Blue White Illustrated

O c T O B E R 7 , 2 0 1 7 B L U E W H I T E O N L I N E . c O M 12 N A T E B A U E R | N B A U E R @ B L U E W H I T E O N L I N E . c O M Two starters who appeared to have in- jury concerns were on the field at the beginning of the Northwestern game, while two backups were absent. At tight end, Mike Gesicki returned to action a?er missing the majority of the second quarter and all of the second half against Indiana last week at Beaver Stadium due to what had been reported as a bruised rib. Gesicki not only dressed for the game, but started for the Nit- tany Lions and made two recep- tions. "That's part of playing this position, playing this game," he said a?erward. "You know you're going to take some hits sometimes. Ultimately you want to get up and return every single time. But it is what it is. Last year when I went out in the Ohio State game, I did everything that I could to come back and get back in there. Same thing happened last week. But ultimately I understood. I talked to our doctors and they just said take it off and then we'll get back at it next week." Gesicki now has a reception in 20 con- secutive games. Additionally, Chasz Wright started at right tackle for the Nittany Lions a?er seeing spot action the previous week vs. the Hoosiers. On the other side of the ball, true freshman cornerback Tariq Castro- Fields le? the game a?er seeing action in the first half and was in street clothes when he returned to the sideline in the second half. Another true freshman cornerback, Lamont Wade, did not see any action despite making the trip with the team and dressing for the game. The team provided no clarification for either of their situations moving for- ward. In other injury-related news, redshirt sophomore tight end Nick Bowers saw the first action of his career with the Nittany Lions leading 31-0 in the fourth quarter. Bowers had missed the entire 2016 season with a knee injury and did not play in the first five games of the current season. OFFENSIVE LINE CONCERNSAsked to evaluate the position group through the first six games of the season, Franklin acknowledged that there are two ele- ments to what is becoming a trend through the first three games of the Big Ten schedule. First, opponents are obviously going out of their way to keep Barkley from running wild. Second, he acknowledged some of the deficiencies that have arisen and that need to be fixed moving forward. "Obviously everybody is back, so we had the guys last year to win at a high level and we need to build on that for this year," he said. "We need to get that [unit] playing at a little bit of a higher level, there's no doubt about it." BARKLEY'S REACTIONAsked whether he felt frustrated by an a?ernoon that had been limited to single-digit yardage on double-digit carries before his 53- yard touchdown run, Barkley echoed the sentiment that Franklin made about him moments earlier to reporters in the postgame press conference. "I don't really get frustrated. I don't think I would ever let myself get frus- trated especially when you win the game," he said. "I'm very aware it's a long game. It's a four-quarter game, and you just have to take what the de- fense gives you. If that's the 3, 2, 3, 2, 4, then when you get the opportunity to hit the big one you have to be ready to hit the big one. So I would say patience is a big part of just being a running back in general, not just in my game, but in any running back's game. You can ask any running back on our team, any run- ning back on our country, patience is a big part." Barkley finished with 16 carries for 75 yards and two touchdowns to go along with a pair of receptions. This is the first game this season Barkley did not surpass 100 all-purpose yards. DEFENSIVE DOMINANCEWith three takeaways in the first half, the group added to its total, making it 17 on the season, one of the best totals in the country. Shaka Toney and the defensive line were disruptive throughout, tally- ing another seven tackles for loss and four sacks. Franklin was pleased with the per- formance. "When you watch us, we're not as suf- focating a defense where we take every yard away on the field, but the most im- portant thing is we keep people out of the end zone and we create turnovers," he said. "On offense, we do a pretty good job of protecting the football. That's a pretty good combination." Franklin said the Lions have some deficien- cies to address during their bye week, but he's been pleased with their overall play. Photo by Steve Manuel G A M E N O T E B O O K Gesicki, Wright back in Nittany Lions' starting lineup

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