MADISON, Wis. (AP) \u2014 Zack Mills found the perfect medicine for his sprained shoulder.
\nMills recovered a fumble by fullback Paul Jefferson at the 1 and tumbled into the end zone for a first-quarter touchdown in No. 20 Penn State\u2019s 34-31 victory over No. 19 Wisconsin on Saturday.
\nMills landed on his left (throwing) shoulder on the Nittany Lions\u2019 second drive and feared he\u2019d join Badgers\u2019 star Lee Evans on the sideline.
\n\u201cAt first they thought it was separated, but I went in and had it checked. They think it\u2019s a sprained A.C. joint,\u201d Mills said. \u201cIt was painful when I first when back in.
\n\u201cBut on the fumble the adrenaline kicked in and I didn\u2019t feel anything.\u201d
\nMills went on to complete 21 of 37 passes for 287 yards. And he set a school record with 686 yards passing in consecutive games, surpassing Kerry Collins\u2019 mark of 630 set in 1993.
\nEvans, on the other hand, didn\u2019t feel good enough to play against Penn State (4-1, 1-1 Big Ten).
\nThe Badgers (5-1, 0-1) were hoping to have Evans, the Big Ten\u2019s leading receiver in 2001, back for their first conference game.
\nEvans injured his left knee in the spring game April 20, but the Badgers hadn\u2019t really missed him until Saturday, when their offensive line couldn\u2019t hold off the Nittany Lions\u2019 pass rush, and their group of young receivers made several crucial mistakes in the fourth quarter.
\nTrailing 28-23 with 11:24 left, the Badgers got the ball at the Penn State 47, their best field position all afternoon. But sophomore Darren Charles had his second drop of the game, then freshman Jonathan Orr let a perfect pass bounce off his chest at the 25 on third down.
\n Badgers coach Barry Alvarez said. \u201cYou have to make (those) plays, particularly at crunch time.\u201d
\nThe Nittany Lions capitalized by moving 40 yards in seven plays for Robbie Gould\u2019s career-long 51-yard field goal that made it 31-23.
\n\u201cWe were debating on the sideline what to do,\u201d coach Joe Paterno said. \u201cHe said, \u2019Coach, I can do it.\u2019 So, we let him.\u201d
\nOn the next possession, Bollinger\u2019s pass to freshman Brandon Williams was tipped by Anwar Phillips, and linebacker Gino Capone came down with the ball. It was just the second interception of the season for Bollinger.
\nThat led to Gould\u2019s fourth field goal, a 40-yarder that made it an 11-point game with 2:55 left. The score became critical when the Badgers pulled to 34-31 with 1:17 left, as Bollinger hit Orr from 28 yards out and Dwayne Smith ran in the 2-point conversion.
\nNittany Lions linebacker LaMar Stewart recovered the onside kick and Penn State ran out the clock.
\nAlvarez hoped Evans would be able to play.
\n\u201cThe way he practiced on Tuesday, I thought he was going to play,\u201d Alvarez said. \u201cHe had some soreness. He practiced again on Thursday. It didn\u2019t clear up the way we wanted it to and he didn\u2019t feel comfortable with it.\u201d
\nWisconsin pulled to 28-20 when Williams caught a 7-yard touchdown pass in the third quarter, but as senior left tackle Ben Johnson rushed to celebrate he ran over a defensive back for a penalty that forced Scott Campbell to attempt his conversion kick from 36 yards, and he missed to the right.
\nMike Allen\u2019s 48-yard field goal with 13:05 left pulled the Badgers within five points.
\nA year ago, the Badgers controlled the clock for nearly 42 minutes and rushed for 320 yards in an 18-6 victory at Happy Valley.
\nThe Nittany Lions dominated this time. Their 145 first-quarter yards were 14 more than they totaled against Wisconsin last year, their lowest output ever under Paterno.
\nBehind Larry Johnson\u2019s 171 all-purpose yards, they outgained the Badgers 436-309. Johnson ran 14 times for 111 yards before leaving with a hamstring injury.
\nThe Badgers\u2019 only big break came when linebacker Alex Lewis slammed Mills and cornerback B.J. Tucker stepped in front of tight end Casey Williams and returned an interception 65 yards for a touchdown that gave Wisconsin 14-13 lead.
\n\u201cI should have just eaten the ball,\u201d Mills said. \u201cBut the way we were moving the ball, we had a lot of confidence.\u201d
\nThat faith showed as Penn State needed just four plays to regain the lead for good on Johnson\u2019s 24-yard rumble.0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
MADISON, Wis. (AP) \u2014 Zack Mills found the perfect medicine for his sprained shoulder. Mills recovered a fumble by fullback Paul Jefferson at the 1 and tumbled into the end zone for a first-quarter touchdown in No. 20 Penn State\u2019s 34-31 victory over No. 19 Wisconsin on Saturday. Mills landed on his left (throwing) shoulder […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-48076","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sports-news-in-the-tyrone-pennsylvania-area"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48076","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=48076"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48076\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=48076"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=48076"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=48076"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}