After First Loss, Penn State Says It's 'Very Dialed In' on Washington

The Nittany Lions spoke this week of "flushing" the loss to Ohio State. "That's no longer the moment."

Penn State quarterback Drew Allar (15) keeps the ball in the first half of an NCAA football game against Ohio State at Beaver Stadium. / Dan Rainville / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

STATE COLLEGE | Despite the lingering disappointment that filled Beaver Stadium last Saturday, Penn State has a lot of football left to play this season — and those games still come with serious College Football Playoff implications. As much as the program’s eighth straight loss to Ohio State might have stung, the Nittany Lions have a quick turnaround heading into another challenging opponent this week: Washington. 

As Penn State flips the script, going from its first loss of the season to the White Out, head coach James Franklin and his players detailed their mindset and preparations approaching the matchup with the Huskies. 

Dealing with adversity

Before Penn State faced UCLA earlier this season, when it was 4-0 and coming off a ranked win over Illinois, Franklin emphasized how he didn’t want his team to suffer a setback to have a wakeup call and make improvements. A one-score loss to a top-5 team in the country isn’t a massive setback. But based on their talent and expectations, the Nittany Lions took the loss to Ohio State as a chance to look in the mirror.

“Nobody wants to lose. We don't put in the amount of time that we put in to lose. So obviously, it's super frustrating for us,” quarterback Drew Allar said. “... We had a really good practice [Tuesday], though, a good Sunday practice and flushed it and moved onto Washington, because we’ve got a really good team coming.”

The beauty of the 12-team College Football Playoff is that Penn State’s playoff chances remain intact despite the loss. The Nittany Lions held the No. 6 spot in Tuesday’s first CFP rankings. Should they win out, they will be in a good spot to play, and likely host, the first playoff game in program history. 

However, that first means putting the Ohio State game in the past. Cornerback A.J. Harris, who noted that Penn State has been “very dialed in” and “going back to the basics” at practice this week, said the team already had flushed its loss by Sunday.

“Coach Franklin did a really good job of making sure that after that loss, it was just forward thinking, put that in the past and just worry about going 1-0 this week,” Harris said. “I mean, it was a tough loss, of course. We didn't want to lose that game. But you just got to be in the moment. That's no longer the moment. This week, we got to focus on Washington.”

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Getting the wide receivers more involved 

One of the hottest topics surrounding Penn State’s on-the-field struggles after the loss to Ohio State was its lack of involvement from wide receivers. Nittany Lions wideouts combined for just three catches, which were made by only Harrison Wallace III and Julian Fleming. Both Allar and Franklin were asked about the lack of production from wide receivers on Wednesday, with the junior quarterback saying he has “a ton of confidence” in his receiver room and getting those players more involved moving forward.

“We don't have a shortage of talent in that room, for sure … I think as an offense, we just need to execute better with the play calls that are being called,” Allar said. “All of the receivers have made a ton of plays this year, and then they're going to continue to keep making a ton of plays throughout the rest of the season.”

Wallace, Liam Clifford and Omari Evans each have generated 100-plus receiving yards in a game this season. Yet, Penn State hasn’t once gotten strong production from multiple wide receivers in any of its eight games. Franklin said he thought the Ohio State contest would be a good opportunity for multiple receivers to play significant roles, but that didn’t come to fruition.

“Getting our wide receivers more touches and more opportunities is important,” Franklin said. “I was hoping this past Saturday it’d be one of those games where they kind of all came together … we’d like to get to the point where all of those guys are factoring in on a weekly basis.”

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Matching up against Washington

With the Buckeyes in the rearview mirror, the Huskies now present a different challenge to Penn State. Washington (5-4) boasts a true lockdown secondary (142.0 passing yards allowed per game), a talented wide receiver duo in sophomore Denzel Boston and senior Giles Jackson and an efficient quarterback in Will Rogers.

Allar, coming off just his second game this season without a passing touchdown, detailed what makes the Huskies a strong defensive team, also noting that Penn State has seen several various top defenses this season.

“We've seen a lot of talented DB rooms, and they're definitely up there. If not the best, they're one of the best,” Allar said. “And the thing that sticks out to me, is they're always contesting the catch, no matter if it's zone coverage, man coverage, they're always around the ball.” 

Defensively, Penn State’s corners will likely have their hands full with Boston and Jackson, who have combined for 1,279 yards and 11 touchdowns. Harris, who didn’t lose a game in his freshman season at Georgia until the Bulldogs’ SEC Championship loss to Alabama, described what he took away from his only loss at Georgia as he now looks to rebound from his only loss at Penn State.

“This game, you’re gonna take your fair share of wins, you’re gonna take your fair share of losses, but it's more so about correcting what you do in the loss,” Harris said. “I believe that if you respond the right way, that loss could definitely help you more than the win.”

In a White Out environment Saturday night, that’s exactly what the matchup with Washington will be about for Penn State: responding to its first loss of the season.

“We got to get better this week and find a way to beat Washington,” Franklin said. "[If] we do those things over the next couple of weeks, then all the things that we want to do are still in front of us.”

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Daniel Mader, a May 2024 graduate of Penn State, is an Editorial Intern with The Sporting News. As a student journalist with The Daily Collegian, he served as a sports editor and covered Nittany Lions women’s basketball, men’s volleyball and more. He has also covered Penn State football for NBC Sports and the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, with additional work in the Centre Daily Times, Lancaster Online and more. Follow him on X @DanielMader_    or Instagram @dmadersports.