Despite a horrendous second half in which its offense scored zero points and its defense allowed 19, Penn State football survived a 28-25 win over Washington on Saturday afternoon.

“To be able to end it on our terms when everything was going against us, and have the poise and some betterness about ourselves to reset ourselves and win the moment, that was awesome to see,” Matt Campbell said during postgame media availability.

Back in Week 4, Penn State blew a 17-0 lead to Wisconsin, and that feeling undoubtedly haunted coaches’ and players’ stomachs during the Huskies’ wildly-close attempt to surmount a 28-6 deficit.

In an eerily similar mirror of the Wisconsin breakdown, Washington punched in a 6-yard touchdown by Dezmen Roebuck and converted the two-point attempt to make it 28-25 with 7:40 left.

But this time, the Nittany Lions dispelled the doubts, and a big reason for that was Campbell helping his players “find their voice.”

“First of all, as a head football coach: lead. Don’t sit back and assume it’s gonna happen,” Campbell said. “Trying to scheme your way to the finish line, that ain’t it. Go make a difference. Be the leader that they need you to be, and hopefully, I was able to be a little better today than I was against Wisconsin.”

With no momentum in the tank, Penn State’s offense assembled a 14-play drive that drained the entire remaining game clock, rendering the red-hot Husky offense powerless on the sideline.

The Nittany Lions’ knockout punch featured a pair of third-down conversions and a 4th-and-1 conversion with all the marbles on the line.

“At the end of the day, we have to go out there and drop our nuts and go out there and win the game,” offensive tackle Anthony Donkoh said. “We’ve been playing with our food all night, and we had a lot of opportunities to end the game on our terms. This is a drive that we have to be able to do it.”

With three of Penn State’s four losses being within one score this season, Donkoh expressed gratitude for Campbell’s trust in the offense to put the game away this time around.

Rather than kick a field goal on the 4th-and-1 and leave it to the defense to stop a Husky offense riding a 19-point scoring wave, offensive coordinator Taylor Mouser sent Rocco Becht up the middle on a quarterback sneak to ice the game.

“At the beginning of the game, I was hurting us a little bit on those power [runs] on my tracking to the linebackers, but [Campbell] still trusted running behind me and [Cooper Cousins] on that play and you saw how well it worked out.”

Cousins, a 6-foot-6, 320-pounder, was visibly enthralled after executing Campbell’s decision and Mouser’s play call, so much so that he violated the rules of personal space by shoulder-checking Campbell. Of course, he meant it with love and appreciation for his head coach.

Part of Penn State’s ability to stave off the comeback effort came from its depth pieces inserting into the starting lineup and maintaining a standard of play.

Specifically, cornerback Ibn McDaniels and offensive tackle Garrett Sexton filled in during crunch time.

McDaniels showed stellar man coverage and ball skills by intercepting Demond Williams Jr.’s 3rd-and-14 pass early in the fourth quarter to steal an extra possession.

On the other side of the ball, Sexton slid in at left tackle for much of the second half to relieve starter Malachi Goodman, who was banged up coming into Saturday.

Campbell said the staff knew it would be hard for Goodman to play all four quarters, but drew confidence from Sexton’s preparation leading up to the game.

“It goes to show when you keep biding your time, and keep working and working, those results are going to pay off for you when your number is called out when we need you,” Donkoh said of Sexton. “That’s what he did there, and I’m super proud of him.”

In an alternate reality, if Penn State failed to convert the 4th-and-1 or even decided to kick a field goal, the blue and white defense would have had to keep Washington out of the end zone for two minutes.

Maybe defensive coordinator D’Anton Lynn’s unit stops the Huskies; maybe it doesn’t. But Campbell’s perfect balance of confidence and aggressiveness, along with the offensive players’ execution, kept it hypothetical.

“It was great seeing our offensive players do their thing and keep driving the ball, hold on to the ball. It was amazing,” defensive end Yvan Kemajou said after the game.

Fans will harp on how poorly Penn State played in the second half, which is fair, but the ultimate takeaway should be Campbell’s team delivered when it mattered most to avoid a nasty blown lead.

That scratching and clawing all the way to the end is a tangible sign of development for the foundation of Campbell’s program, and after Penn State legend Jack Ham’s incident before kickoff, the gritty win was a microcosm of what it means to wear the blue and white.

“That’s how you want to end games, just like that,” Becht said. “Hopefully we can do that next week and for the rest of the season, but we’re going to keep getting better. There are always areas to grow, but that last drive was awesome.”

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