Blue White Illustrated

F rom the 8rst moment Penn State's revised 2020 football schedule was announced, I knew it was front- loaded. The Nittany Lions were slated to start on the road against Indiana then come home to host Ohio State at Beaver Stadium in week two. Even though Micah Parsons had long since chosen to opt out, I had convinced myself that Penn State had an excellent chance to prove itself to be the second-best team in the Big Ten behind Ohio State and 8n- ish the nine-game conference schedule with an 8-1 record. The Lions' overall series record against Indiana was 22-1, and even if they fol- lowed up their likely win over the Hoosiers with a loss to the Buckeyes, surely they would 8nd a way to right the ship against Maryland in week three. Not even the loss of running backs Journey Brown and Noah Cain to health- related concerns struck me as poten- tially season-wrecking developments, because Penn State still had eight pro- jected starters returning on o:ense, highlighted by preseason All-America tight end Pat Freiermuth, second-year starting quarterback Sean Cli:ord, and a deep and experienced o:ensive line. To my mind, the o:ense appeared to have the potential to be as good as it was dur- ing the 2019 season. The situation appeared similar on de- fense. The Lions had lost all three of their starting linebackers from last sea- son, but I assumed the group would be 8ne thanks to the development of elite prospects such as Brandon Smith and Lance Dixon, and the return of seasoned veterans like Ellis Brooks and Jesse Luketa. The presence of those players seemed certain to so;en the blow of Parsons' departure. I also felt that Penn State had quality replacements ready to step in on the de- fensive line, and I thought that the sec- ondary would be vastly improved thanks to the healthy return of veteran corner- back Tariq Castro-Fields and the emer- gence of underclassman CBs Joey Porter Jr., Marquis Wilson and Keaton Ellis. But as it turns out, with Penn State's shortened Big Ten-only campaign draw- ing to a close, most of those preseason assumptions were o:-target. And when you add to those bad assumptions the fact that Penn State failed to play any- where close to its potential against Indi- ana, Ohio State, Maryland, Nebraska and Iowa, it's not surprising that it came out of its trip to Michigan sporting a 1-5 record. The lone victory in that six-game span was a 27-17 win over the Wolverines. The Lions played a turnover-free game in Ann Arbor, and that made a huge dif- ference. But it took more than a month for the team to put together a perform- ance in which it made good on its con- siderable potential. That was disappointing. What caught me by surprise more than my incorrect assumptions was the way Penn State reacted a;er the Indiana game. When Devyn Ford failed to take a knee inside Indiana's 5-yard line and in- stead walked into the end zone to give Penn State a 28-20 lead, the Hoosiers were presented with an opportunity to regain possession of the ball and drive 75 yards for a touchdown and a two-point conversion to tie the score. That's ex- actly what they did, and they went on to win the game in overtime. It was a bad loss, but even worse was the snowball e:ect that it had on the team's subsequent performances. The Lions came out 9at the following week against Ohio State, and they were even 9atter against Maryland. In each of their 8rst 8ve games, they trailed by double digits at hal;ime: 17-7 against Indiana, 21-6 against Ohio State, 28-7 against Maryland, 27-6 against Nebraska and 24-7 against Iowa. The Ohio State game was alarming be- cause Penn State's defense didn't come prepared to play at the start. On their 8rst possession, the Buckeyes drove 75 yards on three plays for a touchdown. They never trailed the rest of the way. The disappointment of the Lions' 38- 25 loss to Ohio State was mitigated by the realization that for years the Buck- eyes have been the Big Ten's most domi- nant team and have put up big numbers against plenty of defenses. But Maryland is not a traditional power, and it, too, gouged Penn State's defense. On their 8rst possession of the game, the Terrapins drove 75 yards in four plays, 8nishing with a 42-yard touchdown pass from transfer quarter- back Taulia Tagovailoa to freshman Rakim Jarrett. The Terps actually had just as much success as the Buckeyes, as Tagovailoa hooked up with Jarrett on the exact same pass pattern for a 62-yard TD and a 14-0 lead later in the 8rst quarter. Penn State's defense failed to make any adjustments, and by hal;ime the Terrapins had scored on plays of 42, 62, 38 and 34 yards, and had amassed 335 yards of total o:ense and a 28-7 lead that ballooned to 35-7 going into the fourth quarter. The lopsided loss to the Terps was without question the worst that Penn State has su:ered in Franklin's seven seasons as head coach. It's something I PHIL'S CORNER Penn State must find way to regroup as 'unacceptable' season winds down

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