The penalty was almost as inconceivable as UW’s attempted comeback.

With 3:51 remaining and Washington trailing Penn State by three despite a 22-point halftime deficit, coach Jedd Fisch called a timeout to set up his defense on third-and-five and save some valuable seconds for his offense.

Washington got the stop. Then the penalty flags flew. Illegal substitution. Twelve players on the field. On the defense.

“After the timeout, they switched personnels. We switched personnels,” Fisch said. “Clearly, not all 11 guys got it. There were 12 guys. We were trying to get the attention of our players to send one guy off the field. You could see everybody jumping up and down on the sideline, but we were not heard. We didn’t get the communication (right). We can’t take back-to-back timeouts. It’s the same penalty as having 12 guys on the field. Very disappointing.”

The penalty kept Penn State’s drive alive. Washington never got the ball back.…