1999: No. 16 Michigan 31, No. 6 Penn State 27
For the first time ever, Penn State had dropped a game in three consecutive seasons to the same team as a Big Ten member. Tom Brady helped Michigan do the honors, although Penn State actually made him work to earn this one.
A week after Penn State’s national title hopes veered off course with a stunning home loss to Minnesota, Brady and Michigan rallied from behind to hand Penn State a second consecutive loss to totally deflate Penn State’s title hopes once and for all. Michigan jumped out to a 10-0 lead in the first quarter and led 17-7 in the second quarter thanks to a 35-yard pass from Brady to Marcus Knight. Penn State battled back after halftime and took a 27-17 lead on the Wolverines on a 46-yard interception return by Bhawoh Jue off a Brady pass with 9:44 remaining in the game.
But, as the football world would come to realize, you don’t just bury Brady that easily. Brady led a furious comeback on offense and brought the Wolverines within three with a five-yard touchdown run with 3:26 to play and gave Michigan the 31-27 lead that would become the final score with an 11-yard pass to Knight with 1:46 to play.
It wasn’t the best game of Brady’s career, clearly. He had been picked off three times and sacked six times. But Penn State just couldn’t put the final nail in his coffin and they paid the price for it.
“We’ve done that before,” Brady said after the game. “We’re just battling and battling until that clock says 0:00. It might not always be pretty. You’re going to make a lot of mistakes. You just got to find a way to win.”
Needless to say, Brady would go on to find ways to win a heck of a lot of football games from that day on. And he would go on to torment a whole lot more teams than just Penn State during his hall of fame career.
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