Penn State Tumbles, Big Ten Race Is Still Jumbled

The Wisconsin Badgers earned a place in football’s infamous follies on Saturday.

In a bizarre ending reminiscent of a game 18 years when the New York Giants blew a victory on Joe Pisarcik’s mishandled handoff to Larry Csonka, No. 14 Northwestern pulled out a stunning 34-30 victory over Wisconsin.

Steve Schnur’s 20-yard touchdown pass to D’Wayne Bates with 37 seconds left rescued the Wildcats (6-1 overall and 4-0 in the Big Ten) and sent the stunned Badgers (3-3, 0-3) to their third consecutive close defeat.

The Badgers led, 30-27, when they took over at their 38 after Brian Gowins’ miss of a 55-yard field goal that would have tied the score.

Because the Wildcats had only one timeout remaining, it appeared all the Badgers had to do was fall on the ball, kill the clock and walk away winners.

But quarterback Mike Samuel twice handed off to freshman tailback Ron Dayne. Dayne gained seven yards on the first carry, but defensive tackle Joe Reiff disrupted the second handoff and the ball squirted loose.

Safety Eric Collier recovered at the Badger 41 and the boisterous homecoming crowd of 79,576, fifth-largest ever at Camp Randall Stadium, stood in sudden silence.

To make matters worse for Wisconsin, officials added 12 seconds to the game clock that they said mistakenly ticked away on Dayne’s fumble, giving Northwestern 49 seconds to work with.

The Wildcats won despite losing tailback Darnell Autry because of a separated right shoulder in the first half, ending his streak of 19 consecutive 100-yard rushing games. Autry, who finished with 58 yards in 10 carries, will be examined today.

“I got hurt in the second quarter. I didn’t realize it at the time,” said Autry. “I went back in and took a hard shot and it got worse.”

Adrian Autry--no relation to Darnell--came in and ran 17 times for 82 yards and two scores.