Penn State Football: Watch Eli Manning Go Undercover During Penn State Walk-On Tryouts

Father, Two Sons Killed in Silo Accident at Penns Valley Farm

U.S. Labor Department Drops Lawsuit Against Centre County Mexican Restaurant

Sports Headlines curated by StateCollege.com staff.

80% of consumers turn to directories with reviews to find a local business.

There are two different truths to take from Penn State’s 33-14 sleepwalk over Central Michigan on Saturday.

The first, a self-evident observation: Penn State has plenty to work on. There’s no sugarcoating the slog everyone was subjected to on Saturday, the sort of game that makes you brush your teeth afterwards just to get the taste out of your mouth. After scoring 14 points in the open seven minutes, Penn State subjected everyone to something similar to the experience of watching a movie you know the ending to but features no interesting plot points and lasts several hours. It just sort of happened, and then it was done. And everyone was grateful.

The second truth is the simple fact this game was like so many across college football every single week. Saturday’s early slate in particular featured overtimes, close games that should not have been close and ugly football from teams that ought to know better. Even Georgia, which has spent the better part of the last five years slowly grinding opponents into a find powder, found itself in a tussle with Kent State, of all programs. Sexy or not, fun or not, Penn State won, avoiding the sort of inexplicable trap-game defeat that has kneecapped more than a few seasons.

In many respects, Saturday was a unique event in Penn State’s time under James Franklin. Since 2014 Penn State has played 17 games against teams outside the Power 5 in its non-conference slate and has given up more than 14 points on just six occasions. Over the span of those games Penn State has won by the average score of 39-14, with a few outliers like Penn State’s overtime win against Appalachian State in 2018 propping up the opponent averages a bit. Then again Penn State has posted out-of-conference scores like 79-7, 63-10, 56-0 and 52-0. In turn was a general perception that Saturday’s game should — or rather ought to be — a blowout wasn’t a completely unfounded assumption to make. Alternatively, facing the nation’s No. 19 passing offense and the nation’s leading rusher in 2021, it may have been a bit too presumptuous that Central Michigan, coached by former Florida head coach Jim McElwain, was going to roll over and die in exchange for whatever Penn State paid CMU for the appearance.

Subsequently, it’s easy to write off certain aspects of Penn State’s performance on Saturday as simply the way the world works. Teams have weird days. That doesn’t make it OK — if framing this as a moral failure is even the right way to look at it in the first place — but Penn State’s failure to wipe the floor with an ostensibly capable team isn’t proof of foundational failures. There was never really any question if Penn State was the better team, just to what extent that was going to be proven. There’s something to be said for that.

It is hard to deny, however, the road Penn State faces up ahead. The Nittany Lions are going to be favored next weekend against Northwestern and almost certainly should win. That win would set Penn State up for a pivotal meeting against Michigan in Ann Arbor at 5-0 before facing Minnesota and Ohio State at home in the following weeks. It’s in there that the rubber will really meet the road, Penn State’s performance on Saturday simply a magnifying glass into what the Nittany Lions need to do better if they want to come out on the right end of more of these games than not.

Enter Penn State coach James Franklin and his wish list of sorts.

“Defensively, you know, obviously we’ve got to do better on third and long,” Franklin said after the game. “We’ve done a really good job of getting people in the third-and-long situations and we’re letting them out of it or we’re giving up too many yards and creating manageable fourth down situations and people want to go for it. That’s an area that we clearly have to get better.”

To a certain extent, Penn State did well overall on third-downs Saturday afternoon with CMU converting just 5-of-15 attempts. That said, the Nittany Lions gave up plays of 25, 18 and 13 yards on third down with two of those converting and the 25-yard gain setting up a failed fourth-and-goal attempt in the second half. Auburn had similar success the previous week converting third-downs of 20, 16 and 10 yards in the losing effort. The Tigers finished the game also converting 5-of-15 attempts on third down, meaning of Penn State’s 10 third down conversions given up the past two weeks, half of them were for plays of more than 10 yards.

