Joe Paterno doesn’t believe in jinxes.

But last week his 2008 Nittany Lions broke a nine-game jinx held by Michigan, and Saturday night they stopped a seven-game domination by Ohio State in Columbus to the delight of all Penn State fans, while raising their unblemished record to 9-0.

The largest crowd in Ohio Stadium history, in addition to millions more watching the game on ABC-TV, witnessed the third-ranked Lions’ come-from-behind 13-6 victory over the 10th-rated Buckeyes in a battle where the Big Ten’s top two defensive teams allowed nothing but field goals until late in the fourth quarter.

It was Penn State’s first victory in the venerable Horseshoe since starting Big Ten play in 1993, marking the 17th time in 18 meetings that the higher-ranked team won and only the fourth time the visiting team won in conference competition.

The Nittany Lions beat the two-time defending Big Ten champions in an old-fashioned rock ’em, sock ’em defensive struggle that would have made Woody Hayes and Rip Engle proud. For one night, the modern high-powered spread HD offense devised by Joe Paterno’s son, Jay, and former protégé Galen Hall—one that had averaged 45.4 points in its first eight games this fall—gave center stage to the hard-nosed “bend but don’t break” defense that Tom Bradley learned from his mentor Jerry Sandusky.

The magnificent Lion defense never allowed the Buckeyes into its end zone, while the offense played errorless football and waited patiently for the turnover the defense finally created in the middle of the fourth quarter. Then Jay and Galen’s charges ground out the game’s final 10 points to claim victory.

Thus, the team from Ohio that was led by the much ballyhooed freshman quarterback from Pennsylvania was bested by the Pennsylvania team led by the junior quarterback from Ohio—with a strong assist by another star Pennsylvania quarterback in the final frame. Sophomore Pat Devlin, who still holds the Pennsylvania high school passing record, took over for the injured Daryll Clark, after safety Mark Rubin forced and linebacker Navorro Bowman recovered a fumble by Buckeye QB Terrelle Pryor.

Devlin calmly and confidently moved the Lion offense on two late-scoring drives that secured the triumph. “Pat Devlin is a heckuva quarterback. We’re lucky to have two quarterbacks. He had a lot of confidence and did everything we wanted him to do at the end of the game,” said the 81-year-old mentor, who directed the Lions from the coaches’ booth for the fourth consecutive game because of an ailing right leg and hip.

Longtime Nittany Lion watchers saw a parallel to the 1978 game, when Penn State secured its last victory in Columbus. Ohio State had won the recruiting battle for the nation’s prized high school quarterback—Art Schlichter—who started for the Buckeyes and was soundly defeated by the Lions, 19-0.

While reporters at Paterno’s post-game press conference peppered him with questions about the Lions’ path being opened to the Big Ten title and a possible berth in the national championship game, JoePa refused to look beyond the next game at Iowa, where he pointed out that his friend, Kirk Ferentz, has turned the Hawkeyes into a conference contender with impressive wins over Indiana and Wisconsin by an average score of 41 to 12, after close losses to bowl-eligible Northwestern and Michigan State.

The dean of Division I-A coaches would only say, “I am happy for the kids. They’ve worked so hard. I was pleased they kept their poise. One turnover was the ballgame. We played the kind of game I thought we had to play. Ohio State played a very good defensive game.”

Wide receiver Deon Butler, who is just three catches short of Bobby Engram’s career record at Penn State, summarized it from a player’s perspective: “You have to be able to go on the road and win tough football games.”

Paterno said the week off before the Lions travel to Iowa for the Nov. 8 encounter “will be good for us.” He said, “We are tired after three tough games—two of which were away before tough enthusiastic crowds. There is a lot of emotional strain along with the physical.”

Regarding his own physical condition, he said he would let doctors look at his right leg, which has seriously hampered him since a pre-season practice drill injury and confined him to a golf cart at practices and cane-assisted walking on game days.

There were plenty of heroes in Saturday’s contest, starting with senior strong safety Rubin and sophomore outside linebacker Bowman. Rubin had a career-high 11 tackles, as the Lions held Heisman Trophy candidate Beanie Wells to less than half his 123.8-yard per game rushing average (10th highest in the nation), and thwarted the running of dual-threat quarterback Pryor.

Rubin made the key play of the game when Pryor was attempting to convert a third-and-one situation at mid-field on a quarterback sneak, but the Lions’ defensive line plugged every gap. Pryor bounced outside, but Rubin met him at the corner and punched the pigskin from his grasp.

Rubin received the Walter Camp Football Foundation Defensive Player of the Week honor, while his fumble-causing play and Bowman’s recovery to set up Penn State’s come-from-behind victory was nominated for the Pontiac Game Changing Performance. Fans can cast their vote for the play until 11:59 p.m. Wednesday at www.pontiac.com/ncaa.

It’s the second week in a row a Penn State play was nominated for this award. Jared Odrick’s sack of Michigan quarterback Nick Sheridan in the end zone for a safety that ignited State’s turnaround to victory last week won the contest with 52 percent of the vote and earned $5,000 for Penn State’s scholarship fund.

Bowman added 10 tackles to his team-leading total and out fought numerous Buckeyes to recover Pryor’s fumble and give the Lions possession at the OS-38.

Odrick and his mates along the defensive line—Abe Koroma, Ollie Ogbu, Josh Gaines, Maurice Evans and Aaron Maybin—held the Buckeye runners to just 61 yards on 31 carries, only one-third of their season average. Maybin also sacked Pryor for a nine-yard loss to post his 11th solo sack of the season, second highest in the country.

While Pryor could gain only six yards rushing against Penn State, he did pass for a career-high 226 yards. But the Lion secondary kept everything in front of them, until Lydell Sargeant outleaped Brian Hartline for an interception in the end zone on Ohio State’s final play.

Offensively, sophomore tailback Evan Royster ground out 77 tough yards, including 43 on State’s two fourth-quarter scoring drives. And the offensive line of A.Q. Shipley, Rich Ohrnberger, Stefen Wisniewski, Dennis Landolt and Gerald Cadogan was still strong enough in the final frame to open the holes for Royster and Stephfon Green and get enough push for Devlin to squeeze in for the game’s only touchdown.

Co-captain Shipley said when Devlin came in to relieve Clark, he told him, “This is your team now.” Devlin told reporters, “I was confident in our offensive line. This is what you prepare for. You don’t remember the fear.”

Cadogan said, “We are taking it one week at a time. We get better every week. The Big Ten championship is in sight, but it can be lost easily. We need to correct this week’s mistakes. We heard all week we were an average offensive line, and this group had never won in the ’Shoe. It motivated us to work all week, and we executed today.”

Clark ran for 39 yards and passed for 121, before he got his bell rung loud enough that the doctors would not let him continue in the fourth quarter.

Former walk-on Graham Zug made a career-long 49-yard reception to set up Kevin Kelly’s first field goal shortly before halftime.

Rain had forced cancellation of Ohio State’s Homecoming Parade on Friday night. The Lions ruined the rest of the Buckeye alums’ 87th Homecoming Saturday night.

But Ohio State Coach Jim Tressel graciously said, “Tip your cap to Penn State.  They came in and played extremely hard and didn’t make a whole bunch of mistakes, and they came away with a hard-fought win.”

So Penn State’s first win over a Top Ten team on the road since they beat No. 8 Miami in 1999 secured its first 9-0 start in this millennium.

For the glory,