After Saturday’s 35-19 home loss to Maryland, Penn State football coach James Franklin actually thought his team displayed consistency.
That’s to say he was displeased with his offense and defense equally.
“We’ve had games in the past where we started slow on offense, and our defense kept us in the game long enough for our offense to rally back,” Franklin said via video conference Saturday. “And vice versa, we’ve had games where we’ve played well on offense early and struggled on defense.
“We haven’t really had a game where we didn’t play well in either phase early on in the game, so obviously we’ve got to get those things corrected. There’s a lot of things that we’ve got to get corrected. Ultimately, it’s my responsibility, and we’ll get to work on it on Sunday.”
Franklin bemoaned his team’s start to the game as Maryland claimed a 21-0 lead less than four minutes into the second quarter.
“They made plays,” Franklin said. “They were able to stay on schedule on first and second down and created a bunch of manageable third-down situations, and were able to do that really for the majority of the game. And then offensively, we weren’t able to get the running game going, which everything builds off of that, and that continues to be an issue for us.”
A pressing issue for Franklin to address is his team’s lackluster rushing game. Maryland had a 123-94 advantage on the ground.
“We weren’t sustaining blocks. We haven’t been able to break tackles consistently and make people miss consistently. It’s been similar for the first couple weeks. We’re not getting consistent push. We’re not sustaining blocks and then, obviously, we’re not breaking tackles and making people miss.”
A better rushing performance likely would benefit the passing game, especially quarterback Sean Clifford, who was sacked seven times by Maryland.
“We’ve got to be able to get the running game going, and we got to consistently protect our quarterback,” Franklin said. “There’s too many times where he’s under pressure and getting hit early in games. He’s been hit way too many times this season. He’s been sacked too many times this season and has been under pressure too many times and does that have an effect? Yeah, it does.
“But obviously there’s some throws that we need to make. It’s all of it. There’s some catches that we need to make. We all own responsibility in this.”
With Penn State off to an 0-3 start for the first time since 2001, Franklin denied his team underestimated Maryland.
“I don’t think we’ve underestimated anybody,” Franklin said. “When you haven’t been successful, the first couple games, it’s hard to underestimate anyone.
”Our approach hasn’t changed. It’s been the same approach it’s been for six years. But obviously there’s things that we got to get fixed, and there’s things that we got to improve. And we got to play better. We’ve kind of lost three different ways. And in years past, we’ve found different ways to win games. We need to get it fixed, and we need to get it fixed fast.”
