Franklin finds value in close win

UNIVERSITY PARK (Nittany Nation) — Following Saturday’s defensive letdown against Bowling Green, Penn State head coach James Franklin was critical of his team’s discipline but didn’t want to speak much until after he saw the tape.

Tuesday, he narrowed in on poor tackling and said Bowling Green’s gameplan to counter the pass rush was effective.

“Their whole game plan was not to allow us to get sacks,” he said. “It was quick game. It was run game, it was move the pocket. They weren’t holding on to the ball. So, you know, and a lot of ways that’s going to factor in a great deal with your production.”

Penn State’s 34-27 win was a true tale of two halves, defensively speaking, anyways. Tom Allen’s halftime adjustments made an impact. Penn State allowed just 89 total yards and 3 points in the second half. Eagles quarterback Connor Bazelak completed just 9 of 19 passes, throwing two interceptions.

It wasn’t always pretty, but James Franklin finds value in winning ugly.

“Obviously that’s not what you want to hear. That’s not what what anybody wants to hear,” he said. “There’s going to be games where you blow people out. There’s going to be games where you’re on the road scratching and clawing for every point you can get. There’s going to be games where, you know, you’re on the road, you’re dealing with weather. There’s there’s a ton of different ways. And we’re going to have to find multiple ways to win games. That was one of them Saturday.”

Upsets and near upsets where a theme of college football in week 2. Penn State was on alert, Northern Illinois pulled off the biggest one at Notre Dame, Saint Francis (FCS) knocked off Kent State, Illinois took off Kansas, and a half-dozen teams were taken to the wire but underdog visitors.

“I do think there’s some values of, you know, having the grit to battle through you guys all, you know, winning is hard,” said Franklin. “There’s some people that would have loved to have an ugly win all over the country. And, you know, we’ll take as many of them as we can get.”

Penn State is on its bye and returns September 21 to host Kent State.

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