Penn State loses Offensive Identity Against Ohio State: Press conference recap

The Penn State football team’s biggest job this week is quickly moving on from a 20-12 loss to Ohio State and getting ready to host Indiana. But the majority of head coach James Franklin’s press conference on Tuesday was dedicated to his offense’s inability to generate points in a meaningful way. 

On today’s press conference roundup, we discuss what Frankin said in response to the questions about his team’s identity, plan of attack, and usage of its players. Senior Editor Nate Bauer discusses that and how the team reacted internally to the defeat.

Franklin points to one key stat in Penn State loss

When asked about several of his team’s struggles, including how to get Kaytron Allen and Nick Singleton the ball, Franklin kept returning to the team’s struggles on third down. 

“When you go 0 for 15 on third down, normal third down situations, long situations, short yardage situations, that was the issue. We weren’t able to stay on schedule [and] we weren’t able to get into a flow. We weren’t able to get the touches the way we would like to get the touches specifically for the running backs. That was the biggest issue,” he said. 

Not only is converting third down important, but Franklin thinks it’s Penn State’s offense’s identity. Aside from being smart and efficient, his team typically runs the ball well in short-yardage situations. They didn’t this past weekend. 

“Yeah, I think we talked about staying true to our identity, and I thought we got a little bit away from that at times.

Somebody asked me earlier about our goal line package that we’ve been using, the three running backs, and things like that that have been very successful in short yardage. We kind of got away from that,” Franklin said.

“I didn’t feel like we had been as consistent and as aggressive in certain areas that maybe we had been in the past.”

Not using the full field?

We also discuss the team’s under-utilization of the middle of the field. Franklin was less giving when asked about Allar’s targeting between the numbers for the Penn State offense.

“Yeah, we’ve got to be able to attack the entire field. If most of our production is coming in similar areas of the field, then it makes you easier to defend. There’s no doubt about it.”

“Whether it’s throwing the ball on the perimeter from one sideline to the other, making the defense run from sideline to sideline and creating space that way, whether it’s play action pass and taking shots over the top of the defense, that’s important for us to do.” 

Franklin will discuss his Penn State’s progress this week on Wednesday after practice.