Blue White Illustrated

T I M   O W E N | O W E N . T I m . B W I @ G m A I L . c O m COLUMBUS, Ohio – No loss is ever easy to swallow, but for Penn State, Sat- urday's 38-10 loss to Ohio State was espe- cially bitter. As star defensive end Carl Nassib said in an attempt to summarize James Franklin's postgame speech, "The score didn't really reflect what happened." Despite a four-touchdown deficit at the conclusion of the game, Penn State stayed within striking distance of the de- fending national champions until the final quarter. To open the game, in fact, it appeared as if PSU would even set the pace for the evening. But, in what ap- peared to be a common theme for the night, costly mistakes sealed the Nittany Lions' fate in front of 108,423 Ohio Sta- dium fans. A?er jumping out to a 3-0 lead in the first quarter, thanks to a 33-yard field goal from Joey Julius, the Nittany Lions appeared as though they would take a two-score lead when freshman running back Saquon Barkley rushed 44 yards to the right for a touchdown. The high- light-reel play was immediately called back, however, a?er a holding penalty called on offensive guard Brian Gaia nul- lified the TD. "That was a significant play in the game at that point," said Franklin. "That was a tough call," added Nassib, who finished with 1.5 sacks to continue his streak of tallying a sack in every game this season. "It was a valid call. I'm not making any excuses, but we need to clean those things up. We can't hurt ourselves. Today we hurt ourselves a little bit and we're a lot better than what we showed." There were multiple instances in which Penn State contributed to its own mis- fortune. For every big play – and there were many of them – there was a tackle for loss, a penalty or a dropped pass that would send the Nittany Lions spiraling back to earth. Franklin lamented the mistakes in his opening statement to begin his postgame press conference. He mentioned the flag on Gaia and tight end Mike Gesicki's cru- cial drop right before it. What appeared to frustrate Franklin the most, however, was the inconsistency with Penn State's punting efforts. With Chris Gulla getting the start and Danny Pasquariello coming on in relief, the pair averaged just 35.9 yards per punt, including a 32-yard shank from Gulla in the second quarter and an even worse 29-yarder from Pasquariello in the third. "We've had major issues for two years punting the ball," Franklin said before ex- plaining how the short field affects Penn State's game plan. "The way we need to play right now is to be great on defense, find ways to grind it out on offense and then play field position. We haven't been able to do that for two years. If we need to have open tryouts [for a punter] – we're going to have to find a way to solve that problem. It's been a real issue for us." On average, Ohio State started each drive at its own 36-yard line. For com- parison, Penn State's average drive started at its own 17. Only two of Penn State's punts put Ohio State behind its 25-yard line. De- spite continually having to defend a short field, the Nittany Lions' normally stout defense wouldn't use the disadvanta- geous field position as an excuse. "There's no frustration," cornerback Grant Haley said. "Although we know we're put in tough situations, we want to help out our team any way we can." Added defensive end Garrett Sickels, "As a whole, I think we could've played a better game." Offensive tackle Andrew Nelson said that extends to the offensive line as well. Despite helping Barkley accumulate 194 yards of total rushing, Penn State con- verted just 1 of 11 third-down opportuni- ties and surrendered five sacks. Worse, that ill-timed holding penalty, which negated what would have been Barkley's only touchdown, stung. "Like Coach Franklin said, we beat our- selves a lot today," Nelson said. "They're a great team. You've got to give that to them; they really are. However, whether it was penalties, or negative-yardage plays, we could move the ball, but we kept shooting ourselves in the foot. "I think that's what we're trying to take away from this game: We're a much bet- ter team than what we showed out there today." O c T O B E R 1 8 , 2 0 1 5 B L U E W H I T E O N L I N E . c O m 6 MISTAKEN IDENTITY Errors prove costly in Nittany Lions' loss to Ohio State IT'S COMING BACK Barkley's early touch- down run was negated by a holding penalty, one of the turn- ing points in Penn State's loss to the Buckeyes Photo by Steve Manuel

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