Column: Franklin's warnings come to fruition

ANN ARBOR, Mich. - James Franklin warned of this.

The Nittany Lion head coach spent the week of media appearances - his Tuesday press conference, Wednesday night post-practice Q&A, and Thursday radio show - addressing mostly the same topics and offering the same answers.

Jabrill Peppers is fast, and has the ability to change the game in an instant, he said. The Wolverines have an aggressive defense that will overload the box, blitz and twist frequently, create third-and-longs, and then will make you pay for it. Creating explosive plays and sustaining possessions, while hanging onto the ball, would be paramount for the Nittany Lions. The big story of the game, he previewed, would be Penn State’s success on third down against what Michigan does defensively on third down.

On the other side of the ball, the Nittany Lion defense would need to eliminate explosive plays and force turnovers against a Michigan team that can both pound it down your throat and break off a big one.

There were no other ways to say it: Franklin and seemingly the entire media contingent and Penn State fan base were all blatantly aware of the challenges that a No. 4-ranked Michigan team would present, especially on the road.

Struggling through a rash of injuries at the linebacker position, and possessing offensive and defensive lines that have each made improvements through the first three games of the season, yet admittedly still have much room for improvement, left no room for mystery.

Jim Harbaugh and the Wolverines wasted little time in confirming as much. And really, the Nittany Lions did the same in living up to their own identity.

From the opening kickoff, Penn State put itself in a hole. Koa Farmer was tagged with a holding penalty, pushing a return to the 18-yard line back to the Nittany Lions’ 9-yard line. On the first play from scrimmage, quarterback Trace McSorley suffered a sack against Michigan’s pressure. Two plays later, needing 11 yards on third down, McSorley was sacked again down to the Lions’ own goalline. Freshman Blake Gillikin scorched his punt, but with Peppers receiving it 61 yards downfield, the Penn State coverage team found itself badly out of position against one of the most dynamic playmakers in college football.

Cause and effect.

The story would repeat itself throughout the course of the afternoon. Penn State’s offensive line was simply unable to find any sort of consistency against an aggressive Michigan defense that mirrored the strategy presented against the Nittany Lions each of the past two seasons. Blessed with talented coverage men, each and every good defense the Lions face will continue to play press coverage on the outside, then bottle up running back Saquon Barkley and make life uncomfortable for McSorley.

It’s a formula, and as long as the Nittany Lions are playing a team of superior physical talent in the trenches, it’s one that will continue against this Penn State program, and will continue to be successful.

“They're going to do some things defensively – high risk, high reward; load the box,” said Franklin. “They have one of the more talented secondaries in the country. We had a hard time with their D-line. Then you combine that with a lot of the pressures and blitzes they did. We took some shots down the field late. Probably need to take more of them.”

The issue being, of course, that shots down the field require time. It was time McSorley didn’t have, and when the redshirt sophomore did have it and took shots down field, the Lions’ receiving corps was unable to win its one-on-one matchups against elite corners. DeAndre Thompkins had a shot, Chris Godwin had a shot, and until some pass interference calls in the second half, the Lions were simply owned by Michigan’s defense.

In fact, in a game that Franklin previewed as requiring explosive plays for the Nittany Lions, his team came away with just six chunk plays on the afternoon. In the passing game, all three were pass completions to Barkley out of the backfield of 17, 30 and 19 yards in the first, second and third quarters, respectively. On the ground, the Lions managed just three carries of 10-or-more yards, highlighted by Barkley’s 33-yard jaunt to open the second half.

Another, a 13-yard carry for McSorley in the fourth quarter, demonstrated another brutal reality for the Lions against elite competition. For as much as his mobility has helped him arrive back at the line of scrimmage instead of taking 7-yard sacks this season, he is not so dynamic as to slip through those gaps against defensive fronts this talented.

All of it combined to create a Penn State offense that simply could not generate any success for itself. Through the first half, the Lions accumulated just 50 yards. Completing just one third down on seven attempts, McSorley dropping on sacks on four of those occasions, the Nittany Lions were forced to punt five times. The sixth possession was Penn State’s only to eclipse four plays, a turnover on downs on a failed fourth-down pass attempt early in the game.

No success up front, no room to create, no playmakers in space, and ultimately, no chance.

“They were playing man coverage and you’re going to get get pressed, you’re going to have run crossing routes and you have to go vertical,” said Franklin. “When we called a crossing route Trace was having hard time holding onto the to the ball long enough to allow them to cross. That didn’t happen. We were getting pressure. Guys were coming clean sometimes… We couldn’t protect long enough to be able to do that.

“One of the best defense in the country and they were beating us up front, Like I told you guys in the past, when you’re getting beat up front on offense or defense, it can be challenging. I thought we could be more successful offensively, especially early on. We weren’t able to do that.”

By the half, the Nittany Lions were trailing 28-0. Juxtaposed against their own offensive failures to get anything going, the Wolverines methodically produced plays, extended possessions, and points. Each of the hosts first three possessions resulted in touchdowns. Even on a stalled drive at the Penn State 39-yard line, the Wolverines traversed midfield and managed nine plays.

Against a Michigan team that featured an equally big and strong offensive line, Penn State’s defensive front was similarly physically outmatched.

“Same deal. We had a difficult time stoping them,” said Franklin. “They were able to control the ball, control the line of scrimmage, run the ball, play action pass. We weren’t able to get pressure on their quarterback. When we did we had a couple opportunities for tackles for loss or sacks and he always seemed to get out of them.”

Needing to eliminate explosive plays and create turnovers on defense, the NIttany Lions were unable to do either. The Wolverines managed six chunk plays in the passing game for the day, five of which occurred in the first half alone. On the ground, Michigan was even more proficient, rattling off carries of 10-or-more yards eight times. Of those carries, five were 25-plus yards, capping out at a 40-yard carry for Karan Higdon that went for a fourth quarter touchdown in front of the Michigan bench.

These are the lessons of a 39-point massacre at the hands of an elite program, one that in all likelihood could have been worse, on its home turf. For a Penn State team that simply doesn’t have the right pieces in the right places to truly compete in that type of an environment, it’s one the Nittany Lions will have to fight through at least once more this season against that wide of a gap in talent, experience and depth.

With little option but to learn from it and move on, that’s what the banged-up Nittany Lions must now do as its schedule offers more feasible matchups before arriving at a desperately needed bye week.

“These top five teams are top five teams for a reason and they played like it today,” said Franklin. “That' what we're trying to do. We're trying to build this program the same way where we can be dominant in all three phases.

“We have a lot of work to do still and we're going to continue to focus on that and get better at practice and continue to develop our guys. They're hurting in that locker room right now, so are the coaches. Physically hurting and emotionally hurting, but we’re going to come back to work on Sunday and continue to work to get better.”