After the Wildcats saw their first -half dominance turn into a fourth-quarter deficit, they managed to reclaim the lead and found themselves one play away from escaping with an eighth-straight home victory – a 4th-and-15 from deep in Penn State territory with fewer than two minutes remaining in the game.

But Penn State quarterback Michael Robinson, who had already led his team back from a 16-point hole, connected with wide receiver Isaac Smolko in the middle of the field for a 20-yard, game-saving completion.

“You get them fourth-and-long with the game on the line,” senior defensive linemen Barry Cofield said. “You stop them there and game over, and we’re 1-0 in the Big Ten.”

Five plays later, Robinson hooked up with freshman wide receiver Derrick Williams, who shook off Northwestern safety Reggie McPherson at the 10-yard line on his way to the game-winning, 36-yard touchdown earning the 34-29 victory.

The Cats had won their previous seven contests decided by seven points or less.

“We had them on the ropes at times, I thought we had some things going our way,” NU coach Randy Walker said. “They made the plays that good football teams do to win down the stretch.”

The Cats (2-2, 0-1) led the entire game until Robinson scampered eight yards into the endzone with fewer than nine minutes left in the contest, giving the Nittany Lions (4-0, 1-0) the 27-26 lead.

NU proceeded to go on a 16-play, 86-yard drive amassing almost seven minutes, but the Cats were forced to let junior kicker Joel Howells kick his NU-record fifth field goal – four of which were kicked on drives in which NU made it to the red zone.

“That was big,” said Nittany Lion coach Joe Paterno of holding NU to field goals. “Big, big, big! If they had to do it over, I think they would probably do a couple things a little different down there, as we would.”

Even though the Cats gained the most yards (427) and points (29) any team had against the Nittany Lions in the last 15 games, they only managed to get in the endzone on two out of six red zone appearances.

Penn State miscues early in the game helped NU to a big lead, as Robinson threw three interceptions – including two straight in the second quarter – and fumbled once.

But NU only scored 13 points off the turnovers.

“When you turn the ball over that many times on the road, you usually lose,” Paterno said.

The Cats also executed a fake punt and one onside kick, but only managed three points on those possesions.

Although Robinson was just 8-for-17 passing in the second half, he said he was able to read what NU was doing on defense better.

“The offensive line was saying, ‘Mike, they’re not rushing, they’re not rushing, they’re just reading,’ Robinson said. “And that’s why I was able to stick in the pocket a lot.

“They’ve been playing a lot of man, and we figure when they’re playing man coverage, we are open.”

The Nittany Lions recorded nine plays of more than 15 yards, seven of which came through the air.

NU’s defense gave up at least 480 yards for the third-straight game and allowed 17 Penn State points in the fourth quarter.

“I don’t know how many times we’re going to have to go watch tape on Sunday and realize without the explosion plays we played a decent game,” Cofield said. “If we force them to snap the ball again, you never know what’s going to happen. But if we give it to them in chunks, there’s no defense for that.”

Cofield led the defense with a forced fumble, a sack, three tackles and three pass break ups. His three break ups were one more than NU’s secondary managed in the game.

The NU defense forced Penn State to punt only twice in the game, the first being in the third quarter.

Unlike the game against Northern Illinois two weeks ago, Cole had no room to manuever. He downed one punt at his own three-yard line, which led to the Cats average starting point in the second half to be their own 16-yard line.

“There’s some attention to detail, and some discipline that we aren’t always maintaining on defense,” Walker said. “That usually is discovered by a good offense or good athletes.

“And we have been revealed.”

Reach Abe Rakov at [email protected].