Agonizing losses mount

PSU will try to move forward, aim for New Year’s Six bowl

Penn State hasn’t been very good at losing games in the past couple of years.

It only has happened four times in 29 games since the Nittany Lions staggered to a 2-2 start in 2016.

Nonetheless, they have hit upon an effective formula for transforming apparent victories into agonizing defeats. To wit:

• Southern California scored 17 unanswered points in the final 8:15 of the 2017 Rose Bowl to claim a 5249 victory.

• Ohio State ran off 12 points in the final 4:20 of regulation on Oct. 28, 2017, for a 39-38 decision at Ohio Stadium.

• One week later, Michigan State recorded the only fourth-quarter points with two field goals, the latter of which came as time expired for a 27-24 triumph.

• The Buckeyes put up two touchdowns in the final 6:42 of the fourth quarter Saturday to earn a 27-26 victory at Beaver Stadium.

“This one hurts, obviously,” Penn State coach James Franklin said. “We didn’t finish the game when we should’ve finished the game.”

If nothing else, the Nittany Lions’ 25-4 run has reminded them that the difference between exhilarating and excruciating can be as narrow as it is stark.

That stretch includes overtime victories against Minnesota and Appalachian State, as well as one on the final play a year ago at Iowa. Conversely, Penn State has suffered — and that really is the operative word — the aforementioned four defeats by a total of eight points.

“It comes down to one point [against Ohio State] two years in a row,” offensive lineman Will Fries said. “And it’s the details that matter in the end.”

Well, only if things like receivers holding onto passes that ricochet off their hands and defenders executing sound tackles qualify as details. Those weren’t the Nittany Lions’ only failings Saturday, but they certainly figured prominently in the outcome.

“We didn’t make the tackles that we need to make, and they capitalized on that,” safety Garrett Taylor said. “We let the game slide through our fingers.”

Kind of like some of his offensive teammates did with Trace McSorley throws.

“There were some balls up there that I could get,” said Juwan Johnson, who made a spectacular onehanded grab in the first half.

Drops have been an issue for Johnson and others throughout the season, but superior overall talent prevented them from being costly in Penn State’s previous four games. Against a national championship contender such as Ohio State, however, the margin for error shrinks considerably, and Penn State strayed past the line of survivable mistakes.

The defeat caused the Nittany Lions to fall two spots, to No. 11, in the Associated Press rankings. Such a short-term impact was predictable; what really matters is how Penn State reacts to losing.

In 2017, their setback in Columbus was followed by one at Michigan State seven days later.

“We let a one-point loss [snowball], then the next week we had a three-point loss,” McSorley said. “That’s the kind of stuff you can’t let happen. We lived that once. We can’t do that again.”

They won’t, if only because Penn State doesn’t play next weekend. How effectively the players use the extra time before the Spartans visit Beaver Stadium Oct. 13 to rest, recover and refocus could go a long way toward determining how the rest of their season plays out.

“We have to move on,” linebacker Koa Farmer said. “We can’t let this define our season.”

Although finishing first in the Big Ten Conference East Division is, at best, a long shot now — Penn State would have to win its final seven games, while the Buckeyes lose two — qualifying for a New Year’s Six bowl for the third season in a row remains viable.

“There’s a lot of ball to be played,” McSorley said. “A lot of season left.”