UNIVERSITY PARK — Make it another year where a winnable game against Ohio State got away from Penn State.
PSU coach James Franklin fell to 1-10 against the Buckeyes after Saturday’s 20-13 loss that put a Big Ten championship possibility almost certainly out of the picture.
It makes it even more heartbreaking that Penn State had first-and-goal from inside 3-yard line not once, but twice. In fact, they had that situation on their final offensive series in each half.
With over seven minutes left, Franklin and offensive coordinator Andy Kotelnicki elected to run the ball three times, which resulted in being stuffed all three times to set up fourth-and-goal from the 1. Rather than punch it in with Tyler Warren, Penn State passed as Drew Allar looked for Warren on a play where he was well-covered.
“I wanted to get it to Tyler Warren,” Allar said. “The safety did a good job playing it over the top.”
Warren had been close to unstoppable for much of the day as a different option at quarterback. The question on everyone’s mind was asked to Franklin.
“Should we probably have given the ball to Tyler after the plays he made? Yeah, I get it,” Franklin said in his postgame presser.
“Are they (Ohio State) good on defense? Yes. But we have to find ways to manufacture points and yards. There’s no doubt about it. We didn’t get it done. Give them a ton of credit.”
In the first half on the first-and-goal situation, Allar initially looked to have a touchdown pass to Harrison Wallace III. Although the play was ruled incomplete on the field, replay showed that Allar’s pass was wrestled away inbounds by Ohio State cornerback Davison Igbinosun for an interception.
“You’re supposed to score touchdowns when you’re at the 3-yard line,” Warren said. “That’s on us as an offense. We have to work on that and get better. That was a big part of the game.”
After the game, many fans voiced their displeasure with Franklin as he was booed loudly before the Penn State alma mater.
“I understand their frustration,” Franklin said. “Guys in the locker room are just as frustrated, if not more. But college football has changed. We have an opportunity moving forward to right some wrongs from today.”
So the next question is, where does Penn State go from here? It’s another brutal loss to the Buckeyes, but there’s still a lot to play for with the expanded 12-team College Football Playoff.
“It’s a long season, and we can’t let one loss turn into two or three,” Allar said. “We have to right the wrongs we made today. Offensively we’re not going to point any fingers. There wasn’t one person that blew the game for us.”
“Anytime you lose any game, it’s going to hurt. We’re frustrated. We’re upset,” Warren said. “But we have another game to play next week so we have to move on.”
Franklin summed up Penn State’s short yardage failures.
“Two turnovers inside the five,” Franklin said, “that’s really the story of the game.”
