pretty well. I don't know who makes those lines, and I'm not allowed to talk about betting, but it seems like a lot of you guys felt like that was the right line, and you were wrong." Players felt the same after wrapping up their season with a 7-5 record and a 4-4 mark in Big Ten play. "Being 24-point underdogs, we felt kind of disrespected, " said freshman linebacker Brandon Bell, who was making his first start. "We brought that to the field." The Nittany Lions jumped on top when Christian Hackenberg rolled out and hit Breneman on the run. He shook off an attempted tackle by Nate Hammon and flashed back to a pregame meeting with O'Brien as he galloped into the end zone. "Coach O'Brien was talking to me and Jesse [James] and Kyle [Carter] about how, when we caught the ball, we had to break tackles [because] they weren't going to be able to tackle us big tight ends," Breneman said. "I thought about that, and that if I did break that tackle, I'd have a clear shot at the end zone." n o V e m b e R SCORING SUMMARY 1ST 13:05 PSU 2ND 11:50 WIS 5:05 WIS 1:16 PSU 8:29 PSU 4:56 PSU 12:59 PSU 5:38 WIS 4:13 WIS 3RD 4TH Breneman, Adam 6-yard pass from Hackenberg, Christian (Ficken, Sam kick) 4 plays, 79 yards, TOP 1:55.........................................................................7-0 Wozniak, Brian 4-yard pass from Stave, Joel (Russell, Jack kick) 11 plays, 71 yards, TOP 4:59.......................................................................7-7 Duckworth, Jeff 20-yard pass from Stave, Joel (Russell, Jack kick) 11 plays, 77 yards, TOP 5:37.....................................................................14-7 Lewis, Eugene 3-yard pass from Hackenberg, Christian (Ficken, Sam kick) 7 plays, 71 yards, TOP 3:44.....................................................................14-14 James, Jesse 7-yard pass from Hackenberg, Christian (Ficken, Sam kick) 10 plays, 67 yards, TOP 4:35...................................................................21-14 Ficken, Sam 28-yard field goal 4 plays, 8 yards, TOP 1:31.......................................................................24-14 Lewis, Eugene 59-yard pass from Hackenberg, Christian (Ficken, Sam kick) 3 plays, 62 yards, TOP 1:15....................................................................31-14 Wozniak, Brian 5-yard pass from Stave, Joel (Russell, Jack kick) 13 plays, 76 yards, TOP 2:29...................................................................31-21 Russell, Jack 48-yard field goal 6 plays, 28 yards, TOP 0:56.....................................................................31-24 Wisconsin tied the score early in the second quarter on a 4-yard pass to Brian Wozniak. It was the first of two 11-play drives for the Badgers in the quarter. The second one ended with a 20-yard completion to Jeff Duckworth that gave them a 14-7 lead. This looked to be the turning point that everyone except the Lions expected, the point at which Wisconsin seized control and coasted to the 10th win of coach Gary Andersen's impressive first season in Madison. But instead, it was the Lions who took charge. They went on a 24-point scoring binge that bridged the first and second halves, first tying the score on a 3-yard touchdown catch by an uncovered Eugene Lewis in the second quarter, and adding a dazzling 7-yard TD catch by James, a 28-yard Sam Ficken field goal and another score by Lewis, this one a 59-yarder on a third-and-7 play early in the fourth quarter. Wisconsin, which had been fighting for a spot in a BCS game, tried to fight back but couldn't get its potent running game going and instead called on Stave to attempt 53 passes. He completed 29 for 339 yards and three touchdowns, but it wasn't enough. 3 0 , 2 0 1 3 2 Hackenberg likewise finished with 339 passing yards and four TDs, but he only needed 30 attempts to amass those totals and he didn't throw an interception or take a sack. "He's a good young player," O'Brien said, "and I think that if he continues to work, he has a chance to be really good. " So now the Nittany Lions head into another uncharacteristically long off-season. There's no bowl invitation in the offing the next few weeks, no midwinter escape to some inviting destination in the Sunbelt. Said O'Brien following Penn State's victory, "This was our bowl game. " Players will get some R&R and then will begin winter workouts. A year from now, they might be playing for a bowl invitation, but on Saturday night, they were content to savor one of the more encouraging games in the program's recent history. "It was big to end the season like this, " Breneman said, "especially with this being such a young team. We have true freshmen playing, redshirt freshmen all over the place. It was big to end the season with a win like that because we start winter workouts in two weeks. It's definitely a good way to start the off-season. " b l u e w h i t e o n l i n e . c o m

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