Penn State post-mortem: Bounce-back isn't enough
In Nittany Nation last week, and this weekend, were about flushing.
As in sending the latest ugly loss to Ohio State down the drain. Avoiding the hangover. Getting back on the horse. Not letting one loss turn into two. You get the idea.
Allow me to submit that Penn State's 35-6 rout of Washington in the White-Out Saturday had less to do with psychology and more to do with a straightforward project: getting better at football.
Better at playing it and coaching it.
When Franklin-Era Penn State has allowed one loss to turn into two, and it's happened a couple times, James Franklin responded to the first loss with dramatic, emotional statements of renewed purpose.
Remember the, "We have gotten comfortable being great,'' speech?
Remember, "You guys thought I was a psychopath in the past? You have no idea.''
Contrast that to this, from postgame Saturday:
"We focus on making corrections,'' he said. "We respect winning and what it takes. And we get back to work on Sundays.''
Penn State scored touchdowns on four straight long, varied drives against the Huskies.
The Lions closed the game with a 16-play, 70-yard TD drive, featuring relentless RB Kaytron Allen, that took nearly nine minutes.
The defense held Washington to 2.2 yards per rush and 5.2 per pass, had five sacks and an interception.
The most impressive thing Penn State did Saturday was get the ball to the wide receivers against a team that is now, even after a 35-6 loss, fifth in the country in pass efficiency defense.
Drew Allar targeted the wideouts 12 times in 28 throws, not a lot, but a lot for this Penn State offense. The receivers had eight catches for 123 yards, including five for 84 from Harrison Wallace, who is actually a pretty good wide receiver by anyone's standards.
The Lions also ran for 266, although that comes with a couple caveats. Of those yards, 74 were by freshman Corey Smith in garbage time, and Smith was playing because Nick Singleton wasn't, for the entire fourth quarter.
Franklin declined comment on Singleton afterward, but if he could've said, "Nick's fine,'' he would have. That's a big question mark going forward.
Also, Washington coach Jedd Fisch, talking about his O-linemen after the game, sounded like Franklin from way back when Penn State was crawling out from under NCAA sanctions.
"We only had seven guys on the roster and two of them were coming off ACL injuries,'' Fisch said, of when he got the job.
"None of the were active in spring ball, and we weren't available to bring players in from the portal.
"This team has been recruited primarily as a Pac-12 team. It's a huge adjustment. ... (Penn State's) offensive and defensive lines are about 1,100 pounds heavier than ours.''
In short, running the ball Saturday night wasn't an epic accomplishment. And without it, you're not as good on first down, and thus not as good on third down (10 of 13 Saturday) and not as able to stretch the field with the pass, etc., etc.
Still, the sport is changing. The thing Franklin has always been able to do - beat the people he's supposed to, is more valuable than ever.
But only if you can do that while turning into a team that can win in December and January.
Penn State probably will host a playoff game if it wins out. If could make the tournament even with another loss. It can't actually do anything in the playoff unless it gets better. Better at wide receiver, better at winning up front, better at avoiding mistakes.
Would Penn State - now No. 4 in the country according to AP - be favored this week over, say, Tennessee, Indiana, Notre Dame, Ole Miss, Alabama, ... i.e. the teams that populate the playoff's at-large pool at the moment?
That's the current project, and it doesn't have much to do with psychology.
