Nothing seemed to be going right for Penn State football on Saturday.

Through the third quarter of the Nittany Lions’ matchup with Minnesota, the blue and white were 1-of-8 on third down and trailing in time of possession while holding a one-point lead. After trading field goals early in the fourth quarter, the Nittany Lions found themselves nursing another one-point lead with under six minutes left in the game.

The offense clicked when it needed to during Saturday’s victory, like during a 75-yard touchdown drive with one minute left in the first half, but the Nittany Lions needed to put together one more drive to ice the game and escape with a narrow victory.

Nick Singleton took the first touch of the drive and managed six yards before Kaytron Allen was tackled five yards in the backfield on second down. Drew Allar dropped back to throw on third down but was quickly flushed out of the pocket and scrambled, coming up a yard short of the sticks. James Franklin sent out the punt unit on 4th-and-1 at Penn State’s 34-yard line.

Punter Riley Thompson never touched the ball, though, as true freshman tight end Luke Reynolds took the direct snap 32 yards down the sideline for a first down on a fake punt.

“I felt like we needed to try to end the game on our terms,” Franklin said. “Give [Minnesota] a ton of credit, they did a good job of producing yards. They were kicking the ball extremely well tonight, so I just felt like we needed to be aggressive.”

Franklin said the fake field goal had been called “probably six times,” so far this season, but offensive lineman Dominic Rulli checks the team out of the play if the defense isn’t giving the correct look. On Saturday, Franklin and Rulli got the look they wanted when the Golden Gophers trotted out the punt return team.

That wasn’t the end of Penn State’s troubles, though, as the Nittany Lions tried to run out the clock and once again faced a 4th-and-1, this time from Minnesota’s 25-yard line. After the Golden Gophers called a timeout, Allar and Co. raced onto the field, lined up in a quarterback sneak formation, and quickly snapped the ball on a tush-push to get the first down.

The run game continued to struggle over the next three plays and Penn State found itself in yet another 4th-and-1 situation with less than 30 seconds in the half. Franklin was tasked with either kicking a field goal to go up 29-25 and give the Golden Gophers the ball back or going for the first down to end the game.

“Same thing,” Franklin said. “We wanted to end the game on our terms.”

This time, Allar lined up in shotgun formation with Singleton behind him and lineman Olaivavega Ioane lined up wide on his right side. Ioane motioned in as Singleton was covered on a flat route, forcing Allar to improvise.

Allar turned and fired to Tyler Warren, who grabbed the ball and fell to the turf at the three-yard line on what was the final play of Penn State’s 26-25 win over the Golden Gophers.

“Tyler [Warren] was the second read on the play, but I saw Nick [Singleton] was covered up and I felt somebody looping,” Allar said. “I saw Tyler waving his hands, and he did a great job of staying in bounds and securing the ball.”

Allar finished 21-of-28 with 244 passing yards and a touchdown while Warren had another 100-yard outing, registering eight catches for 102 yards.

The Nittany Lions were forced to put together big drives at the end of both halves against Minnesota on Saturday. While one ended with a touchdown and a blocked extra point which was returned for a Minnesota safety, the other ended the game.

“We’re really well-coached in situational football, no matter if it’s two-minute, four-minute, end of the half, or end of the game,” Allar said. “It shows up on Saturdays, and we were able to go out and execute when we needed to.”