Penn State Football: Fourth quarter collapses must be addressed

Losing late-game leads is now a disturbing trend for Penn State football that cannot be ignored. 

I’ve spent the last six seasons covering Penn State football, and I’ve been blessed with the opportunity to witness many great moments. From surprising wins while dealing with damaginging sanctions, to celebrating a Big Ten Championship, there have been a lot of positives surrounding the program in Happy Valley. Unfortunately, a a new trend has been growing and can no longer be ignored.

The Nittany Lions under head coach James Franklin simply can’t close out teams in big games.

Now, before this turns into a Franklin bashing — which is not the intention — let me say that the coach has done a fantastic job of building hype for the Penn State program and consistently brining in some of the best recruits in the nation. There’s no denying that Franklin is one of the top recruiters in the country.

Also, the Nittany Lions are coming off of back-to-back 11-win seasons, including a Big Ten Championship and a Fiesta Bowl victory. Those accomplishments are nothing to scoff at.

However, there is large enough of a sample size to see that there’s a clear issue at the end of big games.

Dating back to the 2017 Rose Bowl against USC, Penn State has five losses. The head-scratching stat about those five losses is the fact that they have been by a total of just 12 points, including two one-point disappointments against Ohio State.

Further analysis of those defeats shows that the Nittany Lions held fourth quarter leads in each of those games. And not just leads in the fourth quarter, but leads in the final few minutes.

During this year’s loss to Ohio State, Penn State was up by 12 points with eight minutes to go. In the most recent loss to Michigan State, the Nittany Lions never trailed in the game until there were just 19 seconds remaining.

In all of the games, the outcome would have been different had the Nittany Lions just been able to either make one stop on defense, or gain one first down on offense. With guys like Trace McSorley, Miles Sanders, KJ Hamler, and in the past, Saquon Barkley and DaeSean Hamilton, it’s mind boggling that the coaching staffcan’t script three plays to gain a measly 10 yards in order to secure a victory?

That’s concerning, particularly from a coaching standpoint.

Losing games by blowing leads late is now an unfortunate trademark of Franklin’s tenure. Once, even twice may be forgivable, but to now have five examples of the same thing is inexcusable. Clearly, something is going on.

There have been different players and coaches over the last three seasons, but the results have been the same. The one constant has been Franklin.

While the problem of Franklin’s teams losing late leads is clear, the cause is not. There’s still not really a way to tell if it’s a lack of preparedness, a lack of execution, or poor coaching decisions. My guess is that’s it is a mix of all those factors.

Whatever the cause, the problem can no longer be ignored. Penn State’s inability to close out games under Franklin has already cost it dearly.

The argument could be made that last year’s loss to Ohio State, and then Michigan State, kept a very good Nittany Lions’ team out of the College Football Playoff. This season, there was another clear path for Penn State to finish as one of the top four teams, but that dream will once again have to wait another year.

Penn State is  proud program, and is loaded with talent. However, Coach Franklin has to quickly figure out how to finish out a big game, or calls for his job will suddenly become very loud.