The joke didn’t land

James Franklin was going for self-deprecating humor, I think. The joke — if that’s what it was — didn’t land. Bad timing.

The Penn State head coach, explaining a bizarre sequence of plays to end the first half of Saturday’s 31-14 victory over Maryland, gave a legit postgame explanation to the assembled media, then followed with this: “I want to make sure you guys have enough things to talk about, and argue about, and criticize during halftime. Without that, what would guys have done all halftime?”

Mission accomplished, coach. And it’s not just the guys in the room, it’s every exasperated PSU fan with a keyboard and a social media account.

Starting at its own 25 with 1:15 remaining in the half, Penn State ran on 4 of 5 plays and pocketed its 3 timeouts until deciding to take one with 3 seconds left.

“We weren’t playing great, and we were going to run the time off the clock,” said Franklin, whose Lions led 7-6 at the time. “And then obviously we got a couple plays and moved the ball a little bit (23 yards). We thought about taking a shot, so we called a timeout and had a discussion about what we wanted to do. And then decided it wasn’t the right thing.”

So after stopping the clock to give itself one more play before the break, Penn State took a knee. Confused. Indecisive. Not on the same page. Just what any fan wants in a coaching staff!

For a head coach who often cares a great deal about optics and has a history of poor clock management, it wasn’t a good look. Pile on the unease surrounding the program as fans fret over Franklin’s future, and not many are laughing.

Clifford runs hot and cold

Sean Clifford topped 360 yards passing for a second straight week, but still had several rough patches that kept Penn State from pulling away from the Terps until late in the fourth quarter.

“He missed some throws in the first half that I know he’d love to have back,” Franklin said of his 3rd-year starter at quarterback.

Indeed, Clifford started 1-for-5 as Penn State went 3-and-out on its first 2 drives. Later in the first half, a 12-play drive stalled with 3 straight incompletions and then a punt. Even his first TD throw was a poor pass, terribly underthrown, but it didn’t matter because Jahan Dotson was ridiculously open after an amazing move that left Maryland safety Nick Cross tripping over himself. Clifford finished the first 30 minutes 14-of-26 for 155 yards.

After the break, he connected on 13 of 21 passes for 208 yards, many of them excellent throws, and also made 2 key plays with his legs. His 21-yard and 86-yard TD connections to Dotson were right on the money, and he also hit Dotson in stride on a short crossing route that went for a 45-yard gain to set up a short field goal.

“Some of the throws he missed in the first half, he made in the second half,” Franklin said.

Clifford isn’t running much since returning from an injury suffered 4 weeks ago against Iowa. In fact, he’s been credited with negative rushing yardage every game since, including 12 yards lost against the Terrapins. But on 1 of his 2 real rushes (3 sacks gave him 5 official attempts), he turned the corner on a pursuing D-lineman for 4 yards and a first down, meaning Penn State didn’t have to punt from deep in its own end. Later in what finished as a 14-play, 95-yard TD drive, Clifford shrugged off a would-be sack and found Keyvone Lee for 13 yards.

Clifford probably will have to be sharper if Penn State (6-3, 3-3) is to upend top-10 Michigan (8-1, 5-1) next Saturday at Beaver Stadium.

“Sean did a good job just hanging in there,” Franklin said of his QB, who has been sacked 11 times over the past 3 games.

A running joke

Okay, we’re talking about the offensive line here. And yeah, the subhead above might be a bit harsh, but it ties in so nicely with item #1 above. And honestly, it’s not unfair, even if it is a bit nasty in tone.

Penn State’s ground game did make some progress Saturday, cranking out 93 yards on 2.8 per carry against what was the second-worst rushing defense in the Big Ten. That is its best effort since a 107-yard day against Iowa in which Clifford and backup QB Ta’Quan Roberson combined for 63 rushing yards.

“We’re going to continue to invest in the running game,” Franklin said. “We can  be better there, but I did see some pretty good signs tonight of things to build on.”

Without some semblance of a rushing attack, the line would struggle even more to protect Clifford.

But Michigan — and Michigan State in the season finale — rank in the top 30 in the country against the run. It’s looking like Penn State might go the entire season without a back having a 100-yard day. Lee led the Lions on Saturday with 50 yards on 8 carries. Noah Cain had 35 on 10. John Lovett had 24 on 7.

“They all did some nice things tonight, at times,” Franklin said. “I don’t know if anybody’s kind of grabbed a hold of the job and taken it. But I have seen some positive signs the past couple weeks. We have to continue building on it.”

Penn State ranks 122nd of 130 FBS teams in runs of 10+ yards, with 29. It is fast becoming the Purdue of the B1G East, Purdue being the only league team producing fewer rushing yards per game than the Lions. Penn State ranks 117th nationally in rushing offense, Purdue 128th.

Without massive improvement, this rushing attack will finish as Penn State’s second worst since at least 1950, better only than the sanctions-crippled 2014 team from Franklin’s first season in Happy Valley. That team averaged 101.9 rushing yards per game.

Could this year’s team, averaging 107.1 through 9 games, “break” that mark? All the Lions need to do is average less than 90 yards over their final 4 games. The home game against Rutgers in 2 weeks might save them from the fate, but people would have said that about Maryland, too.

Of course, the Purdue model isn’t looking so bad after Aidan O’Connell threw for 536 yards in an upset of Michigan State, the Boilermakers’ 2nd victory over a top-5 team this season. So if Penn State’s continued investment in the running game doesn’t pay off, Franklin will have more material for his fledgling standup act. Personally, I’m a fan of dark humor.