If Penn State’s game-sealing 18 play, 75-yard, nine minute (and one second) long drive sounds like an outlier under coach James Franklin, that’s because it is.
In fact, heading into Saturday’s game Penn State’s longest drive had been a 5:51 minute long touchdown march against Idaho in the season opener. Beyond that Penn State’s longest drive of the game had been less than five minutes on seven different occasions.
‘Obviously for our offense to go on an 18-play drive, I haven’t been around many of them,’ Franklin said after the game. ‘An 18-play drive at a critical point in the game. Burned timeouts, ate the clock up, finished it with a touchdown at the one-yard line that we decided to go for on fourth down after burning another 40 seconds. Up by three, a field goal would only have put us up by six, obviously a touchdown would have put them in a position to win the game. Also, they would have to go 99-yards with no timeouts. Again, it was the right decision.’
Equally impressive, Penn State ran the ball on 16 of those 18 plays, the only passes a second down incompletion to Jahan Dotson and a 15-yard reception by Pat Freiermuth to convert a 2nd-and-10 on the Indiana 48.
The one yard run by Sean Clifford on fourth down gave Penn State a touchdown on its longest drive of the game for the seventh time this season. In fact Penn State’s longest drive of the game has ended without points just twice this year, a missed field goal against Purdue and an interception against Minnesota.
“We always talk about ending the game on our terms — especially when it’s a four-minute drive,” Clifford said. “We do that a lot in camp and practice it throughout the week. That actually turned in to a nine-minute drive, so I’m just really proud of our guys, especially the offensive line, the [tight ends], and Journey [Brown] and Devyn [Ford] really punching it through.”
Prior to Penn State’s mammoth drive on Saturday, the second longest campaign down the field under James Franklin had lasted 7:32 and ended with a missed field goal against Iowa in 2017. All four of Franklin’s other seasons at Penn State had the longest drive of the year somewhere between 6:20 and 6:59. This streak also extends through the Bill O’Brien era as well with no drives in the nine minute range.
A 9:49 drive against Kent State in 2010 was the last to match the mark.
The good new for Penn State, the long drives have paid off. Over the previous 50 games, the longest drive in each game has ended with a touchdown on 26 occasions, and at least a field goal on 10 more occasions. In short, 72% of the time when Penn State is sitting on the ball for its longest drive of the game, it’s getting something for its efforts.
Now all eyes turn to Columbus where the Nittany Lions will need to control more than just the clock, but a few nine minute drives certainly wouldn’t hurt the cause.
Season’s longest drive, in minutes:
- 2019: 9:01
- 2018: 6:40
- 2017: 7:32
- 2016: 6:27
- 2015: 6:20
- 2014: 6:59
