STATE COLLEGE -- There are overtime football games and then there are tales of survival.

What happened at Beaver Stadium on Saturday night was the latter. And while no season is allowed to die officially until at least around Thanksgiving, the fact is, some do much earlier.

The Penn State Nittany Lions' season would have moved on regardless of whether they had managed to execute the near-miracle they did in beating Michigan 43-40 in four OT periods. But, in the words of Miracle Max, you might have been able to diagnose it as "mostly dead."

The Lions needed this game a lot more than Michigan did. Losing it would have induced an acid rain shower on their spirit, no matter the team's resiliency their coach Bill O'Brien keeps referring to. And against many stacks of odds at various junctures, they did it.

Down by 10 points midway in the fourth quarter, they got a vital 43-yard field goal from their resurrected place kicker Sam Ficken. Then, shedding a pass interference flag against Adrian Amos that probably should have picked up due to an uncatchable pass 10 yards beyond receiver Jeremy Gallon, they finally stopped the Wolverines and set out with 80 yards to go for a tying TD and 50 seconds in which to do score it.

"We really just came together there," said freshman quarterback Christian Hackenberg. "I think as a team we really had the fire behind us. We thought we were gonna be able to get it done and we did."

They used less than half their allotted time -- 23 seconds. Thanks to a pair of spectacular catches of Hackenberg passes by Brandon Felder (29 yards) and then Allen Robinson (36 yards to the 1), the Lions sent the game to extra sessions.

Robinson leaped high above a true freshman Michigan cornerback named Channing Stribbling who is commonly used only in dime packages. The catch will be remembered in Penn State lore for many years. Robinson nearly scored on it, coming down inches from the goal line. Hackenberg would sneak it in, again by inches, on the next play -- with no timeouts left and untold chaos sure to ensue had he not made it.

The backstory is this: At a couple of junctures during the second half and at some other points earlier this season, Robinson rather demonstratively exhibited his frustration at Hackenberg not getting him the ball. And like many true freshmen quarterbacks learning the ropes, Hackenberg has indeed been slow on the trigger when he could have hit the Lions' spectacular wideout.

At one point in this game, the two jawed at each other on the sideline before O'Brien and receiver coach Stan Hixon stepped in as peacemakers. Moments later, QB and WR talked over strategy in a more orderly way.

"I wouldn't say we went at it too much," said Robinson. "Anybody wants the ball in a game like this. But he was going through his reads and that's what he was reading. It's not something [where] I can complain.

"Sometimes I might say I'm open and he doesn't think I'm open. So, it's all about what he's reading at the time."

Hackenberg didn't bother making reads on the play that 36-yard pass to the Michigan 1. He found his guy "with the 38-inch vertical leap and let him go after it." Extra football followed.

There were four of those OTs. The game lasted about an hour longer than it should have. And now the Penn State season will last longer than it might have.

Two of the Wolverines' chances went poof thanks to bad placekicks by a left-footed kicker. Michigan Men of a certain age will wince at that reference. Four decades later, Mike Lantry needs no more abuse and the truth is, one of the two calls of his errant kicks against Ohio State in successive years was probably wrong. But the sad fact is, fifth-year senior Brendan Gibbons will now probably be entered as a footnote next to Lantry.

And wonder of wonders, the Penn State victory was ultimately set up by a favorable officials call on the penultimate play -- a pass-interference flag in the end zone on Michigan safety Jarrod Wilson in coverage of Robinson.

That put the ball on the 2. And Bill Belton's blast wide off left tackle and around the edge set off a frenzied field rush and long, loud exhale from a vibrating throng very close in population to the 107,000 that began the game.

It included some strange coaching decisions: In the first quarter, a needless fourth-down gamble deep in PSU territory by O'Brien that blew up in his face; in the first overtime, an ultra-conservative decision by Michigan coach Brady Hoke to set up Gibbons for the would-be winning field goal (after Ficken had missed) by centering the ball for a 40-yard attempt -- not exactly a chip shot.

It was sloppy at many times. It was full of goofy turnovers that seemed to make little sense. It went on forever, the longest contest in school history, longer even than the post-2005 Orange Bowl.

But it was one hell of a fun game to watch.

"I think I said [to Hoke] that somebody had to win this thing," said O'Brien. "Both teams hung in there. Both teams fought hard. And thankfully, Penn State came out on the winning end.

"I just says a lot about our kids, a very resilient bunch of kids that care about each other."

They would've needed to be plenty resilient had they lost. It would've been an absolute crusher, a dispiriting experience indigestible during another bye week. But the Lions won when they really needed to after that ostrich egg at Indiana, maybe the ugliest PSU loss in a decade.

And had they lost this, it would've been recalled, rightly or not, as another crank job by the officials.

Penn State has had several notable OT experiences over the years since the tie-break rule took effect in 1996. The first few were not pleasant.

There was the 2000 Iowa game, lost on a sudden turnover. Then, the pair of excruciating results in 2002 that each involved controversial Big Ten officiating. Which is kind of like referring to cake icing as sweet.

The first came at home against an Iowa team that ended up winning the league undefeated and ended with Joe Paterno chasing the head ref out Beaver Stadium's south tunnel. The second involved a whole bunch of botched calls late, two that actually benefited Penn State. But the worst one was the infamous two-feet-in Tony Johnson catch ruled out of bounds. Together, those games are credited with catalyzing instant replay review in college football.

Penn State needed no review in the fourth and final overtime. They did what no official could equivocate and no capricious bounce of the ball could disrupt. They ran Bill Belton for that last two yards. He walked in.

"The line did a great job," said Belton. "[Fullback] Pat Zerbe was able to pick up his man and I was able to get around the corner and get in."

And so, the season marches on. A lot more alive than it could have been.

DAVID JONES: djones@pennlive.com.