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Big Game James Franklin Falls to 4-21 vs. Top 10 Teams During Penn State Tenure
Published:
Holy shit. What a game!
Penn State looked dead in the water, down 17-3 in Happy Valley. “Fire Franklin” chants started ringing out in Beaver. Then Andy Kotelnicki took his head out of his rear end and PSU scored 14 unanswered to force overtime.
PSU then TOOK THE LEAD in overtime, only to see the defense fall apart before Drew Allar threw a pick in the second OT to hand the W to Oregon:
Incredible. James Franklin came into this one with a 4-20 record against AP Top-10 teams while at Penn State and was 1-17 in conference play vs the top 10. Now he falls to 4-21 and 1-18, respectively. It looked like they were gonna pull off an incredible comeback, just like the Eagles last week, only to get to double OT and lose it there. Absolutely brutal.
It seems like less of a big deal now, considering everything that transpired afterward, but when the game was still tied, the officials overturned a crucial Oregon fumble because they ruled that the guy’s knee barely scraped the top of the grass here:
I don’t know how you have enough video evidence to overturn that, but they did. It was a critical play in the second half and changed the course of the game.
Bottom line though, the PSU offense didn’t show up for 3 quarters. They couldn’t run the ball, Allar was missing receivers, and TOP was controlled by the Ducks. Even with the two OT periods, they finished with 276 yards of offense while Allar’s box score was 14-25 for 137 yards, two TDS, and a pick.
Brutal way to lose..
Kevin has been writing about Philadelphia sports since 2009. He spent seven years in the CBS 3 sports department and started with the Union during the team's 2010 inaugural season. He went to the academic powerhouses of Boyertown High School and West Virginia University. email - k.kinkead@sportradar.com