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James Franklin assesses what went well, what didn’t from Week 8 loss to Ohio State
By Ethan Stone
Published:
James Franklin met with reporters following Week 8’s 20-12 loss to Ohio State on Tuesday.
The Penn State HC started his press conference by going over the positives, namely Manny Diaz’s defense. He called Diaz’s group one of the most impressive units in the country, a fair assessment given the Nittany Lions allowed one of the country’s best offenses just 20 points.
Franklin also said he believes Penn State handled the crowd well and noted that his team “went on the road, battled the No. 3 team in the country and had a chance to win the game right down to the end.”
He admitted there were plenty of things to work on, as well. To Franklin, the story of the game comes when looking at Penn State’s dreadful 3rd down numbers. The Nittany Lions converted just one of their 16 attempts on 3rd down Saturday afternoon.
Franklin also noted that Penn State lost the explosive play battle and can work on tackling lower moving forward.
“Too many controllable mistakes to win in that environment,” Franklin said. “I thought we tackled too high, gotta tackle lower and be more consistent, and then obviously the story of the game was 3rd down, which impacted a lot of other things on the offensive of the ball.”
Hear more from Franklin below.
Penn State looks to rebound this week against Indiana, with kickoff set for Noon on CBS.
Ethan Stone was an editor for his student newspaper at the University of Tennessee and is now a News Manager for Saturday Tradition.