Penn State's anemic offense leads to crushing football loss to Illinois

Oct. 24—Penn State's running game has been a thorny issue since the opener at Wisconsin, but quarterback Sean Clifford and others thought they saw signs it would change against Illinois.

"I talked to the whole offensive line going into this game," Clifford said. "We thought we were in a really good place with the running game."

They were wrong.

The Nittany Lions mustered just 62 yards on the ground in a humiliating 20-18 loss to Illinois in nine overtimes Saturday at Beaver Stadium.

Penn State's inability to run, its meager 84 total yards after halftime and its failure to cross the goal line six out of seven times from the 3-yard line in overtime in the longest football game in NCAA history led to the defeat.

Yes, the defense allowed Illinois to rush for 357 yards and build a huge advantage in time of possession. But a team almost always wins when it holds its opponent to 10 points in regulation and 38 passing yards.

The blame for James Franklin's worst loss in eight seasons as Penn State coach lays squarely on him and the offensive coaches and players.

Franklin changed offensive line coaches after the 2019 season and offensive coordinators after the 2020 season aiming to add more explosive plays. That hasn't happened this season, especially on the ground.

The Lions had just two rushes of at least 10 yards Saturday; Illinois had 13. With Clifford's mobility limited because of his unspecified injury, the running game was going to be vital.

They had two weeks since the loss to Iowa to prepare for the Illini, though it didn't look that way. They gained just 227 total yards and averaged just 3.6 yards a play against a three-touchdown underdog that had been allowing 427.9 yards per game (101st in the FBS).

"You gotta be able to be mixed and be balanced," Franklin said, "and we weren't able to do that today."

Illinois won while running for almost 10 times as many yards as it did passing.

Penn State's ground game should be better than 100th in the FBS and 11th in the Big Ten with three returning starters on the offensive line and four experienced running backs.

Franklin has said multiple times that the offensive line needs to be more physical, even though the Lions are built like a finesse team and operate that way.

"There's an attitude about it," offensive coordinator Mike Yurcich said earlier this month about the running game while admitting it needed to be better. "There's a physical presence. The game is physical. You make people tackle and defend blocks on every play you run the ball."

It didn't help Saturday that Clifford posed no threat as a runner because he was ailing. Maybe Franklin should have tried Roberson for a series or so to give the Illini defense a different look. Maybe he should have used him in one of the final seven overtime periods from the 3-yard line to run an option play.

"We felt like Sean gave us the best opportunity," Franklin said.

If he didn't have faith in Roberson and use him on a day when Clifford was clearly not himself physically, that's on him. Whether it's in recruiting or developing Roberson, Franklin and his staff have come up woefully short.

Purdue used three quarterbacks in its victory last week at Iowa. After Artur Sitkowski left in overtime with an arm injury, Illinois went to its backup. Brandon Peters threw the game-winning pass to Casey Washington in the ninth OT.

"We just have way too many guys that played significant roles in that game that did not practice or did not practice full speed all week long," Franklin said. "Practices are obviously really important and we had way too many guys miss, and Sean was one of those guys."

Then why use him for the entire game? Why not start Roberson or Christian Veilleux and go to Clifford later and limit the hits on him?

After two straight losses, Penn State faces the prospect of playing Ohio State next and fellow top-10 teams Michigan and Michigan State in its remaining five games. The season suddenly has a chance to spiral out of control very fast.

"At the end of the day, all that matters is if we get the job done," Franklin said. "We did not today."