One play is sometimes all it takes to define a season. You can never be too sure when it will occur, but when the year is over, you can recount that moment with great precision and accuracy.

Depending on how this season - particularly this week's Michigan game - pans out, Anthony Morelli's fourth-and-9 pass to Deon Butler in overtime Saturday falls into this category. The pass fell incomplete, but Minnesota corner Trumaine Banks was flagged for a questionable pass interference call. That gave the Nittany Lions new life in a game they needed to win, a game they should have put away long before.

The ultimate significance for Penn State, aside from the 11-yard penalty and the victory, remains to be seen.

The significance of that play is certainly not lost on the Golden Gophers, though, who needed this game to keep their hopes of a successful season intact.

An hour after Kevin Kelly's extra point iced the victory for Penn State, Gophers coach Glen Mason walked upstairs and asked a Minnesota Athletics' employee to see the replay footage in the booth. After being told the footage could no longer be accessed from the area shared by media and coaches, Mason gritted his teeth and walked away, not even being given the satisfaction of seeing the replay of the disputed call in his own stadium.

Though the call on the field might have surprised Mason, the potential significance of one play certainly did not.

"Coach Mason tells us everyday that you never know what play is going to make all the difference," Minnesota receiver Logan Payne said.

In hindsight, everyone who watched the game now knows what play made the difference.

While the controversial call may send Minnesota's season sputtering down the tube, there's a possibility that it might propel the Lions and give them confidence in close games.

This is the third year in a row in which Penn State has pulled off a last-minute victory on the road against a team it should've beaten sans drama. In the previous two seasons, good fortune and inspired play followed that turning point game.

In 2004 it was a goal line stand by the defense, just inches from allowing Indiana to take the lead on a likely a game-winning touchdown. That game was followed by a rout over Michigan State.

Last year it was a fourth-and-15 pass from Michael Robinson to tight end Isaac Smolko, which allowed for a subsequent pass to Derrick Williams down the sideline for the go-ahead touchdown. The Lions took seven of their last eight games after pulling off that miracle.

And Saturday, in the 2006 version of Penn State's annual pulse-heightening road triumph, the official threw a flag that prolonged Penn State's drive, and effectively prolonged the squad's hopes of a second straight Big Ten title and BCS berth.

Asked about the significance of the victory, Paterno said, "it means a lot," adding that it reminded him of the Northwestern game in 2005.

This game was the first time this season the Lions played a game in which the last few plays mattered. Though the loss at Ohio State was closer than the 28-6 score indicated, this was Penn State's first game with a final point differential of fewer than 18.

What's more, a close game like this makes a team a bit more experienced and unified, having gone through the full spectrum of emotions in one day.

What emotions these players experience this Saturday against Michigan is anyone's guess, but they've seen - yet again - that one play, any play, can be the one that makes all the difference.