Blue White Illustrated

O c T O B E R 8 , 2 0 1 6 B L U E W H I T E O N L I N E . c O M 3 games, they were outscored 92-54 in the first half and 41-27 in the first quarter. This time, they rushed for 230 yards in the first two quarters and held a 24-14 lead at hal@ime. • Penn State did an excellent job of keeping Likely under wraps. The special teams dynamo averaged only 3.3 yards on three punt returns and 19 yards on four kickoff returns. Said Franklin, "That was big." THE BAD • While the defense had a strong a@er- noon, it did give up a handful of chunk plays, the most notable being Johnson's 66-yard score on a screen pass in the first quarter. A@er the game, Franklin said that team's tackling technique continues to be a problem. "We need to tackle better," he said. "We're tackling too high. Sometimes we assume the guy is down, and he's not. We've got to get that cleaned up. Going into the bye week, that will be a really big focus for us." • Blake Gillikin suffered his first block, as Maryland smothered a second-quar- ter attempt. Franklin said a@er the game that the freshman punter wasn't at full strength, having been injured in practice. "He wasn't hitting the ball the way he's capable of [hitting it]," Franklin said. Late in the game, the Lions turned to backup Daniel Pasquariello. • The offense has fared much better than the defense on the injury front this year, but it suffered a big one on Saturday with the loss of tackle Andrew Nelson to an apparent knee injury. Franklin said a@er the game that Nelson's injury is most likely season-ending. • Penn State had two big plays erased by penalties in the first half: an offensive pass interference call on DaeSean Hamil- ton that wiped out a third-down conver- sion by Mike Gesicki and a hold on Ryan Bates that brought back a Barkley touch- down run. The Lions were flagged six times for 45 yards on Saturday, including a holding call that negated a late touch- down run by backup quarterback Tommy Stevens a@er the outcome had been de- cided. It wasn't an outlandish total – they are averaging just under 46 penalty yards per game this season – but the flags came at especially inopportune mo- ments this week. "We could have had some more scoring drives," Franklin said. "Our focus needs to be more consistent." THE TAKEAWAY The Nittany Lions are heading into a bye week, and it really couldn't come at a better time. Heck, they would probably take two byes if they could. The Lions are still banged up, as evidenced by their two-deep heading into the Maryland game. And next up is Ohio State. They'll need to be as healthy as possible when they play host to the Buckeyes under the lights, and the off-week gives them a chance to do that. "We need this time off," Franklin said. "Some of our injuries are not going to heal in a week, but some will."

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