James Franklin didn’t even have to watch the film. He knew what went wrong for Penn State’s defense in the first half of its narrow 34-27 win over Bowling Green on Saturday. The Nittany Lions couldn’t get stops on first down and couldn’t consistently tackle. But the most important question still lingers: why?
Penn State’s defense has lauded itself as one of the nation’s best for years. And in the debut of new coordinator Tom Allen at West Virginia last weekend, that didn’t appear subject to change. That was until Saturday, when the Nittany Lions allowed a middle-tier MAC program to score more points against them in a regular season game than any team in two years.
Allen addressed the team at halftime, with Penn State trailing. And, surely enough, the Nittany Lions returned to the field in the second half with a new attitude and held the Falcons to just three points. That halftime conversation was evidently helpful for a team that initially appeared low on gas to linebacker Kobe King. Perhaps, Bowling Green was undervalued.
“It felt like we didn’t come out really light, but the energy wasn’t really there. … I definitely just sensed, like, everyone not being on the same wavelength,” King said.
Penn State was put on its heels early. It began with a 30-yard completion from opposing quarterback Connor Bezalak to tight end Harold Fannin Jr. and concluded with another explosive pass play into the end zone. That marked the first time the Nittany Lions allowed an opening drive touchdown in 28 games — three seasons ago.
The scoring only continued from there, with the second quarter actually being even worse from a defensive perspective. Franklin could point his fingers in a number of directions as to what exactly went wrong. But until he watches the tape, he’s confident in one aspect that has plagued his defenses in the past.
“I think what happens early on, and it’s happened for the last couple years — and we got to look at this — I think early on, we’re trying to make plays, rather than play the defense,” Franklin said. “Getting out of our gaps, trying to make plays, doing things that we haven’t done during the week, and we gotta get those things cleaned up, for sure.”
This is a direct correlation to missed tackles and unnecessary space for the opposing offense to work with, and defensive end Abdul Carter even owned up to potentially prioritizing highlight plays over simply taking care of his assignment. It’s something he’s pledged to improve on, and will need to, given Penn State has tallied just two sacks on 69 pass attempts this year.
“Obviously, I know I have the ability to make plays doing what I do, but I also want to help my teammates make plays and just do my job,” Carter said. “Just being unselfish, helping my teammates make the plays and not trying to force it, not trying to do so much. Just play within the system, do my job and the plays will come to me.”
A defensive captain, King harped all week on treating the matchup with Bowling Green as the Super Bowl. But, realistically, it’s not, and players — like fans — aren’t likely to treat what should be a throw-away nonconference game as it would a team like the Mountaineers, Ohio State or Michigan.
The talent on Penn State’s defense is unequivocally present, King said, but there remains truth in the fact that even the best players in the country can get complacent and work outside the framework of the defense against a less-respected opponent.
“I would say, in a sense, guys try to do extra or some guys, you know, (against a) team in a different conference, you’re going to try things new,” King said. “Some guys probably just did things outside of the job.”
Injuries played another factor in Saturday’s defensive disaster, the most significant surrounding Kevin Winston Jr., who left early into the second quarter and didn’t return. Franklin refrained from updating Winston’s status postgame. Starting linebackers Tony Rojas and Dominic DeLuca were also injured over the course of the game, though both returned.
Maybe the energy was too low. Maybe injuries played a factor. Maybe Bowling Green was undervalued. Those are all possibilities as to why the Nittany Lions played so poorly on defense. But Penn State defensive tackle Dvon J-Thomas said he thinks it was simply due to “first game at Beaver Stadium jitters.”
He can only hope the jitters are behind him and the Nittany Lions, and that this serves a lesson for future games this season. Because if Penn State performs the way it did against the Falcons, good luck trying to stop the Buckeyes and USC, as well as any other program the team may face if it is to qualify for the 12-team College Football Playoff.
“Coming into this season, we needed something to test us. We needed that,” J-Thomas said. “We needed that test so that way, moving forward, we know how we’re going to respond when adversity comes. And I think this was just a great opportunity for us to show that.”
A handful of defensive players beat the hammer after their season-opening victory. They made it clear that they believed Penn State held the nation’s best defense, even with Allen leading the charge. But then came some serious adversity. After narrowly beating Bowling Green, do the Nittany Lions still feel that way?
“100%,” J-Thomas said. “There’s no doubt about it.”
