James Franklin did not help his all-time record against Ohio State on Saturday afternoon. Penn State rolled into Columbus for a top-10 matchup but could not sustain much offensively in a 20-12 defeat.

After the game, Franklin tipped his hat to the Buckeyes but also believes it’s possible the nation saw two of the best teams in college football in the game. He specifically pointed to the defense of both teams in a low-scoring struggle.

“First of all, like always, want to give Ohio State a ton of credit. I’m not sure, we’ll watch the tape, I’m not sure if we didn’t just watch two of the best teams in college football, specifically on the defensive side of the ball,” said Franklin.

He also pointed to the impact of Marvin Harrison Jr. who went off for a career-high 11 catches and a game-clinching touchdown in the fourth quarter. Franklin also pointed to third down as the difference-maker in the game.

“You’ve got to give them credit, we went into this knowing we had to have an awareness and limit the impact of No. 18 in the game,” Franklin explained. “We had a hard time doing that, the guy is a heck of a player, have to give him a lot of credit. To me, the story of the game really came down to third down.”

Ultimately, the Nittany Lions went 1-for-16 on third downs and 1-for-3 on fourth downs. That helped Ohio State dominate time of possession by nearly 9 minutes.