Notebook: Consistent troubles plague Penn State again in 30-23 loss

1) By the time Sean Clifford was strip-sacked with nearly 12 minutes remaining in the second quarter Saturday, Penn State head coach James Franklin had seen enough.

The second fumble-six in as many weeks charged to the Nittany Lions’ starting quarterback, this one went 26 yards the other way for safety Deontai Williams to the house and gave the Cornhuskers a 24-3 advantage in the process.

A rash of turnovers charged to Clifford dating back to his final four performances during the 2019 season and again in the first four games of the 2020 campaign, Saturday’s marking his 12th and 13th turnovers in eight games of action, Franklin made the call to backup Will Levis. Taking every snap for the Nittany Lion offense the rest of the way, Levis completed 14 of 31 passes for 219 yards with no turnovers.

Whether or not that was enough to earn Levis the starting job next week, bringing Penn State to the doorstep - twice - of tying Nebraska in a game that it trailed by as many as 21 points, is something that Franklin has yet to decide upon, though.

“We're not going to name a starting quarterback right after a game before discussing it as a staff and before evaluating the tape, watching the tape and all those types of things,” Franklin said. “But, yeah, where we were at in that game, again with the turnovers and with what's going on the season so far, we had to make that change. And I thought Will did some really good things coming in for us. That'll be a discussion all week long and I know we'll talk about it later in the week.”

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2) Leading Penn State’s offense following Clifford’s second-quarter fumble through the end of the game, Levis helped guide the Nittany Lions to points on four of his first six possessions at the helm.

Generating possessions of at least 40 yards on each of those four scoring occasions, Levis helped to provide the spark that led Penn State back into a game it had at times looked hopeless in.

“I think there's no doubt about it, he went in and gave us a spark. He made plays in the passing game. I thought he did a good job managing the game overall and he made some good throws. So we're gonna have to build on that, there's no doubt about it,” Franklin said. “He was fairly efficient, but we need to be a little bit more consistent in the details and the things that we're doing. But yeah, I think he definitely gave us a spark and gives us something to build on for sure.”

According to offensive lineman Will Fries, moved to right guard from his starting spot at right tackle for the game against the Cornhuskers, Penn State’s offensive players had no problem rallying around the 6-foot-3, 222-pound quarterback.

“I think he did an outstanding job. Will's always been a leader, a guy with really high character and a guy that everyone in the program respects,” Fries said. “When he got in there, we were right behind him. We were just playing as a unit and wanted to have his back and we wanted to do our best. He did a good job stepping in.”

3) The primary reason for Clifford’s second-quarter ouster was what Franklin ultimately fingered as the reason for the Nittany Lions’ first-half failings at Nebraska.

Though both sides of the ball have been guilty, that the Nittany Lions added to their turnovers lost column with their eighth and ninth cough-ups in the first four games - an interception returned deep into Penn State territory that led to a first-quarter Nebraska field goal and the second the fumble-six previously discussed - once again put the Nittany Lions into a deep hole.

“I think early on, it was the turnovers and the lack of the running game. But in my opinion, it's the turnovers,” Franklin said. “It's hard to get into a rhythm. It's hard to get a groove. It's hard to call when you don't have the confidence that you're not going to turn the ball over.”

Thanks in large part to Clifford’s first interception returned 55 yards by Cam Taylor-Britt to the Penn State 15-yard line, and multiple special teams deficiencies, Nebraska’s average starting field position was the Nittany Lions’ 49-yard line in the first half. Able to cash in with an easy opening-possession touchdown (11 plays, 75 yards), a field goal off the interception, another tackle-free 45-yard shovel pass for a touchdown, and the fumble-six all on successive sequences, Nebraska held a 24-3 lead and was only forced to relinquish possession for the first time with 3:13 left to play in the first half.

Crediting Nebraska for the performance, Franklin pointed to the program’s problems with turnovers, both giving them away and failing to generate many of their own, as the primary culprits for the deep opening hole.

“We came out, got down by 21 in the first half. Turnovers continue to be a problem, and not only turnovers but turnovers for touchdowns,” Franklin said. ‘That's kind of the story is the turnovers. And it continues to be an issue for us. And we got to get it resolved and resolved quickly.”

4) For the third time in as many weeks, Penn State’s opponents have taken their opening possessions of the game and produced touchdowns.

Absent an opening touchdown for the Nittany Lions at Indiana, and a field goal in the first quarter against Ohio State, that has created a combined 38-10 deficit for Penn State in the first quarter of its four games this season and, worse, a 79-26 deficit in the first half of games.

Acknowledging that the Nittany Lions’ defense has had trouble getting off to good starts this season, Franklin said that some of the offensive shortcomings have helped to exacerbate the issue.

“If you look back at us in general, opening drives is an area that we need to get better. That's something that I know me and Coach Pry talked about in the offseason, opening drives and people having a script against us,” Franklin said. “I thought today, we were able to get some sacks in the second half and some turnovers, which is another area that we haven't done a good enough job. We haven't been creating big plays on the defensive side of the ball either with the turnovers. So not only do you have the offense turning the ball over, but us not getting enough of them on defense. It's not a winning combination.”

It’s especially short of winning in the sense that Penn State has been particularly susceptible to big plays in the past three weeks.

To that, Franklin said that tackling has been an issue, though he also continued to point at the team’s inability to create turnovers and splash plays as taking precedence.

“We're not tackling well enough. We're not consistent in our tackling. I do know over the last four years, that's always been a conversation that we want to tackle better. But, this year with the results, magnifies everything. All of your issues are magnified, there's no doubt about it,” Franklin said. “I think the biggest thing for us, in my opinion defensively, is getting people off schedule and creating turnovers on the defensive side of the ball, tackles for losses and sacks and things like that, which we have not been able to do. But we're not tackling well, and that's been a discussion from the beginning of the season until now.”

5) For Levis’ entry to be considered a success, especially if it is to continue this week against Iowa, the redshirt sophomore quarterback will need to improve on a key shortcoming from Saturday.

Able to finish with a quarterback rating of 104.5, Levis added to his performance’s resume with 61 yards rushing on 18 carries. But, with Penn State unable to cash in on its multiple red-zone chances, including eight plays from inside the Nebraska 15-yard line in the final minutes of the fourth quarter, Levis’ analysis was that the red zone performance needed to be better.

“In terms of my performance, I went in there and executed what I had to execute, but it just wasn't enough. I think I did decently in a few of my reads, and just stuff that I did, but there's room for improvement all across the board, especially in the red zone,” he said. “It means nothing if you get the ball all the way down there and then don't score, and that's something that I take full credit for and just something that we need to work on in the future and just dial down for next week.”

Expanding on the topic, Franklin said that the issues of Penn State’s offense this season, despite posting 501 yards for the game and 30 first downs, have been magnified in its red-zone issues.

“Red zone offense is about running the ball and being detailed in the passing game. All the windows are shrunk down, so it magnifies it. It magnifies it if you're good in the red zone in passing offense and it magnifies it if you got some things to work on,” he said. “We didn't make enough plays. We didn't put the ball in a position where our guy had a legitimate chance to get it or you're going to get the PI. So we got to clean those things up. We were able to move the ball today, but too many times in the red zone where we didn't come away with points.”

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