James Franklin Said Ohio State “Had A Championship Drive” To Ice Win Over Penn State In Top-Five Matchup

As has been the case for the last eight years, Ohio State took care of business against Penn State on Saturday with a 20-13 victory in Happy Valley.

Head coach James Franklin has presided over the Nittany Lion program for each of those eight-straight losses, holding a 1-10 record against the Buckeyes since he took over at Penn State in 2014. His most recent letdown came in front of the Beaver Stadium faithful in a top-five matchup, with the No. 4 Buckeyes handing the No. 3 Nittany Lions their first loss of the season on Saturday.

As Franklin was handed yet another loss to Ohio State on Saturday, he made sure to give credit where it was due during his post-game press conference.

“Give Ohio State credit, they did a really good job today…We only scored six points on offense, we scored seven points on defense against a really, really good team. Are they good on defense? Yes. But do we gotta find ways to manufacture points in yards? There's no doubt about it. So we didn't get it done, give them a ton of credit.”

Ohio State benefitted from several miscues by the Nittany Lions on both of their touchdown drives, and Franklin lamented Penn State’s lack of discipline as a key reason the game slipped away from his team.

“We jumped offsides on an obvious third-down situation and extended a drive for them. [We made] a tackle, and standing over a guy for an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty on a third-down stop that extended a drive. Can't do that, can't do those things…That's all on me..”

On their final offensive possession of the game, the Nittany Lions reached the Ohio State three-yard line with a first-and-goal. Penn State opted to run the ball up the gut with running back Kaytron Allen three straight times before quarterback Drew Allar threw an incompletion, giving the ball back to the Buckeyes at their own one-yard line with 5:13 remaining.

Franklin noted that he wished he was able to get the ball into the hands of his dynamic tight end Tyler Warren in that late-game situation.

“Should we probably have given the ball to Tyler Warren after the plays he made? Yeah. I get the question, I get it.”

After the Nittany Lions were stonewalled on that possession, the Buckeyes ran out the game’s final 5:13 with a drive that consisted of 11 straight runs — churning out 58 yards after starting from their own one-yard line.

“They had a championship drive right there at the end. We did not play well in an obvious running situation. We did not handle, I think, the fact that the offense didn't score in that situation well.”

Franklin and Ohio State head coach Ryan Day felt the pressure heading into Saturday’s contest, with both coaches’ struggles against top-tier competition at the forefront of the conversation prior to the marquee matchup. With yet another loss to Ohio State hanging over the Penn State skipper, Franklin emphasized that he’s looking forward rather than to the past.

“There's nobody that's looking in the mirror harder than I am. I will say this, and I've said it before, 99 percent of the programs across college football would die to do what we've been able to do in our time here. And that's we, that's all of us. But I also understand when you're in a place like Penn State, there are really, really high expectations. When you're in a place like Ohio State, there's high expectations. I totally get it. So we've looked at all these things really hard and we'll continue to look at these things really hard.”