Penn State’s secondary not discouraged by rough quarter

STATE COLLEGE » As Appalachian State lined up to try and match his team’s touchdown in overtime Saturday, Penn State coach James Franklin bounded up and down the sideline, gesturing wildly for more than 105,000 fans to make noise.

Franklin knew it would take everything for the No. 10 Nittany Lions to hold off the Mountaineers. From his perspective, that’s not necessarily a bad thing this early on.

“You look at any really good season, there’s always a win like that where you had to overcome adversity, you had a gritty win, you had to fight it out, you had to stick together,” Franklin said. “We’re going to look back at the end of the year and this is going to be a critical win for us.”

Franklin speaks from experience.

The Nittany Lions’ current run of 21 wins in 24 games began with a comeback victory in overtime against Minnesota in October 2016. Like in that game, however, there are plenty of areas Penn State coaches and players will need to examine to prevent worse outcomes with a tough schedule looming.

Coughing up a 31-17 lead in a fourth quarter that saw Penn State allow 175 passing yards to a first-time starting quarterback is the glaring issue from Saturday.

“We’ve got to be better in coverage,” Franklin said.

Appalachian State quarterback Zac Thomas took advantage of a blown assignment to spark his team’s comeback. He hit an uncovered Malik Williams in stride for a 17-yard score as defensive backs John Reid and Nick Scott blitzed themselves out of coverage.

Missed tackles on horizontal passing plays also helped the Mountaineers rack up 292 total passing yards, the fourth most Penn State’s surrendered since the start of last season.

But the Nittany Lions are playing with a secondary made of all new pieces this fall.

Safeties Garrett Taylor and Scott and corners Amani Oruwariye and Reid started for the first time as a group. Oruwariye and Scott played last year alongside a veteran group of players who had started nearly every game since 2016. Reid was an every-down player in 2016 but missed all of last year with a knee injury.

After familiar loss, Michigan insists things are different

SOUTH BEND, IND. » No. 14 Michigan looked a lot like the team that went 8-5 last season, struggling to make plays on offense while the defense tries to keep the Wolverines in the game.

In the end, against a rival, they came up short. It all seemed so familiar.

Defensive end Chase Winovich insists Saturday night’s loss to No. 12 Notre Dame did not feel the same to him — and this season won’t be the same for Michigan.

“I think the trajectory is we’re coming together in the locker room ... I did note is there wasn’t a lot of blaming. It wasn’t like pointing fingers,” Winovich said. “The defense still feels like maybe going into the game we had some different expectations. But at the end of the day you give up 24 points or whatever we gave up, 24, right? Just puts a lot of pressure on your offense.”

Credit the star defensive end for accountability, and Michigan’s defense did make key mistakes that aided Notre Dame’s offense, but the other side of the ball remains the biggest concern after a 24-17 loss that included one offensive touchdown for the Wolverines.

The Wolverines averaged 4.4 yards per play. Top running back Karan Higdon carried 21 times at 3.4 yards per carry. Michigan’s longest run was 10 yards. The Wolverines allowed three sacks, all game changers. One knocked them out of field goal range. Another turned a second-and-goal from the 2 into third-andgoal from the 10. The last caused Shea Patterson’s fumble with less than a minute left that sealed the game for Notre Dame.

The offensive line was a problem last year and it did not distinguish itself against the Irish, but those sacks were not all on them.

Leading up to the opener, Patterson said Michigan’s offense is capable of attacking in multiple ways.

“I’m very comfortable. Very comfortable with this offense,” he said. “Diverse and going under center and shotgun and different formations, get the ball in open space. Run the ball and pass the ball downfield. I’m really comfortable with it.”