EVANSTON — Everything was spiraling out of control. As mid-afternoon struck a beautiful early-Novemeber Evanston day, navy- and white-clad Penn State fans were piping up. Purple-clad Northwestern ones were silent. Everything that had been going right was going wrong. After jumping out to a 20-7 halftime lead, and looking comfortable in the process, the Wildcats relinquished everything. The Ryan Field scoreboard read Penn State 21, Northwestern 20.
Northwestern was Northwesterning.
As it was, over on the sideline, kicker Jack Mitchell just sat there and watched. Mitchell had missed both of his previous field goal attempts — one from 39 yards — and an extra point.