The Good, The Bad & The Ugly: Reviewing Penn State’s 35-19 loss to Maryland
A season during which many thought Penn State head coach James Franklin could finally get the Nittany Lions over the hump and into the mix for a College Football Playoff berth is making history for all the wrong reasons.
Penn State’s 35-19 loss to Maryland at Beaver Stadium on Saturday marked a new low for the program. It was only the third time in 44 meetings that the Terrapins have beaten the Nittany Lions.
But more significantly, it dropped Penn State to 0-3 — the team’s first 0-3 start since 2001.
Before posting three 11-win seasons in the past four years, Franklin’s teams finished just 7-6 in his first two seasons at the helm in 2014 and 2015. Those teams had their fair share of struggles. Still, the display on the field on Saturday was a first for the Franklin-era. None of Franklin’s previous teams had looked like they were as unprepared to play a football game as the Nittany Lions did from the opening kick on Saturday against the Terrapins.
“During the week, I felt like we did the things necessary to come out and play well,” Franklin said after the game. “It wasn’t perfect, but we’ve had issues in the past that we’ve been able to overcome.”
Now, Penn State must identify its problems quickly if it hopes to salvage what it can of its season.
“Literally, from top of the roster to the bottom, we’ve gotta see every guy in the building just doing something to get better every single day,” junior receiver Jahan Dotson said. “And that’s where it’s gonna start.”
GOOD
WR Jahan Dotson is the real deal: After posting career highs across the board against Ohio State last week with eight catches for 144 yards and three touchdowns, the question became whether or not Dotson could sustain that momentum moving forward. Against Maryland on Saturday, he showed that he can.
Even in one of the more brutal losses in recent memory for the Nittany Lions, the 5-foot-11, 182-pound receiver put on a show. Dotson finished the game with nine catches for 123 yards and a touchdown.
He scored his touchdown — Penn State’s only touchdown that didn’t come in garbage time — off a 20-yard pass from redshirt junior quarterback Sean Clifford with 6:32 left in the first half. The score allowed the Nittany Lions to cut it to a two-possession game and try to build momentum heading into the locker room.
Like a couple of his other touchdown grabs this season, Dotson scored in highlight-reel fashion. About a yard away from the end zone, Dotson turned around and leaped in the air to catch a ball right over the top of Terrapins defensive back Jakorian Bennett before falling backward into the end zone.
Through three games so far, the Nazareth native has totaled 361 receiving yards and five touchdowns. This comes after only having 488 receiving yards and five touchdowns through 13 games last season.
Dotson has clearly demonstrated that he’s taken a huge step forward. It’ll be on first-year offensive coordinator Kirk Ciarrocca to get other players involved to ensure teams can’t lock in solely on the Nittany Lions’ budding star moving forward.
WR Parker Washington continues to stand out as a freshman: With little returning talent in Penn State’s receiving corps, just Dotson alone stepping up wasn’t going to be enough. Insert freshman receiver Parker Washington.
Washington ended Saturday’s contest against Maryland with eight catches for 70 yards and two touchdowns. Though both of Washington’s touchdown grabs came in the final 10 minutes — when the game was all but decided — the 5-foot-10, 205-pound Sugar Land, Texas, native once again showed that he can be an immediate contributor for the Nittany Lions’ offense.
With 10:16 left in the game, Washington jumped up over Terrapins defensive back Erwin Byrd and battled through blatant defensive pass interference to haul in a 23-yard touchdown pass from Clifford — Penn State’s second touchdown of the afternoon.
Then, with 11 seconds left in the contest, Washington grabbed a touchdown catch over Byrd again. The pass was clearly overthrown, but it didn’t matter. Washington out-stretched his arms to make the impressive catch and make the final score a little less lopsided.
Dotson on Wednesday said Washington “just makes plays all the time” in practice.
These past two contests — in which he’s combined for 12 catches and 143 receiving yards — he’s shown just that. If the freshman can keep this up, the Nittany Lions could have an answer at receiver for the next few years.
BAD
Running game: Leading up to the game against Maryland, Franklin emphasized the importance of getting the running game going. It didn’t happen against the Terrapins — who came into Saturday’s matchup ranked 115th in rushing yards allowed per game.
Sophomore running back Devyn Ford is the Nittany Lions’ new No. 1 option at running back after the losses of star redshirt junior running back Journey Brown and sophomore running back Noah Cain. But Ford has yet to display that he’s ready to fill that void in Penn State’s offense. And it doesn’t appear that the coaching staff has given him enough of an opportunity to prove himself, either.
The 5-foot-11, 198-pound Eastern Virginia native carried the ball just nine times for 36 yards on Saturday. Against Ohio State last week, he only ran eight times for 36 yards.
But it’s not just Ford who hasn’t been able to get involved — the freshmen duo of Caziah Holmes and Keyvone Lee aren’t getting very many carries either. Holmes ran nine times for 29 yards against Maryland, and Lee carried once for 3 yards.
On the other hand, Clifford ran 17 times on Saturday. But some of those plays were a result of poor decision making on the quarterback’s part and not designed runs. He finished the contest with 26 rushing yards.
Through three games, Ford, Holmes and Lee have combined for just 224 yards and one touchdown on the ground on 58 rushing attempts. That’s not exactly the recipe for getting pressure off of Clifford in the passing game.
Play of secondary: Franklin and his team knew that Maryland quarterback Taulia Tagovailoa was coming into Beaver Stadium hot on Saturday.
