Where Does Penn State's Offense Go From Here?

James Franklin spent the season's first half touting the Lions' offensive identity. Then Ohio State dismantled it.

As early questions emerged about Penn State’s big-play offense, coach James Franklin responded by repeatedly pounding the table for his offense’s grind-it-out style behind Drew Allar. Then Ohio State took control Saturday, and when Penn State needed a spark, the offense couldn’t breathe.

Penn State recorded just 163 yards of total offense before scoring a late touchdown in its 20-12 loss to the Buckeyes at Ohio Stadium. The real sight for sore eyes was an offense that went 0-for-15 on third down before a single conversion on that same ultimately meaningless drive.

“First of all, obviously on third down we’ve got to be better. We’ve done a pretty good job of that all year long. We did not do a good job of that today,” Franklin said after the road loss. “They played some zero [coverage] on us, and we’ve got to be willing to throw it over their heads in those situations and take some shots and be aggressive. But you’ve got to give them credit.”

Fingers are rightfully pointing in several offensive directions after Franklin fell to 1-9 in his career against Ohio State. Penn State once again relegated itself to just below the elite level in the Big Ten, with this season’s loss perhaps hurting more because of the team's improved depth and talent. Franklin spent the first six weeks of this season preaching his team’s identity. Then he coached a team in Columbus that did not have one.

Penn State lost sight offensively of everything it had done well to get to this point. It went 0-for-6 on third downs of 1-to-4 yards and did not pull out its patented short-yardage packages a single time. The T-formation and quarterback sneaks were consistently successful for offensive coordinator Mike Yurcich this season, and he opted to abandon them. Penn State faced an average of 7.5 yards on third down, placing Allar in consistently difficult positions. Yurcich’s insistence on running on early downs and passing when needed was formulaic and predictable.

Allar was just 3-for-12 passing on third down for 12 total yards. Nicholas Singleton finally showed the burst he had last season with his first 20-yard rush of the season in the first quarter. He carried just nine times in the game despite averaging 5.3 yards per carry. One of his carries — a loss of 1 yard — came on an ugly third-and-5 play just two drives after Penn State opted to throw on third-and-1. Yurcich also dialed up double passes with KeAndre Lambert-Smith on two different occasions, which failed both times. There were more than a few head-scratching play calls.

“At the end of the day coach Yurcich had us in some really nice play calls and some that we’re going to want back as players because we didn’t go out and execute like we were supposed to,” Allar said. “Coach Yurcich did a great job of dialing up some of the shots that we had this week for our gameplan, but at the end of the day we as players didn’t go out and execute. So we have to figure out why we didn’t execute and then just learn from it.”

Penn State’s receiving corps hung Allar out to dry Saturday, a concerning extension of a season-long concern. Through three quarters, only two receivers (Lambert-Smith and Harrison Wallace III) caught passes. Franklin and his staff targeted Dante Cephas and Malik McClain in the transfer portal to plug holes at wide receiver. Cephas has struggled to be the go-to option they imagined, and McClain wasn't thrown to at all. Lambert-Smith has made plays at times but is far from the get-out-of-jail-free card the Lions have had with Parker Washington, Mitchell Tinsley and Jahan Dotson in recent years.

Penn State coaches said all offseason they were looking for players to separate themselves from the pack at the position, and it hasn’t happened.

“Obviously when you look at today and the combination of lack of success on third down and lack of explosive plays, we’ve got to look at that hard,” Franklin said of his receivers. “I think there are some things that we can do in terms of how we’re calling the play and I think there’s some things that we need to do from a fundamental standpoint, there’s no doubt about it. But Drew needs some guys to make some plays for him on a more consistent basis, there’s no doubt about that.”

The staff should take responsibility for not having the guys to make plays for Allar, plays that make the difference in winnable football games like Saturday. It should take responsibility for the abysmal, out-of-sync offensive showing. And it should take responsibility for another crushing loss to Ohio State.

Penn State has time to figure things out before hosting Michigan on its final prayer of improvement this season. But based on Saturday, there’s a lot to do. And that might be an understatement.

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Max Ralph is a Penn State senior studying Broadcast Journalism with minors in sports studies and Japanese. He previously covered Penn State football for two years with The Daily Collegian and has reported with the Associated Press and Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Follow him on Twitter (X) @maxralph_ and Instagram @mralph_59.

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