Penn State gives Buckeyes great battle, but is that really enough?

COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Sean Clifford didn't want to hear anything about any moral victory. That's a negative phrase in sports, to most people, including players on high-profile teams.

"We lost the game!" the feisty quarterback shot back with a noticeable degree of frustration when I asked him about moral victories.

Yes, No. 20 Penn State lost at No. 5 Ohio State, 33-24, Saturday night. And yes, the Nittany Lions have dropped three in a row since reaching No. 4 in the rankings.

All of that is -- and should be -- a tough pill to swallow for Penn State fans, who a month ago had dreams of a College Football Playoff. When you're the kind of program with those kinds of expectations and goals, it's not a good practice to ever feel very good after any kind of loss.

But there are certain realities.

That's where we'll start my 10 Takeaways.

1. Be honest: Don't you feel better about this Penn State team than you did a week ago?

Call it a moral victory or find another, more-appealing phrase if you'd like. But after getting humiliated against Illinois in nine overtimes, and with everyone expecting a blowout at Ohio State, there's a lot of good to take out of this loss. The Lions were 18.5-point underdogs, and there was really never any chance that Ohio State would cover that number.

This was a close game throughout, and pretty much no one expected it to be. Penn State went toe to toe with one of the best teams in the country -- it's rival, its nemesis -- on the road and had a very good chance to win the game late in the fourth quarter.

A lot of people will point to Clifford's fumble that was returned 68 yards for a touchdown as the biggest play of the game. That gave Ohio State a 17-7 lead late in the first half.

Game over, right?

Not even close.

Penn State answered that big gut punch -- and several other smaller ones -- to keep fighting. The Lions got a field goal from Jordan Stout to end the first half, then tied it at 17-17 on a TD by Jahan Dotson early in the third quarter. Ohio State went up 27-17, and Penn State answered with a score by Keyvone Lee to make it 27-24 with 10 seconds left in the third quarter.

How many of you sitting at home watching on TV were thinking to yourself after each of those Ohio State scores: OK, that's gonna be it, the Buckeyes are gonna pull away now.

That never happened, though, because Penn State kept answering to get back in the game and keep the pressure on the Buckeyes.

"Overall, I thought we played really well," James Franklin said.

If you were devastated after the loss to Illinois and wondering if the Lions could beat anybody else the rest of the season, this game surely gave you reason for optimism.

"I know last week, we did not play the way we're capable of playing," Franklin said. "But I thought we played hard all year long with a challenging schedule, especially early on. We didn't play good enough to win tonight. But we're close."

And what does he think about moral victories?

"I'm glad we played hard, and I thought it was gonna be a bunch of positive things off that tape to learn from and grow from," Franklin said. "But there's some critical mistakes that we got to eliminate if we want to win consistently."

2. The flip side: So what?

Yeah, Penn State lost a close game. But close only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades (I love that little kid saying).

A lot of you will be thinking: Don't give me that nonsense about a moral victory because this is Penn State, and these players don't come to Penn State to lose close games.

That's true. That's why the phrase moral victory is looked at negatively by these players. It's why Clifford shot back so angrily "We lost the game!" when it was even mentioned.

And no matter what the point spread in this game was, or if the Lions did indeed battle all night, it doesn't change the fact that this is now three losses in a row. That's unacceptable to a lot of Penn State fans, and honestly, it should be.

"At the end of the day, we didn't get it done," Franklin said.

Whether fans want to see this as a moral victory or merely as the latest failure of a once-promising season is left up to each individual to decide.

My conclusion is this: Both things can be true at the same.

3. One more thing to feel good about

This doesn't necessarily need to go in the moral victory discussion or not, but it is worth pointing out.

I covered the magical 2016 Kick Six victory over Ohio State at Beaver Stadium, and that was a sensational win. But I can tell you with 100 percent certainty that, from start to finish, Penn State played better in Saturday's game than it did during that 2016 victory.