Still, it’s unlikely that the Nittany Lions could’ve envisioned the first-year Terrapins starter torching them like he did in the first half. By halftime, Tagovailoa had already thrown for 246 yards and three touchdowns. Penn State’s defense — its secondary, in particular — often looked silly.
Twice in the first quarter, Tagovailoa threw to receiver Rakim Jarrett for catch-and-run touchdowns. Less than three minutes into the game, the 5-foot-11, 205-pound quarterback found Jarrett at the Nittany Lions’ 30-yard line surrounded by three Penn State defensive backs — senior cornerback Tariq Castro-Fields, senior safety Jaquan Brisker and senior safety Lamont Wade. All three were beat on what turned into a foot race to the end zone for a 42-yard score.
Then, with about 30 seconds left in the first quarter, Tagovailoa hit Jarrett at midfield. This time, the five-star freshman receiver out-ran redshirt freshman cornerback Daequan Hardy, redshirt junior safety Jonathan Sutherland, Wade and Brisker before getting to the end zone for a 62-yard touchdown.
The last of Tagovailoa’s passing touchdowns came in the final minute of the first half. He rolled left out of the pocket before launching a 34-yard pass in the end zone to receiver Dontay Demus Jr., who had redshirt freshman cornerback Joey Porter Jr. beat and no one else in his vicinity. This score came a little over five minutes after the Nittany Lions had scored their first touchdown of the game to cut their deficit to 14 points.
Tagovailoa only added 36 more passing yards in the second half, but the damage was already done. It’ll be hard for Penn State to win games if it continues to let opposing quarterbacks pick apart its secondary.
UGLY
Quarterback play: Early in the game on Saturday against the Terrapins, the Nittany Lions again shot themselves in the foot. One of the main ways in which they did this was with Clifford’s continued struggles.
The 6-foot-2, 217-quarterback too often overthrew targets or simply missed near-wide-open receivers. A couple times in the opening half, junior tight end Pat Freiermuth got separation from his defender, but the ball went sailing over his head instead of into his hands.
Clifford finished the first half 6-20 passing with just 78 yards and a touchdown. He ended the game 27-57 for 340 yards, three touchdowns and two interceptions.
Even the two touchdown passes he threw to Washington late in the contest were overthrown — Washington just made athletic plays both times to reel in the ball.
There were also questions about Clifford’s decision-making. Early in the third quarter with Penn State behind Maryland 35-7, Clifford ran around for over 10 seconds on third-and-15 in the red zone before taking a 16-yard loss on a sack. The Nittany Lions were forced to attempt a 49-yard field goal, and junior kicker Jake Pinegar came up short.
In Penn State’s first three games, Clifford has combined to complete 69 of his 122 pass attempts — a completion rate of just 56.5 percent. He’s thrown for 859 yards, nine touchdowns and five interceptions.
When Franklin was asked after the game about why he didn’t give any of his backup quarterbacks playing time on Saturday with the game well out of hand, the head coach said Clifford had earned the right to finish the game. But if Clifford continues to struggle like he has, it may be time to see what redshirt sophomore Will Levis or redshirt freshman Ta’Quan Roberson can do.
Protection from O-line: While Clifford will ultimately get the lion’s share of the blame for his poor passing, the Nittany Lions’ offensive line didn’t do a lot to help keep their quarterback upright.
Clifford was sacked seven times throughout the game. In the second half alone, he was sacked five times.
After the contest, Clifford said he’s “gotta trust” his offensive line. But that can’t be an easy task when there are plays where he feels pressure way too quickly after snapping the ball. For instance, on Penn State’s first drive of the second half, it took about five seconds for Maryland defensive back Nick Cross to sack Clifford and strip the football. The play ended with Terrapins linebacker Chance Campbell scooping up the loose ball and returning it for a 34-yard touchdown to extend Maryland’s lead to 35-7.
Clifford hasn’t handled pressure well through three games this season, and right now, his offensive line isn’t doing him any favors. With veterans on the line in redshirt senior Michal Menet, redshirt senior Will Fries, redshirt junior C.J. Thorpe and redshirt junior Mike Miranda, the struggles are certainly surprising.
A combination of how much Clifford has run (52 times through three games) and the amount of times he’s gotten sacked has him taking a beating. The Nittany Lions’ big guys up front have to find a way to gel to keep the second-year starter from getting injured.
A slow start (again): Neither Franklin nor his players can quite explain why, but yet it keeps happening.
It took Maryland only six plays and 2:33 after the opening kickoff to score its first touchdown of the contest. Then, the Terrapins scored again at the end of the first quarter to make the score 14-0. On the other hand, Penn State didn’t get on the board until 6:32 left in the opening half.
Last week, it took Ohio State just three plays to gut Penn State’s defense and score the game’s first touchdown.
No matter how much better the Nittany Lions play in the second half — their defense didn’t allow any points after halftime on Saturday against the Terrapins — the holes they dig themselves into early are sometimes nearly impossible to climb out of.
Penn State has been outscored in the first half 66-20 through its first three contests. While playing from behind, the Nittany Lions have been forced to abandon their style of play offensively — a slow, methodical attack that relies on the run game — and instead take risks that have resulted in costly turnovers.
There’s a lot for Penn State to figure out if it hopes to make the most of the rest of its season. But at the top of that list is realizing why it hasn’t appeared ready to play through any of its first two quarters of games this year.
This story was originally published November 8, 2020 at 5:49 PM.
