Penn State football continues troubling trend in its latest loss
STATE COLLEGE — It is a new year, but the Penn State football team allowed the same old story to play out on Saturday at Beaver Stadium. It ended with another loss at the hands of Ohio State. The Nittany Lions led in the fourth quarter. It has done that in past games against the Buckeyes. But, in the end, Ohio State almost always wins out.
That was the case again this season. After Kaytron Allen plunged in from a yard out to put the Lions ahead 20-16 with 9:26 to play, the Buckeyes scored a barrage of points to take the lead and keep it for good. In a span of just over five game minutes, Ohio State scored 28 points, capped by a back-breaking Sean Clifford pick-six at the hands of extremely talented defensive end JT Tuimoloau. The Lions were shell-shocked, unable to recover, and a late Lions touchdown covered the spread but did nothing to give head coach James Franklin’s team a real chance at a comeback.
Miscues sink Penn State
Turnovers were an issue. Clifford threw three interceptions and also fumbled once. Penn State ran 20 more plays than the Buckeyes (80 to 60) but handed their opponent 21 points off the turnovers. And, the Lions could not carry over a first half lead for 60 minutes because Ohio State showed up when it mattered most, and Penn State did not, per the usual.
The Lions have now lost six straight games to the Buckeyes, who entered the game as the No. 2 team in the country and as a 15.5-point underdog. They are good. But, not unbeatable, even if they still have a perfect record. However, Penn State could not take advantage of its miscues, which was the difference.
“The game starts and ends with the turnovers,” head coach James Franklin said. “We knew with this type of opponent we were going to have to be able to score points on them. They’re explosive on the offensive side of the ball. They’re explosive on the defensive side of the ball. We played our tail off, but we made too many critical mistakes.”
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Added senior safety Ji’Ayir Brown:
“Those guys are a relentless team. They have a great coaching staff. Great players. And, they trust in their game plan, their strategies. And a team like that, you got to finish them off. You got to finish them off. You can’t let a team like that live, because they never die. They’re going to keep punching, they’re gonna keep fighting, they’re gonna keep swinging. That’s what they did in that fourth quarter and they came out on top.”
It’s a familiar story for Penn State fans.
The Lions still have big goals in front of them. A 10-win regular season is still on the table with four games to go. A New Year’s Six Bowl is possible, too. But, each season is measured by how the Lions fare against Ohio State and Michigan. And, while those losses this year were different, they are setbacks all the same. Now, Franklin and his player leaders must focus on closing out the season strong despite them and focus on coming up bigger in the biggest moments against the best teams.
“They got good football teams,” Franklin said. “We played really well against Ohio State today. We had a chance to win the game, but we made too many mistakes at critical moments, which you can’t do against a top-ranked opponent like that.”
