No. 4 Penn State struggles after Sean Clifford's injury, lose at No. 3 Iowa

IOWA CITY, Iowa — Spencer Petras threw a 44-yard touchdown pass to Nico Ragaini to complete No. 3 Iowa’s comeback from a two-touchdown deficit, No. 4 Penn State’s offense did next to nothing after quarterback Sean Clifford was knocked out of the game and the Hawkeyes held on for a bruising 23-20 victory Saturday.

The Hawkeyes (6-0, 3-0) took control of the Big Ten West with their 12th straight win and thrust themselves into the College Football Playoff conversation.

Penn State (5-1, 2-1) lost for the first time in 10 games and head back to State College with a list of injuries that could make its path through the rest of the season difficult.

When Petras took a knee in victory formation to end the game, students and other fans poured out of their end zone seats to celebrate. Bodies were packed together the entire width of the field from the south end zone to the 10-yard line on the other end.

“It’s a pretty special place when the lights go on and the sun goes down,” Iowa coach Kirk Ferentz, an Upper St. Clair native, said.

The Hawkeyes’ grinding offense isn’t built to play from behind, but it managed to come back in the biggest game at Kinnick Stadium since then-No. 1 Iowa beat then-No. 2 Michigan in 1985.

Iowa won the field-position battle thanks to the work of punter Tory Taylor, who repeatedly pinned Penn State deep in its own end after Clifford went out of the game in the second quarter.

Iowa chipped away with field goals by Caleb Shudak to cut it to 20-16. The winning drive started when it got the ball at the Penn State 44 with 6 minutes, 35 seconds left.

Petras rolled to his right and found Ragaini alone on the left side. Linebacker Curtis Jacobs knocked him out of bounds, but not before he got the ball over the goal line. All-America center Tyler Linderbaum was the first man to greet him in the end zone.

Penn State coach James Franklin didn’t disclose the nature of Clifford’s injury. He was hurt with the Lions leading 17-3 when he took a big hit from linebacker Jack Campbell, and he was out of uniform on the sideline in the second half.

After Ta’Quan Roberson took over for Clifford in the middle of the second quarter, Penn State managed just 50 yards on 46 plays the rest of the way.

“We talk about all of the important statistics all of the time, and we didn’t do a good job on any of them,” Franklin said. “We did not win the field position battle. We did not win the turnover battle. We did not win the penalty battle. We didn’t win the explosive play battle.”

Five of Roberson’s series started inside the Penn State 10, and a sixth started at the 11. The sellout crowd of 70,000 had a major impact when the Lions were in their own end, their roars forcing numerous false starts as Roberson’s claps for the snap went unheard by his linemen.

On the Nittany Lions’ last three possessions, they turned over the ball on downs, Matt Hankins came up with Iowa’s fourth interception of the game and they turned it over on downs again.

“We weren’t counting on the interceptions, but that was a great job there,” Ferentz said. “We played physical, knocked their quarterback out — hope he’s fine. That’s the team we have.”

Besides Clifford, the Nittany Lions also lost a couple of key defensive players. P.J. Mustipher, their 326-pound run stopper, went out less than two minutes after kickoff with a left knee injury and didn’t return. Neither did safety Jonathan Sutherland, who left in the second quarter with an undisclosed injury.

For Iowa, it continues to be all about defense. The offense responded when it had to in the second half, but defense was special throughout. Four more interceptions gave the Hawkeyes a nation-leading 16. The only sour note was an injury to cornerback Riley Moss, who appeared to injure his left knee after an interception.