Five years ago, Ohio State was clearly the better team for three quarters, before the Lions mounted a rally and then got the miracle play with the blocked field goal and score that won it.

Saturday night, Penn State was right there the entire game, and even looked like the better team for much of the first half. The Lions just didn't get the miracle play they needed to pull this one out.

4. Penn State's running game is putrid

It's incredible, quite honestly, that the Lions even had a prayer in this contest because their running game is absolute trash. And that's about as polite as I can be.

This is the most one-dimensional Penn State offense I've ever seen. It's beyond embarrassing. The Lions rushed for 33 yards on 29 carries, which is just pathetic.

We've known all season that Penn State can't run the ball. The degree of incompetency in the running game, though, is alarming.

No matter what goals the Penn State coaches, players or fans may have, I can promise you one thing: The Lions will never, ever reach those goals with this kind of running game.

As Jarrod Prugar and I discussed at length in our podcast, the Lions have good running backs, and it's not like the offensive linemen are terrible. This whole thing seems to be a byproduct of Mike Yurcich's offensive system, and he must figure it out as this season goes on.

I was a huge Yurcich supporter when he was hired, but I'll tell you one thing: If the running game continues to perform like this next season, we're going to need to start calling for him to be fired. 

What we're seeing is appallingly bad.

5. Clifford has to do everything, and is the team's only hope

Yes, the defense gives Penn State a chance to win, but I'm talking offense here.

The fact that the Lions still had a chance to win Saturday is amazing because Clifford had to do everything in the one-dimensional offense. He finished 35-of-52 for 361 yards with one TD and one interception.

Dotson was terrific with 11 catches for 127 yards, and Parker Washington made some big catches, finishing with nine grabs for 108 yards. The passing game helped the Lions convert 11-of-18 third downs.

Clifford's interception was bad -- he threw an ill-advised pass up for grabs off his back foot with nothing on it -- and it led to three points. His fumble also gave the Buckeyes seven points.

So yes, Clifford's mistakes led directly to 10 of Ohio State's 33 points. But in this kind of pressure contest, with no help or balance from the running game, Clifford is back to where he was early last season in feeling like he has to do absolutely everything for the offense to succeed.

He made a lot of big-time throws, and I was surprised as just how open the middle of the field was most of the night against the Ohio State defense. But there were plays to be made, and Clifford made a lot of them.

He threw 52 passes. Have we gotten to the point where Clifford has to throw 50 passes for Penn State to win against a good opponent? The answer, sadly, may be yes.

6. Lions' defense did all it could, but also wore down

Ohio State finished with 466 yards of offense, a big number that would indicate Penn State's defense had a bit of a tough night. That wasn't really the case.

The Lions came up with a bunch of clutch stops and holds and kept the team in the game by limiting the Buckeyes' highly explosive offense in a number of situations. One was a terrific goal-line stand in the third quarter.

Right after Penn State scored to tie it at 17, Ohio State hit a 58-yard pass play from C.J. Stroud to Jaxon Smith-Njigba. When that happened, everyone had to be thinking, OK, here we go, the Buckeyes are about to take over here.

But after Ohio State got to first-and-goal at the 6, Penn State's defense dug in and came up with a big stop. The Buckeyes had second-and-goal at the 1 and TreVeyon Henderson was stuffed twice for no gain.

Ohio State was going to go for it on fourth-and-goal at the 1, but the Buckeyes jumped for a false start. That forced them to kick a field goal for a 20-17 lead, but it was a win for the Penn State defense.

That sequence showed what the defense is capable of doing.

Also, on Henderson's first 15 carries, he had 22 yards. That's a hell of a job on one of the nation's top running backs. But on his 16th carry, Henderson busted loose for 68 yards and then scored on a 1-yard run to make it 27-17 with 3:35 left in the third.

As well as the defense played in most situations, there were too many big plays where it cracked.

