Why wasn't Penn State 'ready to play' in historic nine-overtime loss?

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. -- As the nonsense dragged on and on and on, it was tough not to be dumbfounded by the sheer ineptitude of it all.

We watched something epic and amazing with nine overtimes between Penn State and Illinois on Saturday, and that sounds pretty cool to see the longest game in college football history.

It wasn't.

It was painful to watch. And it certainly was a painful and embarrassing loss for the No. 7 Nittany Lions, who were favored by 24 points. They were outlasted in all the craziness by one of the worst teams in the Big Ten and suffered a humiliating a 20-18 defeat Saturday at Beaver Stadium.

Let's get to my takeaways from the game.

1. This loss and performance are unacceptable, and everyone involved with the Penn State program should be embarrassed

Illinois is lousy. But make no mistake about it, the team that deserved to win did in fact win this game.

The Illini outclassed the Lions on both sides of the ball. Think about that for a second. We're talking about a really bad opponent. A program that has been a train wreck for all but a few seasons this century. Penn State destroyed this team 56-21 last season.

But now this.

This horrendous loss. A loss that ends any hopes of achieving the major goals this season, and a loss that has to make us look at James Franklin and wonder, "What in the world?"

"Obviously, we did not have our guys ready to play," Franklin said.

More on Franklin later.

If Sean Clifford hadn't gotten hurt at Iowa, Penn State would have won and entered this game as the No. 2 team in the country. Now, were the Lions ever really all that good to truly be considered the second- or fourth-best team in the country?

No. We know that now. But it also wasn't all that difficult to see with the way the team struggled in many areas leading up to the Iowa game, most notably its terrible running game.

Still, Penn State entered Saturday with legitimate hopes for a College Football Playoff berth. Sure, it would have meant going to Ohio State and winning next week, but that was at least feasible.

But to lose to this Illinois team? In the manner that Penn State lost? It forces us to look at the Lions and wonder how we all were fooled into thinking they had even a remote shot at the playoff.

2. Penn State's offense was pathetic

The Lions had nine possessions in overtime. They scored eight points. How is that even possible?

Clifford clearly wasn't fully healthy, while dealing with whatever ails him, perhaps ribs or collarbone or whatever. He got knocked out of the game at Iowa and wasn't even expected to play, but he's a tough dude and was able to get himself back on the field.

But Clifford couldn't run the ball at all, finishing with minus-28 yards on five carries (including sacks). He was smart not to take off and risk even further injury, but without him being able to scramble, it limited Penn State's offense.

Franklin acknowledged that Clifford was limited but said, "We felt like Sean gave us the best opportunity." Franklin also talked about how several players weren't able to fully practice during the week because of injuries.

Clifford, though, didn't make any excuses and said he was fine. No, he wasn't fine, but give him credit for not even trying to make an excuse.

"I felt fine," Clifford said.

Was he limited?

"No," he replied.

Do not give credit, though, to offensive coordinator Mike Yurcich.

It's time to take off the kid gloves and call it like it is: Yurcich has failed to come close to expectations this season.

This guy was the hired gun brought in by Franklin to turn this into an explosive offense. Yurcich has a great history of success with his system. But wow, what we saw Saturday was nothing short of embarrassing. Some of his playcalls were stunningly bad, trying to run straight up the gut when that hasn't worked all season.

Again, nine overtimes, eight points. Sure, the overtime system is all goofy now, morphing into a 2-point conversion contest by the third OT. But time and time again, Penn State's offense couldn't get the job done on clutch plays, and that's after it managed only 10 points in regulation.

Oh, and Penn State's only touchdown of the day was actually fluky, as Jahan Dotson saved an interception by going up and stealing a 50-50 ball with an incredible catch. That 36-yard gain set up the next play, a strike over the middle to Keandre Lambert-Smtih that turned into a 42-yard TD in the first quarter.

The Lions scored three points over the final three quarters. Then had the comically bad performance in the overtimes. If I were to tell you that Penn State would play nine overtimes -- even with the 2-point rule starting with the third -- you'd expect a heck of a lot better showing than eight points, out of a possible total of 29 available given all the rules.

OK, OK, so Clifford was limited. I'll cut the offense some slack. But even Clifford at 75 percent should have produced far better results than what we saw in this game. He finished 19-of-34 for 165 yards and one TD.

Penn State simply cannot run the ball. We've talked about that all season. It's remarkable that a program that has produced phenomenal running backs throughout its history and entered the season with supposedly the deepest running back room in the country is flat out terrible with its ground game.

