Enis Bulls Way Through the Buckeyes

Curtis Enis told the biggest lie of his life this week when he actually said playing Ohio State was no big deal.

Right. So why were his eyes dripping like faucets after second-ranked Penn State’s come-from-behind 31-27 victory Saturday before a crowd of 97,282 at Beaver Stadium?

Because Enis is from Union City, Ohio, and was vilified for defecting the state. Because Enis said he “choked” in last year’s 38-7 loss at Columbus, gaining only 34 yards in 11 carries as he watched the Buckeyes romp around the field afterward like school children.

Because Enis got hate mail after the game. “We didn’t want you at Ohio State anyway,” he said it read in part.

To which Enis responded, “Well, I didn’t want to be at Ohio State. I wanted to be here, where my heart belongs.”

Just another game?

“This game meant more to him than anybody,” Penn State tight end Brad Scioli said.

So, after gaining 211 yards in 23 carries against the No. 7 Buckeyes, and running past all-world linebacker Andy Katzenmoyer like the Roadrunner past Wile E. Coyote, and scoring the game-winning touchdown with 10:31 left with a 26-yard run off right tackle, Enis sat in the interview room and let loose like Tammy Faye Baker.

His mother, Thelma, said Curtis has always been a crier. “Since he was a toddler, he cried when lost an emotional loss, and he cried when he won.”

The hate letter? Enis tore it to shreds in his own personal pregame ceremony and then unleashed his anger on the Buckeyes.

“I was like Amtrak,” Enis said. “I was going one way.”

Enis’ touchdown blast put the exclamation point on a game that should have been saved for Jan. 1.

“It compares to some of the great ones we’ve ever had,” said Nittany Lion Coach Joe Paterno, who has coached the last 371.

What was so great about it?

How about 1,010 total yards, 58 points and a half-dozen flash points. Even the punters were great.

The losing quarterback, Ohio State junior Joe Germaine, came off the bench and threw for 378 yards and two touchdowns.

The winning quarterback, Penn State fifth-year senior Mike McQueary, completed less than half his passes for 129 yards and could not have been happier.

The player of the game was Enis, but the play of the game was made by a receiver, Chafie Fields, who finished with no catches.

Other than that, it was Notre Dame-Pitt.

Neither team knew what it was entering the game. Both know now. Penn State is 5-0. Ohio State is 4-1. Both are great, both are headed to bowl games and one, Penn State, figures to be ranked No. 1 since Florida lost on Saturday.

It would take adversity for Paterno’s team to find itself after blowing out four previous opponents.

Paterno, through thick lenses, stared out at his season’s fate with 1:42 left in the third quarter, after the Buckeyes’ Pepe Pearson tore up the middle on an eight-yard touchdown run to give Ohio State a 27-17 lead.

“I said to myself, ‘We’ll find out what kind of a team we have right now,’ ” Paterno related later.

McQueary, the hometown kid who turned 23 on Friday and waited out two quarterbacks for his chance, had not exactly been Joe Montana when he poked his head into the huddle with his team down 10 points.

“In the third quarter, I didn’t hit anything,” he said.

But none of his teammates defected.

“You could see it in their eyes,” he said. “It was like ‘Let’s go.’ I really can’t explain it. It’s something you know.”

McQueary knew on first down at the Nittany Lion 49, when fullback Aaron Harris raced up the middle and played human battering ram against the Ohio State defense en route to a 51-yard touchdown to cut the lead to 27-24 with 20 seconds left in the third quarter.

The place went nuts. “Of course that electrified the crowd,” receiver Joe Jurevisius said. “He knocked down six people, then went bumbling into the end zone. You can’t ask for anything more.”

Penn State then forced a punt, got the ball back at its 14 with 13:16 left, and marched 86 yards in eight plays for the game-winning score.

Enis went over 100 yards rushing on the drive, the first player to do so against Ohio State in 17 games.

But on second and one at the Buckeyes’ 29, the game might have been lost when McQueary rolled to his right and fired a wobbler toward the end zone. Ohio State corner Ahmed Plummer circled under the ball as if he was going to call for a fair catch.

But what looked like a certain interception was foiled when Fields, the receiver trailing the play, came back and knocked the ball away from Plummer.

“I couldn’t catch the ball, it was a wounded duck, so I went back to my high school days as a defensive back,” Fields said.

Fields saved McQueary’s hide.

“The kid had it,” McQueary said of Plummer. “That’s a big play in the game.”

Slightly. Two plays later, Enis scored the go-ahead touchdown.

Ohio State had three possessions to take back the game, but failed on each.

Shawn Lee intercepted a Germaine pass with 8:10 left to kill one drive, Ohio State punted on its next, and then ran out of time after Lee busted up a four and 10 pass intended for Ken-Yon Rambo near midfield with 2:24 left.

For good measure, Enis broke loose for runs of 10, eight and 16 yards to run out the clock on Ohio State.

Penn State ended the game inside the Ohio State 10-yard line, but elected not to try for another score.

“The football game was won,” Enis said.

It was won, in part, because Penn State neutralized Katzenmoyer, a one-man run-stopper in Ohio State’s victory over Iowa last week.

Paterno said the game plan was to run right at the sophomore linebacker to keep him from utilizing his sideline-to-sideline speed.

Enis said it was simpler than that.

“First of all, we blocked him,” Enis said.

Katzenmoyer finished with seven tackles and a new appreciation.

“He’s an incredible back,” Katzenmoyer said of Enis. “He has the speed of a 180-pounder and he can run you over like a tackle.”