Then there was, Joey Porter Jr., who had a really tough night with three big penalties. In a game like this, that many mistakes by one player only get magnified.

7. Buckeyes not as impressive as expected

Ohio State had been clobbering everybody of late, scoring at least 50 points in four straight games, but let's face it, the Buckeyes were playing weaker teams (Akron, Rutgers, Maryland, Indiana).

Penn State has a good defense, and it gave Ohio State some problems. But the Buckeyes also gave themselves problems with undisciplined play and numerous mistakes. They had 10 penalties for 74 yards.

One curious thing was that Stroud was having a good bit of success throwing the ball, but the Buckeyes' playcalling was suspect because they never really just unleashed him. Stroud finished 22-of-34 for 305 yards and one TD, but I get the feeling that he could have had 400 yards passing easily -- and the Buckeyes would have scored a lot more points -- had he been allowed to throw a lot more.

Ohio State has a balanced attack, and Henderson is an excellent running back. But I'm not sure why Ryan Day didn't try to build more separation by using the passing game and then milking things with the running game.

I've already mentioned that Ohio State's pass defense left the middle of the field open all night, and that could come back to haunt them at some point when they face another good passing team.

8. What does this loss do to James Franklin?

I've come over to the side of thinking that Franklin is leaving after this year. I had felt for a while that he would be coming back to Penn State, but this kind of loss further solidifies my belief that he will want to go to USC where he doesn't have to face such a challenging opponent every year like Ohio State.

Franklin is now 1-7 against the Buckeyes. And that lone win came on a miracle play.

Ohio State is a better football program. It just is. It is elite. Penn State is not. The Buckeyes have a stronger past, they are better in the present and there's no reason to believe that they won't be better in the future.

Franklin wants to win a national title. And I have to think that, deep down inside, he fully understands being in the same division with Ohio State will always hurt his chances.

There's just no such obstacle at USC. So as long as Penn State can finish somewhat strong and the Trojans still want him, I think he would take that job.

9. Fast start in first quarter helped give Lions confidence for rest of night

How many people had Penn State leading after one quarter? But the Lions were up, 7-3, after turning in a strong start on both sides of the ball.

Penn State drove 89 yards in 13 plays for a TD and 7-0 lead with 6:08 left in the first. The Lions used a lot of tempo and got some yardage on the ground, opening things up for Clifford in the passing game. Clifford then hit Brenton Strange on this 5-yard TD.

Remember how Illinois rushed for 357 yards in last week's stunning upset? Ohio State tried to commit to the run in the first quarter but managed only 5 yards rushing on seven carries. That was no fluke, either, as Penn State's run defense came out and played fantastic to start.

10. Point-counterpoint: I hated Franklin's decision to go for it on fourth-and-4 in second quarter

This had a chance to be a really big play, but ultimately, it wasn't. Still, it's good to go back and debate the fourth-down decision by Franklin midway through the second quarter.

Penn State had fourth-and-5 from Ohio State's 43, and Franklin decided to roll the dice with a 7-3 lead. Clifford wound up getting sacked, losing 8 yards, and the Buckeyes took over at the Lions' 49.

Now, Ohio State went three-and-out and punted, so the gamble by Franklin didn't exactly lead directly to anything big. Still ...

I hated the call. I'm usually aggressive when it comes to going for in on fourth down. I like taking risks. But in this case, the better decision would have been to punt, pin Ohio State deep and keep the upper hand in the field-position battle. At that stage in the game, it was too high of a risk taking the chance on giving an outstanding offense the ball at midfield.

We decided to do a mini point-counterpoint on this one, because Jarrod Prugar, sitting next to me in the press box, liked the call to go for it. Here's what Jarrod said:

"I liked the call to go for it because you're not going to beat Ohio State punting. It was fourth and manageable, and the Buckeyes had been vulnerable in the middle of the field. The issue was the lack of execution up front, which gave Clifford no time to throw the ball. Go for the win, because it's make or break with this game."