The biggest reason Penn State football didn’t win the Big Ten Championship last season was that it didn’t get off to a fast start, and James Franklin knows this must change for Saturday’s matchup.
PSU outplayed Oregon in Indy for a good chunk of the game, scoring 27 of the final 45 points.
But it’s hard to come back from 28-10 down against any opponent, let alone the No. 1 team in the country, which Oregon was at the time.
Therefore, Oregon won the game and the conference title, and Penn State had to settle for an at-large bid to the College Football Playoff. Although it ultimately worked out ok for Penn State– PSU won two Playoff games and made it to the semifinals, whereas Oregon got waxed by Ohio State in its lone Playoff game— it’s probably a safe bet that Penn State will be motivated by that loss come Saturday night.
To avoid another loss, a big key is to start fast, and Franklin talked about that with reporters after practice Wednesday.
WHAT JAMES SAID
Photo by Matt Lynch, Nittany Sports Now
Add Nittany Sports Now as a preferred source in Google! Click here to add us.“It’s also typically your best stuff, right?” he said. “Like, you come up with your game plan, and then you’ve taken your time in preparation to say, ‘ok, what are our 12 best plays?‘ Or ‘what are our best plays by down and distance situation or field zone? And that’s what you’re calling. There’s also an aspect where people will take the philosophy; they’re trying to get in all their formations. So we can see, ‘are they defending their formations the way we expected them to defend them?” And they’re doing the same on the other side of the ball. So it’s kind of a fine line and a balance between attacking with all your best stuff that you’ve had a week to get ready for, and it’s also ‘are they playing the way we expected them to play?‘ And sometimes, they’re going to throw things out there as tendency breakers to make you second-guess. But usually, after they do that, most people go right back to what they do best, right? So there’s that little bit of a feeling-out period to start the game, but I think everybody’s at their best when they’re in attack mode.”
THIRD DOWN= MASSIVE
Franklin also knows that a huge key for Penn State will be for its defense to get off the field on third down and its offense to keep the ball on third down.
So far this season, Penn State is 40th in opponent third-down conversion percentage on defense (not great) and 76th in converting third downs offensively (really not great).
Oregon, on the other hand, is 20th in opponent third-down conversion percentage and 10th in converting third downs offensively.
“Third down’s going to play a big part of that, right?” Franklin said, “If our defense can get off the field on third down, it impacts the rhythm that their offense can get into. And the same thing for us. When you talk about being creative, you might have a bunch of cool plays, but if you don’t stay on the field, everything they get a first down, that’s three more plays, obviously. But it’s also a possibility for three more touches for your playmakers.”
No. 3 Penn State takes on No. 6 Oregon at 7:30 Saturday on NBC.
