Pittsburgh at #2 Penn State - 9/11/99

#2-ranked Penn State survived a scare from their instate rival Pitt Panthers, who entered Beaver Stadium as 34-point underdogs.

A 42-yard touchdown pass from John Turman to Julian Dixon (10:49-mark) tied the game at 17 with four minutes remaining. Penn State responded with a 77-yard drive - highlighted by a 51-yard pass from Kevin Thompson to Eddie Drummond (11:52-mark) - and Travis Forney's 24-yard FG gave Penn State a 20-17 lead with just over one minute remaining. Pittsburgh immediately answered with Hank Poteat returning the kickoff to midfield and a 25-yard pass from Turman to Latef Grim set the Panthers up on the PSU 25-yardline. A David Fleischhauer sack on 3rd-down pushed the Panthers back, and with 4-seconds remaining LaVar Arrington sealed the win by blocking a 52-yard FG attempt by Nick Lotz (13:25-mark).

The blocked FG capped a rollercoaster ride of highs and lows for All-American LB and Pittsburgh, PA native LaVar Arrington - who was assessed two personal foul penalties in the first half for roughing up the Pitt punter (4:10-mark). LaVar responded with a slew of big plays, including an interception early in the 4th-qtr (9:52-mark). During Pitt's game-tying touchdown drive LaVar then had two potential interceptions slip through his fingers - before responding with the game-saving blocked FG.

John Turman completed 19 of 35 passes for 316 yards, 2 TD and 1 Int. Penn State - employing a 2-quarterback system - received up-and-down performances from quarterbacks Kevin Thompson (17-29-232, 2 Ints) and Rashard Casey (4-5-88, 1 TD). With the Penn State running game struggling (65 yds on 41 attempts) The breakout performer on offense was sophmore wideout Eddie Drummond - who caught 4 passes for 115 yds and also rushed 14 yards on a reverse.

Penn State improved their record to 3-0, setting up a showdown of unbeatens the following week when they travelled to the Orange Bowl to take on the 8th-ranked Miami Hurricanes (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cwkAK37WXo0)

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Sports

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• Penn State
• PSU
• 1999
• Pittsburgh
• Pitt
• LaVar Arrington
• punter
• Eddie Drummond
• Travis Forney
• Kevin Thompson
• Eric McCoo
• Rashard Casey
• Mike Cerimele
• John Turman
• Walt Harris
• Latef Grim
• Julian Dixon
• Joe Paterno
• Penn State football
• PSU football
• NCAA
• college
• football
• Beaver Stadium