Blue White Illustrated

N O V E M B E R 7 , 2 0 1 5 B L U E W H I T E O N L I N E . c O M 7 Carr cradled the perfectly placed ball. Said Cabinda, "For the most part, we did execute well. There were just two critical mistakes in the two-minute drill that kind of got us there." Still, needing to better position a place- kicker who had missed two previous tries, the Wildcats were again forced into a critical third-and-5 at the Nittany Lions' 31-yard line. Taking an inside handoff out of the shotgun, Northwest- ern running back Justin Jackson found the edge and picked up 7 yards for a first down at the 24. Suddenly, Northwestern was well within Jack Mitchell's field goal range. Running the ball on first down with 53 seconds leB, Jackson picked up just 3 yards, and as the scrum cleared, the clock ticked down to 48 seconds. Holding onto three timeouts, Penn State head coach James Franklin and his staff let the clock run all the way down to 22 seconds before finally stopping it. The moment of inde- cision cost the Lions nearly half a minute, and Franklin owned up to the error aBer the game. "I should have burned the timeout there. I should have burned the timeout right away," he said. "That was my missed opportunity. I didn't make the play there. I should have called the time- out, there's no doubt about it." Mitchell's field goal attempt sailed through the uprights with just 9 seconds leB in the game, giving the Wildcats a 23- 21 lead while leaving the Lions with vir- tually no chance to respond. ABer taking possession at the 25-yard line, their last- ditch pass play wound up falling far short as time ran out. There was no finger-pointing in the Penn State locker room after the game, as players on both sides of the ball were quick to assume responsibility for the missed opportunities that led to the loss. Wideout DaeSean Hamilton said the responsibility rested with the offense's inability to pick up a first down when it counted most. Northwestern's Nate Hall had made a game-saving tackle on Barkley's second-and-4 carry for 3 yards, and Barkley was dropped for a 1- yard loss on third-and-1, forcing a punt. "We shouldn't have put them in that situation," Hamilton said. "We should have just executed on the offensive side of the ball rather than putting the game on their hands. … They've been playing great. It just hurts that the game ended that way." Franklin said the Lions had a dozen chances to not only prevent the loss, but secure the win by making their own big plays, and he didn't spare himself, noting that his clock management played a part in the defeat. Harking back to an issue that appeared in losses against Maryland and Illinois a season ago, he said four- minute situations were a major short- coming for his team. "We had opportunities to win the game and didn't get it done," he said. "There were opportunities to make plays and end the game on our terms and we didn't do it. Four-minute offense, four-minute defense." Heading into a bye week, the Nittany Lions will now have two full weeks to think about those critical minutes.

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