Did Fernando Mendoza just secure the Heisman Trophy?
The Indiana football quarterback put an exclamation point on his Heisman submission tape in the final moments of 27-24 win over Penn State at Beaver Stadium.
With a 10-play, 80-yard drive in the final minute Saturday, Mendoza brought the No. 2 Hoosiers (10-0, 7-0 Big Ten) back from the brink of a disaster that would have imperiled their chances of reaching the Big Ten championship game and damaged an impeccable College Football Playoff resume.
‘Anybody looking for a Heisman moment, there it is, that dudes earned it,’ Hoosiers linebacker Aiden Fisher said. ‘He’s the best player in the country, and he showed that today.’
Mendoza capped off a gritty performance with a 7-yard touchdown pass to Omar Cooper Jr., in the back of the end zone. Cooper made an incredible leaping grab while making sure to bend his legs back across his body to get a foot down in bounds.
It was a heck of a throw as well with Mendoza having to leave his feet in order to ensure the pass attempt cleared the defenders who were in his face.
‘No matter what the record is, Penn State is still Penn State,’ Mendoza said after the game. ‘These are game-winning drives you dream of growing up as a kid. I can say this is the top moment of my career.”
Mendoza wasn’t at his best for three-plus quarters Saturday.
He described his performance as ‘sloppy’ and a prime example of that was the costly interception he threw in the fourth quarter. He forced a pass to E.J. Williams Jr. while rolling out of the pocket on a play that could have easily ended by him simply throwing it away or checking the ball down to a running back.
The problem for Mendoza was he reverted back to some of the bad habits he picked up at Cal when the protection broke down. He held onto the ball for too long and the offense struggled to get into a rhythm.
After Indiana’s defense came through a critical stop in the final minutes, Fisher gave Mendoza a similar pep talk to the one he delivered to the quarterback in the wake of his pick-six at Autzen Stadium.
‘I went up and told him, you do this every single day,” Fisher said. “It’s just another two-minute practice drill. You know what you are doing.’
The sack Mendoza took on first down looked like more of the same — IU’s offense totaled just 77 yards in the second half before its last minute drive — but everything snapped into focus for him on the next play when he hit Cooper for a 22-yard gain down the middle.
“We needed that one play to get our momentum going,” Mendoza said. “We know what our identity is on offense.”
He followed that up with a series of completions to different targets to get inside the 10-yard line. He threw a perfectly placed ball between two defenders to tight end Riley Nowakowski for a 29-yard gain and hit Charlie Becker at the sideline.
It still wasn’t the prettiest of drives with Penn State successfully bringing pressure — Cignetti told reporters after the game IU got “whipped” up front — but Mendoza stood tall in the pocket and delivered strikes to his receivers time and time again.
Before throwing the game-winner, Mendoza got laid out by a blitzer off the corner who spun him around in mid-air. The hit might have caused some Indiana fans to hold their breath, but Mendoza just bounced off the turf into the huddle.
‘To see what the defense, special teams and offense, especially the offensive line with what they are going through, battling every play, I can’t stay on the ground no matter how hard the hit is, no matter how much it hurts,’ Mendoza said. ‘I know I’m going to put my life on the line for the team, I will never sub myself out in that instance, I would die on that field for my brothers.’
This story was updated to change a video.