Penn State-Maryland takeaways: What was that? ‘No respect’ for Lions run game, and more thoughts

© rJoe Hermitt | jhermitt@pennlive.com/pennlive.com/TNS Penn State head coach James Franklin looks on as his team falls behind to against the Maryland during the first quarter at Beaver Stadium on Nov. 7, 2020

STATE COLLEGE — The worst Penn State performance of the James Franklin era has mercifully come to an end.

Saturday’s home team at Beaver Stadium was outclassed and overmatched from start to finish here by Maryland, which scored its first touchdown on the Lions since 2016 early in the first quarter and then tacked on 28 points more to cruise to a 35-7 victory.

“They made plays, they were able to stay on schedule, 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,” Franklin said.

It’s difficult to know where to start this week’s batch of takeaways because the performance led to so many of them, but we’ll kick it off with the question you are all probably wondering.

What was that?

Call it underprepared or outcoached or, well, whatever you want to call it: Simply put, that was bad.

Penn State has recruited better than Maryland and owned this particular series for years, and as noted above, it had been 14 quarters since the Terps last found pay dirt against the Lions coming into Saturday.

Yet, no amount of on or off-field history can change the fact that, at least on this day, and during this coronavirus pandemic impacted season, head coach Mike Locksley and his staff prepared their players better than James Franklin and his group did, and the visitors wanted this one badly. It was hard to tell if the same could be said for the hosts, even if the defense did show up after halftime while the offense scored a couple of touchdowns late.

More: Penn State rapid reaction: Maryland 35, Nittany Lions 19 (Beaver Stadium)

Is a change under center coming?

Sean Clifford has done a lot for this Penn State program, but it’s now fair to wonder how many games he has left to start.

The redshirt junior was a miserable 27 of 57 for 340 yards, three touchdowns, and two interceptions. Yes, we used the word miserable: Most of the yards came in garbage time, and the completion percentage was putrid, not to mention a third quarter fumble that Maryland scooped and scored.

The mind can only wonder whether Franklin was just being stubborn in not pulling the Ohio native or if it’s really true that none of the quarterbacks behind Clifford can top the performance he put on today. Neither answer is particularly good for the Lions and their fans, but the former might be a lot better long-term than the latter.

“For me, with starting quarterbacks, you want to do everything you possibly can with your starting quarterback to give him a chance, be successful, and rally the team,” Franklin said.

“The guy’s in that position for a reason. In the second half we thought we had an opportunity to go. Out and get this thing swung in the right direction, and at the time we thought it was the right decision.”

At least the defense showed up eventually

In the second half, anyway.

Maryland busted this game open, however, thanks to a couple of tremendous throws by quarterback Taulia Tagovailoa to speedy receiver Rakim Jarrett, who scored on plays of 42 and 62 yards to open the game’s scoring before back Jake Funk sprinted 36 yards for a 21-0 lead less than 20 minutes into the contest.

Seven of Maryland’s points, however, came off Clifford’s turnover, and after amassing 335 yards in the first half, the Terps had a mere 70 in the second.

It’s something for Brent Pry’s unit to build on, but let’s be clear: The effort in the final 30 minutes, while good, does not mean much when one surrenders 17 yards and change per completion in the first half while allowing a big scoring plays to happen.

“We have to get more pressure on the quarterback, contest more balls, be better in tight coverage, and when people do make catches, we have to get them on the ground,” Franklin said.

Where happened to the run game?

It’s easy to simply point to the absence of Noah Cain and Journey Brown as the reason why Penn State’s run game isn’t working right now, but that’s taking the easy way out.

After all, Phil Trautwein was brought in to improve an offensive line that doesn’t actually look any better than it did a year ago, and the Lions still have three other four-stars on the roster who, while less experienced, should be capable of making big plays at tail back.

That’s not happening right now, though, which is making the offense one-dimensional, and also forcing an already struggling Clifford to do even more.

“We’re not getting consistent push, we’re not sustaining blocks, and we’re not breaking tackles and making people miss,” Franklin said. “Then, we aren’t able to put people into conflict with the RPO stuff because there’s not enough respect for the running game right now.”

Moving on

Penn State is back on the field next Saturday at Nebraska, where both teams will continue searching for their first victory of the year.

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