ANN ARBOR, Mich. — Often, when a team is run off the field as Penn State was in Michigan’s 41-17 win, the losing coach will go one of two directions: give effusive praise, or deflect, saying that it was more on his team.
James Franklin chose the latter.
The Penn State head coach said in his postgame press conference, repeatedly, that Michigan deserves credit for the win. However, as they say, when the word ‘but’ is uttered, it renders everything that precedes it useless.
“Offensively, obviously, we weren’t able to run the ball or convert on short yardage situations and stay on the field, but defensively we weren’t able to get off the field,” Franklin said. “Fifteen-play drives, 12-play drives, 16-play drives; they controlled the line of scrimmage and they controlled the game.
“They’re a good football team. Give them credit, but we didn’t play well. We didn’t play well.”
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But that wasn’t all. Franklin continued to use the word ‘but’ after saying ‘they’re a good football team, let me give them credit.’ As he delved deeper into what went wrong, he had plenty of caveats, none of which said the obvious: Michigan was just better.
“They’re a good football team, let me start by saying that. Let me give them credit. They are a good football team,” Franklin said. “But we didn’t play well. So yeah, I’m surprised that we didn’t play well. Again, when you’re not able to control the line of scrimmage the way you need to control the line of scrimmage, you’re gonna have a hard time in games. They were able to stick with the game plan, stick with what they do.
“We knew early down success for their offense was critical. We knew starting the game, you look at all the analytics, that was gonna be very, very important. For the most part, we were able to battle our way. Maybe not conventionally, but we were able to battle our way to keep it close in the first half.
“That opening drive to start the second half was really important. We deferred. That was really important for our offense and for our defense. We weren’t able to do it consistently enough.”
Perhaps the most glaring part of the game was that Michigan rushed for 412 yards against the Nittany Lions. Penn State entered the game with the nation’s fifth-ranked rushing defense, and the last time that PSU allowed more than 400 yards rushing was to Ohio State — in 2013, when it gave up 408 yards in a 63-13 loss.
Franklin had few answers to that component, noting he’s going to have to take a second look once he gets home.
“I know you guys hate this answer, but I’ve gotta watch the tape,” Franklin said. “But, obviously, there’s way too many times the guy was just running through holes into the second level. Yeah, obviously not happy with that number at all. Not one bit.”
With the win, Michigan improves to 7-0 while Penn State falls to 5-1. The Wolverines are on bye with the rivalry game with Michigan State in Week 9.
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