All the same, heading into Saturday the Nittany Lions were ranked No. 38 overall in opponent third down conversion rate, a figure that would be even better if not for those long conversion plays.

“Kick off is not where I want to be. We’re very inconsistent,” Franklin said. “One time we will kick it eight yards deep in the corner and the next time we’re at the five yard line in the middle of the field. So that is not where it needs to be whatsoever. [As for field goals and extra point issues], we ran the same protection the last couple of years and really had no issues with it. We’ve made some personnel changes which I thought got better. But then today obviously it reared its ugly head again and then you know an extra point is blocked and two field goals were missed. So that’s not where we needs to be at all.”

Franklin isn’t wrong here either. Penn State has gotten clinical work from punter Barney Amor but place kicking, field goals and extra points have turned into a coin-toss on the best of days. Jake Pinegar’s fairly short 38-yard push to the right was emblematic of his struggles so far this season while Sander Sahaydak’s attempt from 56-yards was certainly a tough ask but had absolutely no chance in a fairly wind-free day. Perhaps most concerning of all is Penn State’s protection on extra points, which has led to blocks and near blocks all season. It’s one thing if the Nittany Lions lose from inconsistent kicking, another if they lose before the ball ever gets a chance to cross the line of scrimmage.

While Penn State might have larger issues to fix on any given snap, the Nittany Lions will be hard pressed to win very many games of note if they come down to kicks, especially if otherwise routine extra points become a threat for failure.

“I haven’t really seen the numbers yet for today, but we’ve got to be able to be more efficient and effective on third down,” Franklin said adding to his list. “That’s got to be a strength for us.”

Penn State entered Saturday No. 97 in the nation on third down having converted just 13 of 37 attempts. The Nittany Lions converted 5-of-13 attempts on third down Saturday but averaged a dismal 8.3 yards to gain on average on third down. Against Auburn, the Nittany Lions needed to gain 7.5 but managed to convert 5-of-11 third down attempts in that rout.

Comparatively, the Nittany Lions’ best seasons have predictably come when the Nittany Lions can move the chains on those vital downs. Penn State ranked No. 5 in 2017, albeit nearly dead last in 2016 at No. 117 in 2016 en route to a Big Ten Title. Although in a wrinkle in 2016, Penn State faced fewer third downs than all but 25 teams.

“And then we got to be able to consistently run the ball,” Franklin said. “That is through scheme. That is through development. That’s through all of it. Because we’re going to need to do that and when we’ve been our best so far this season, we’ve been able to do both. So we’ll continue to emphasize and continue to coach and continue to develop it. Obviously, I’m saying all of this and we had a running back rush for 100 yards. We got multiple guys that have the ability to do that. And we got guys that can make big plays. So there’ll be there’ll be a bunch off of this tape that we will feel good about there will be a decent amount that we need the correct..”

It is a new feeling knowing that Penn State can, in theory, run the ball. The Nittany Lions have now had a 100-yard rusher for three straight games after going 17 in a row without any. The duo of Nick Singleton and Kaytron Allen proved plenty potent on Saturday, with Allen getting 111-yards on 13 carries while Singleton managed 42 on 12 attempts. All told the Nittany Lions finished the afternoon with 5.2 yards per carry but a few later runs inflated that number a bit. Overall, Penn State’s objective on the ground has been less about total numbers as it has been being able to run the ball when it wants to. That being said, it’s hard to deny how good the Nittany Lions have looked when the ground game gets going. However, like all things it is a question of consistency.

Penn State will pick itself up from its Saturday afternoon slog and head on toward Northwestern with 20 days between now and a trip to Ann Arbor, potentially the next time this wish list will truly be tested. Seemingly a lot of time, and no time, to get things fixed.

Receive all the latest news and events right to your inbox.

StateCollege.com provides local news, entertainment, and information for State College, PA. We offer the latest breaking news and videos straight from the Centre County region in Central PA.

220 Regent Court, Suite B, State College, PA 16801

© Copyright 2000 –  | StateCollege.com® | All Rights Reserved | State College, PA – Centre County – Central Pennsylvania – Home of Penn State University

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.