Blame it on the offensive line. Blame it on Yurcich's system. Blame it on defenses loading up to stop the run. Blame it on anything you want. The bottom line is Penn State's running game is awful. The Lions had only 62 yards on 21 carries, averaging 2.1 per attempt.

3. Penn State's run defense was equally pathetic

The Illini came into the game with one of the worst offenses in the country. I hate to pick on the young man, because he got injured in overtime and I do hope he's OK, but Artur Sitkowski might be the worst opposing quarterback I've seen in my 16 years covering Penn State.

Sitkwoski finished with 38 yards passing, completing 8-of-19 with one interception.

Illinois had no prayer of passing the ball effectively. No prayer.

So the only thing the Illini could do was run the ball. Penn State knew Illinois was going to run the ball. Penn State was loading up to stop the run.

And yet the Lions still got embarrassed and gashed on the ground. Illinois ran for 357 yards on 67 carries (5.3 per attempt). Chase Brown torched them for 223 yards on 33 carries (6.8 per attempt), while Josh McCray had 142 yards on 24 carries (5.9)

Illinois came into the game having had success on the ground, which defensive coordinator Brent Pry certainly knew. And Pry knew that Sitkowski is not a good passer, so the game plan had to to do everything possible to stop the running game.

Penn State couldn't do it.

This was the worst passing team you'll ever see that wound up beating Penn State. That sort of thing just never happens, because the Lions always find a way to slow down one-dimensional running teams.

Yes, tackle PJ Mustipher missed the game. He's out for the season. But my goodness, we're not talking about Aaron Donald here. I don't know, maybe we were. Maybe Mustipher should have been getting Heisman Trophy consideration if his presence was that much of a difference between a defense that's usually pretty solid against the run looking completely inept.

4. Let's give Illinois a lot of credit

OK, let me take a break from bashing Penn State to acknowledge the effort by the Illini and coach Bret Bielema. That is a tremendous win for them and their first-year coach, who got himself into hot water this week for criticizing the talent on his own roster.

Illinois has a solid defense. Those guys play hard, tackled well and always seemed to be in the right spot Saturday. They made big-time stops when they absolutely had to in short-yardage situations during the 2-point conversion overtime sessions.

If Clifford would have been able to take off and run, it would have stretched Illinois' defense and maybe opened things up for Penn State's offense. But with Clifford not able or not willing to run, it made things easier for the Illini to defend.

And hey, Illinois does have a good running game. We can criticize the Lions' defense, but Chase Brown and Josh McCray are good backs. Their O-line did a nice job opening up running lanes, the playcalling was good and the two backs always kept pushing forward.

5. What does this do to Franklin?

It's one loss. Yes, it's a terrible loss. But it's still just one loss. We don't need to get carried away and overreacting too much.

But there are realities in play here.

Franklin is being mentioned for the USC and LSU jobs. He's a hot commodity. Folks all around the country are enamored with him and think he's an excellent coach who can lead their programs to great success.

Maybe he can.

But this is the kind of loss that makes a large portion of the Penn State fan base collectively think to themselves, Hey, if he wants to go, then fine.

No question Franklin has had a lot of success at Penn State. But there are certain things about his tenure that still don't quite add up. He's now 3-6 coming off a bye, for one. He's lost several games now to teams he has no business losing to, and those losses just make you shake your head.

Penn State now has to go to Ohio State next week. Does anybody think that game will be close, after what we saw against Illinois? Maybe if Clifford heals up in a hurry and the offense miraculously figures out how to run the ball.

But short of that, next week's game could be a blowout. And Penn State will have three losses, still with tough games against Michigan and Michigan State remaining.

A 7-5 season is not out of the realm of possibility. Hell, if Clifford gets banged up even more, it's at least conceivable that the Lions might not win again this season. I don't see things getting that bad, but hell, they just lost to Illinois, so nothing is out of the question.

Penn State went 4-5 last year. Yes, there was COVID. But at the end of this season, we could be looking at a coach in Franklin coming off back-to-back seasons of 4-5 and 8-4 with, gulp, a humiliating loss to Illinois.

Would USC still want him? Would LSU? Those schools may have to shell out $8-9 million for a new coach, and I'm telling you, if I'm a fan of those teams and I see they want to hire a coach who just lost at home to Illinois as a 24-point favorite, I don't think I'd be all giddy about it.

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