College Football Playoff: The 5 key plays from Notre Dame’s Orange Bowl win over Penn State

On By Littum

Notre Dame awaits the winner of the Cotton Bowl in the College Football Playoff national championship game after the Irish beat Penn State 27-24 in the Orange Bowl on Thursday night.

Notre Dame trailed Penn State by seven at halftime, and the two teams combined for 31 points in the fourth quarter after scoring just 20 points in the first three quarters. Here are the five plays that defined Notre Dame’s victory over the Nittany Lions to put them in position for the school’s first national title since 1988.

Leonard’s status for the second half was in doubt heading into the break. Leonard hit the back of the head on the turf with 1:36 left in the second quarter and had to be replaced by backup Steve Angeli for the remainder of the drive. Angeli was 6-of-7 passing for 44 yards and put the Irish in position to get a field goal before halftime.

Leonard was cleared by Notre Dame’s medical staff at halftime and cleared to return to the game, as ESPN reported that Leonard was “asymptomatic” of a concussion. After delaying to start the game, Notre Dame opened the second half with the ball and drove 75 yards in eight plays.

The drive even came after a delay of game on the first play. Jeremiah Love had three of his best runs of the day to start the drive, rushing for 24 yards on the first three plays. A 36-yard pass from Leonard to Aneyas Williams got Notre Dame into the red zone, and Williams rushed for 15 yards one play after that. Two plays later, Leonard tied the game at 10-10 less than five minutes into the third quarter.

Notre Dame took a 17-10 lead early in the fourth quarter on a 2-yard TD run by Love. But Penn State answered with two TD runs from Singleton.

His first 7-yard run tied the game at 17-17 with 10:20 left. Notre Dame’s next drive then lasted just one play as Leonard was picked off by defensive end Dani Dennis-Sutton after the edge rusher dropped into coverage and made a stunning catch of a pass intended for tight end Mitchell Evans.

The pick gave Penn State the ball at the Notre Dame 39-yard line before Drew Allar rushed 11 yards for a first down on third down. On the very next play, Allar tried to go deep to tight end Tyler Warren, but the pass was intercepted by Jack Kiser.

However, the election did not count. Although Kiser caught the ball before it got near Warren, Adon Shuler was flagged for interfering with Warren because he did not turn for the ball. The penalty put the ball at the Notre Dame 9-yard line, and Singleton scored his second 7-yard TD of the day two plays later to give Penn State the lead.

The Irish tied the game with 4:38 left when Greathouse brought down two Penn State defensive backs on this 54-yard grab.

The catch came on the seventh play of the drive after the Irish needed six plays to go 37 yards. Greathouse finished the game with seven catches for 105 yards and a score.

Penn State went three-and-out after Greathouse’s catch, giving Notre Dame the ball back with 2:27 left. The Irish moved into Penn State territory, but Leonard was sacked on third down in Penn State territory with less than a minute remaining.

That forced Notre Dame to punt when the Irish were out of the end zone. And two plays later, Notre Dame had the ball back after Allar forced a throw over the middle that Christian Gray intercepted with 33 seconds left.

With the ball back in Penn State territory, Notre Dame just needed to get Jeter in place. It did so via a nifty third-down play that resulted in a conversion when Leonard rolled left and found an open Greathouse for 10 yards. Leonard then centered the ball as Penn State used its timeouts to try to get the ball back.

Jeter’s game-winning kick sailed through the posts with seven seconds left. Allar’s first pass of the drive fell incomplete and the last play of the game ended on a lateral that sailed out of bounds.