Penn State Football: Brisker and Teammates, Will Have to Put ‘What If?’ Behind Them

Early in Penn State and Illinois’ endless overtime spiral Nittany Lion safety Jaquan Brisker had the game-winning interception seemingly in his hands.

And he dropped it.

These things happen, of course. Sports are full of errors; that’s how games are decided. Nobody plays perfectly and sometimes the ball just bounces your way and sometimes it doesn’t. Remember that certain blocked field goal against Ohio State five years ago? The ball could have bounced away from Grant Haley, but it didn’t.

Perhaps Brisker’s drop wasn’t a bad bounce but it was one of those moments that can go either way. The senior safety is still one of the Nittany Lions’ best defenders and one of the best at his position in the nation, but it sits with him all the same. He’ll remember that drop for as long as he remembers the interception he had against Wisconsin.

But for how long?

“Probably not until the next time I step on the football field again,” Brisker said after the game. “That’s probably a play I should have made as a [defensive back]. It is what it is.”

Unfortunately for Penn State it’s another in a small but unavoidable list of dropped ‘what ifs?’ the Nittany Lions have seen slip through their hands late in games.

Take, for example, former Penn State corner Amani Oruwariye, who dropped a late interception against Michigan State in 2017 on the Spartans’ game-winning drive.

“I love Amani,” Penn State coach James Franklin said at the time. “He’s made huge play after huge play for our program and will continue to do that. I love Amani and I wouldn’t trade him for anybody. [NFL All-Pro] Richard Sherman is a great player, but I wouldn’t trade Amani Oruwariye for him.”

Or maybe in 2015 when Grant Haley, not yet a household name, dropped a game-winning interception against Northwestern as Penn State fell just minutes later to a field goal in the final seconds.

“We had opportunities,” Franklin said then. “Missed opportunities. Opportunities to break tackles and make people miss for first downs, opportunities for interceptions, opportunities across the board… We weren’t able to play winning football at the end of the game when we needed to.”

And on Saturday? It was a tough moment for a defense that had given up just 10 points all game over the span of 11 regulation drives by Illinois. Brisker has been a rock for the Nittany Lions all year, and Penn State’s defense has been this team’s saving grace all season. With a chance to solidify both of those things once again, the ball slipped through Brisker’s hands and deep into the back of his mind.

“We stepped up and made plays at critical moments,” Franklin said on Saturday following the latest moment of ‘what if’. “But we had other opportunities on offense, defense and special teams that could have made big plays to end the game and we did not.”

That will be the challenge for the Nittany Lions, putting the mistakes behind them with bigger games ahead. Penn State can in theory still play and beat its main East Division foes in Ohio State, Michigan and Michigan State in the coming months, but it won’t if it doesn’t let go of Saturday’s miscues.

As Grant Haley and Amani Oruwariye both proved over the course of their careers, one drop doesn’t have to define you.

And neither does one, or two, losses.