STATE COLLEGE — Penn State’s fan base and the Lions’ players weren’t the only ones who struggled with PSU’s 20-12 loss to Ohio State on Saturday in Columbus.
James Franklin and his assistants have endured a few rough days since as the 10th-ranked Lions (6-1, 3-1) prepare for a Big Ten East game with heavy underdog Indiana (2-5, 0-4) on Saturday at Beaver Stadium.
“You can probably tell from my voice, we haven’t gotten a whole lot of sleep since that game for a number of reasons,” Franklin said during his Tuesday news conference.
“From fixing the issues, coming up with the plan for this week, moving forward and all the things that have to happen moving forward on Sunday, I think our staff has done a good job of that.”
Franklin addressed his 1-9 record against the Buckeyes and the perception he cannot win big games.
The Lions’ only victory vs. Ohio State occurred at Beaver Stadium in 2016 (24-21). Penn State went on to win the Big Ten championship that season.
The Buckeyes have won the last seven meetings in the series.
“I think it’s more than fair to judge me and my staff for all of it, right?” said Franklin, who saw his team’s 11-game winning streak snapped by Ohio State. The 10th-year coach is 84-37 at Penn State and 52-31 in Big Ten play.
“I mean, that’s what it’s about. The good, the bad, the consistency, the lack of success in that game, all of it.
“That’s totally fair to be judged by all of those things. I also think it’s important to judge the entire body of work, all of it, which I don’t need to get into right now because I don’t want it to come off the wrong way.”
Franklin’s review of what must be fixed after the loss to the Buckeyes was to the point.
“Opportunities for growth — too many controllable mistakes to win in that (Columbus) environment,” Franklin said.
“I thought we tackled too high. We have to tackle lower and be more consistent, and then obviously the story of the game was third down, which impacted a lot of other things on the offensive side of the ball.”
It’s been discussed quite a bit but one more reminder: The Lions converted 1 of 16 third-down chances, and the one successful conversion occurred in the final minute.
Franklin discussed what the Lions’ offensive identity is, and whether the Lions stayed true to it vs. Ohio State.
“I thought our identity was staying on schedule, converting on third downs and then either converting on third downs or going for it on fourth-down situations,” Franklin said.
“I feel like that had been our identity for the season. We have a lot of respect for … (Ohio State’s) short-yardage defense and how they were defending it, but we did not do that.
“We did not either convert on third downs like we had been doing or put us in a situation where we were in fourth and short to go for it.”
Franklin later added: “I guess what I’m saying is our lack of success on third down really kind of changed the game. We just didn’t have enough opportunities. We couldn’t get into a flow.
“(We) didn’t get enough touches for people. When you have the lack of success that we had on third down, it’s hard to get anything going.”
