What they're saying about Penn State football's stunning loss to Illinois
Penn State Nittany Lions football found itself on the wrong end of a shocking outcome on Saturday at Beaver Stadium, falling to Illinois 20-18 in nine overtimes — a new NCAA record.
Here's what folks around the college football landscape are saying about the game.
BWI, Nate Bauer, Column: James Franklin, Penn State football continue troubling losing trend
"In total, in a program that has otherwise notched levels of success and consistency among some of the best in college football, particularly within the past six seasons, a remarkable occurrence has taken place. Now at 65-30 through his eight-season tenure with Penn State, Franklin has seen a whopping 33 percent of his team’s losses take place within three games of each other.
Even excluding the 2014 and 2015 seasons in which the program was still very much at the mercy of debilitating NCAA sanctions, the trend is that much more pronounced and puzzling. Narrowing the data set to 18 losses in the past six seasons, Franklin has had only three take place outside of a back-to-back or two-out-of-three set of circumstances.
But why?
In every instance since 2016, one of the two opponents was ranked and ranked highly.
- After Pitt in 2016, the Nittany Lions got their doors blown off at No. 4 Michigan, 49-10.
- Dropping a gut-wrencher at No. 6 Ohio State in 2017, the Nittany Lions followed with a 27-24 loss at No. 24 Michigan State in the bizarre monsoon game.
- First losing to No. 4 Ohio State in the fourth-and-5, 27-26 White Out game in 2018, Penn State sleepwalked through a 21-17 loss to a bad Michigan State team after a bye. (The game most reminiscent of Saturday’s loss to Illinois Saturday of the stretch.)
- Falling at unbeaten Minnesota, ranked 17th in 2019, the Nittany Lions made a game of a 28-17 loss at No. 2 Ohio State two weeks later in which Clifford missed the second half due to injury.
- After the season-opening overtime loss at Indiana last year, the Nittany Lions again went down to No. 3 Ohio State the next week.
- And this season, despite climbing as high as No. 4 in the rankings with wins at ranked Wisconsin and against ranked Auburn, the loss at No. 3 Iowa prefaced Saturday’s pratfall to an Illinois team with a first-year head coach and wins against only Nebraska and Charlotte.
One commonality? Points, or a lack thereof.
In every instance just mentioned, Penn State has been unable to exceed 25 points in its second loss. On average, the Nittany Lions’ second loss has been accompanied by just 18.5 points per outing. Even with outstanding defensive performances, in today’s college football, that’s typically not going to be enough to win."
Greg Pickel, BWI, PSU must hope Clifford can heal to save season from tailspin: One big thing
"Clifford was gutsy throughout the second setback of the season but clearly was not as healthy as he could have been, and it only got worse as the hits piled up. He was inaccurate, as balls sailed or skipped or didn't have the power the senior typically throws with, unable to run, which is such a key part of both his game and the offense in general, and had to err on the side of caution when it came to extending a play or just going down for safety purposes. The final stat line wasn't pretty: 19 of 34 for 165 yards and one touchdown.
There's no question that Penn State is where it is today because of the way No. 14 has played. That's the five wins and the two losses, one of which he exited early, of course. But he wasn't himself on this day and yet there was nowhere else to turn, and that's a problem seemingly across the board but especially under center as the program searches for answers after a blunder following the bye week.
We didn't play up to our standard, the Penn State standard, or anything like that," Clifford said.
Getting back to it will be difficult for a team that can't run the ball, struggled to stop it during the first game without defensive tackle PJ Mustipher, and was just out-of-sync in general on offense. There is not only the battle in Columbus ahead but also a visit from Michigan and trips to Michigan State in addition to what should be easier matchups with Rutgers and Maryland. Then again, this one was supposed to be easy, too.
Oddsmakers had no problem installing the Lions as a 24-point favorite despite Clifford's health concerns. He threw Tuesday and practiced Wednesday and was deemed well enough to play, even if he wasn't 100 percent. That's one problem, and the other is that either Ta'Quan Roberson orChristian Veilleux at 100 percent was not good enough in the staff's eyes compared to the clearly hobbled Clifford. He vowed after the game to live in the training room and do everything he can to get back to the way he was playing prior to the issue at Iowa, but how long will that take, if it ever occurs?"
