Yes.

It wasn’t so much that Penn State lost to Ohio State on Saturday afternoon at Beaver Stadium.

It was the road James Franklin’s Nittany Lions lost.

The Buckeyes were favored, as usual against Penn State (7-1).

But a PSU team that had shown so much promise and resilience in its first seven games went out relatively quietly after taking an early 10-0 lead in front of the largest crowd ever in State College.

No touchdowns from Andy Kotelnicki’s offense.

No resistance from Penn State’s defense against Ohio State’s final attempt to run out the clock. The Buckeyes ran the ball 11 times in a row on a drive that started from their own 1. Game over.

PennLive’s Penn State text subscribers had plenty on their minds after the game.

So it’s mailbag time.

Some comments have been edited for clarity. Before we get to them, remember that if you want to be part of our weekly Subtext mailbag and ask a question, in addition to getting other Penn State updates straight to your phone, our PennLive Sports Insider page has more details.

Fair or unfair, one win in eleven tries against Ohio State overshadows everything else James Franklin has done for Penn State (and he’s been a very solid coach). It’s safe to say that his teams will almost never reach a team that has a talent advantage, even one as small as today’s. What is the hope at this point? Does Penn State want to win, make the playoffs and have this happen again? It’s not a fun fan experience to see James Franklin constantly hitting his head against the ceiling as a coach.

The numbers are the numbers, I agree. James Franklin is 1-10 vs. Ohio State and its 2016 win at Beaver Stadium was made possible by great special teams play and a great defense that I didn’t see coming. He could easily be 0-11 against the Buckeyes. Penn State should win the final games of the regular season to get into the playoffs. But other than Tyler Warren, the Lions’ skill players in the passing game aren’t good enough to play against a quality defense. Ohio State’s running backs were significantly better than Kaytron Allen and Nicholas Singelton. Home or away in the playoffs, Penn State will struggle to make a deep run.

I hate to say it, but wasn’t it exactly this kind of performance that got the last OC canned? Who actually names the plays? There seemed to be creativity, lots of movement, shifts, deception, but no points. The defense was hot out of the gate and then fizzled, barely holding its own and unable to get off the field when needed. Stupid punishments, and then just gassed and outwitted. This was a beatable OSU team, this felt like a huge disappointment for the coaching, on both sides of the ball.

No touchdowns after Andy Kotelnicki’s attack on home field? I was stunned by that performance too. The last drive that died at OSU 1 with a PSU failure of seven? Just not very creative. Tyler Warren had to be involved in one of those plays, either as a receiver or as a wildcat quarterback. This loss wasn’t that different from the Ohio State loss in 2023, 20-12 in that one and 20-13 in this one. What I disagree with: I’m not so sure how beatable Ohio State was on Saturday. If Will Howard hadn’t made two big mistakes early, this game could have gotten ugly. The Buckeyes have more talent in key areas. If Howard limits his mistakes otherwise, Ohio State will be hard to deny. The Buckeyes lost by 1 in Oregon and that outcome could have easily been overturned.

1/60

They underutilized Beau Pribula in the match. They never gave him a chance to beat Ohio State. In a way I was hoping Drew Allar couldn’t go because I thought we had a better chance of beating them with Pribula.

Yes, I wrote afterward that Pribula, a dual-threat quarterback who was effective at Wisconsin last week, didn’t get enough work against Ohio State. Allar looked healthy enough to play and has been very good at times this season. He is PSU’s starter, but Beau should have gotten more opportunities against an athletic Ohio State defense.

Losing stinks, but a seven-point loss on a day when nothing goes your way isn’t the end of the world. Bouncing back next week is the most important agenda item for this coaching staff.

An optimist! Refreshing. You’re right. Penn State could be very flat in the White Out game against Washington on Saturday night. And yes, if James Franklin’s Lions finish the regular season 11-1 with wins at West Virginia, USC and Wisconsin, and a home win over Illinois, that’s a record worthy of the top 10. But talent-wise, this isn’t a top 5 team. Georgia, Texas, Ohio State, Oregon, maybe Indiana (Indiana!) and some SEC teams are better.

(This text subscriber below gave me his full name, and here are his comments, word for word)

Hey Bob. Todd Snyder here. My heart hurts a little after this one. I’ll give you three things that disappointed me the most. 1. Not a single shot downfield to Omari Evans or anyone else; 2. OSU spent all day filling the run up the middle, and the best plays Mr. Creativity (Andy Kotelnicki) could think of from the first place when the 3 was not 1, not 2, but 3 runs in the middle ? 3. The broken OSU O-line was, by most accounts, their biggest vulnerability, and yet our D-line couldn’t beat them consistently, and they imposed their will in the fourth quarter and cooled the game.

Todd, I give you a grade of “A” for these comments. On site. Your problems were also my problems with Penn State in the Lions’ 20-13 loss to Ohio State at Beaver Stadium. The Lions had no answer after halftime.