David Eckert, BWI, Tweaked Illinois run game flummoxes Penn State football in ugly loss
"As the Illini got bigger, so did Penn State's problems.
Without sidelined star defensive tackle PJ Mustipher, the Nittany Lions totally ceded control of the line of scrimmage to the Illini, who scored only 10 points in regulation but forced the Penn State defense to spend over 36 minutes on the field.
"PJ has played a lot of football for us here and is a captain for us," Penn State head coach James Franklin said. "He's been a tremendous player and a big part of our defense, so not having him factored in, there's no doubt about it."
The Illini had little problem breaking into the second and third levels of the Penn State defense. Seven of the eight Penn State players with at least six tackles in the game were defensive backs or linebackers, with the lone exception being defensive end Arnold Ebiketie, who once again played his heart out when the Nittany Lions needed him to. But it wasn't enough.
Safety Jaquan Brisker felt the Nittany Lions frequently failed to use proper tackling fundamentals against Illinois running back Chase Brown, noting that the Nittany Lions failed to wrap up on several occasions.
Brown finished the day with a monstrous total of 223 yards on 33 attempts, an average of 6.8 yards per carry.
The explanations for the failure to control the run game came from all angles.
Defensive tackle Derrick Tangelo thought the Illini did well disguising their looks out of that Barge set. Jesse Luketa disagreed, noting that he felt the Illini rushing attack was predictable based on how they lined up.
Like Brown, the reasons for the Nittany Lions' difficulties defending the run proved difficult to tackle.
What is clear is this: The extra man on the line of scrimmage was a new wrinkle for the Penn State defense to digest.
"They did a good job with that package," defensive end Nick Tarburton said. "Going in, we know they had a tackle-over deal, but they ended up having a whole other tackle, too. I think it was like five or six to a side. Overall, their game plan was impressive. Hat's off to them with the game plan."'
Bob Flounders, PennLive, As Sean Clifford goes, so goes Penn State … and Clifford didn’t look 100 percent in Illinois’ upset
"You cannot question the heart of Penn State’s quarterback. But you have to wonder about his physical condition going into a game that should have been a “gimme” for Franklin’s team."
Marty Leap, Black Shoe Diaries, Five Takeaways From Penn State’s Loss Against Illinois
"Entering the season tight ends were expected to be a strength for Penn State. Following the collective performance of Brenton Strange, Theo Johnson and Tyler Warren against Auburn this appears to be happening. Since then, the tight ends have regressed tremendously.
Saturday afternoon they each struggled to block. This led to multiple running plays being blown up before they started. Johnson dropped a likely go-ahead touchdown early in the 4th quarter, Warren (who was a high school quarterback) badly under threw a wide open Clifford on a trick play that would have won the game in overtime and Strange had a costly drop in overtime as well."
Seth Engle, The Daily Collegian, Inconsistent officiating hurts Penn State football in upset loss against Illinois | Opinion
"The Nittany Lions did so much wrong against Illinois on Saturday, and the game likely never should’ve come between the 25-point spread set in the blue and white’s favor, so don’t blame it all on officiating, but it was just another thing to pile on top of Penn State’s struggles.
It’s never good to have inconsistencies when playing a sport, but there’s a big difference between inconsistent play and officiating.
One can be prepared for and controlled, the other cannot."
Ben Jones, StateCollege.com, Penn State Football: Brisker And Teammates, Will Have To Put ‘What If?’ Behind Them
"That will be the challenge for the Nittany Lions, putting the mistakes behind them with bigger games ahead. Penn State can in theory still play and beat its main East Division foes in Ohio State, Michigan and Michigan State in the coming months, but it won’t if it doesn’t let go of Saturday’s miscues."
Rees Woodcock, Writing Illini, Illinois Football: 4 observations from the Illini win over Penn State
"This two-headed running back monster is what helped Illinois win the game on Saturday against the Nittany Lions. This is a running team that went for 357 yards on 67 carries against a tough Penn State run defense.
Honestly, I haven’t seen an Illinois team be able to run the ball like this group. There have been great lead rushers in the past, but the duo of Brown and McCray are elite. Let’s keep riding them and maybe just maybe, we can make a bowl game this season."
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