Down 4, backed up to you own 1 yard line, why not take the safety and change the field postion? Either way you are going to need a TD to take the lead? Why would you punt knowing Ohio State would get the ball on the your side of the field and you were having trouble getting 3 and outs? Your defense just came alive, forced two turnovers and Ohio State was running the ball instead of passing long.
I am totally convinced Penn State should have rolled the dice and taken a safety. By punting you gave Ohio State a short field to score from. They got the ball on Penn State's 40 yard line and had breathing room. You pin them back on their own 20 or 30 it would have given the Penn State defense a little more flexibility to take some chances and if they force a punt, the offense is only down 6 no matter where they started on their side of the field.
On the road, your deffense just came up big twice, you have a back up QB with confience and playing well, I would taken THAT safety in a heartbeat and let it up to the defense to force a punt!
GO STATE!!!
That’s what I thought as well. Better to give up the safety than td. Seen this scenario play out many times.
You said it, the defense just came up big twice and why give them points...
I agree nitnation plus we have a punter that can get big 50 yard punts off or more I’ve seen him drive it 60 yards before. You also see teams fumble the ball on punts in critical situation. The difference in the game from what I seen is Ohio st made more plays late in the game in crunch time than we did and we lost because of it.
Tale of two halves.. PSU needed to find some points in the first half and did not. Plays we're there, drop pass here and there... Missed read by QB on open WR and flat out bad OL play.
Taking the safety would have been a smart move. Give Gilliken a free kick and he's capable of really booming one. Also, with our team speed on coverage, chances are OSU would have been pinned deep.
Giving points away would have been monumentally stupid.
Franklin made the right call...
Taking the safety would have been a smart move. Give Gilliken a free kick and he's capable of really booming one. Also, with our team speed on coverage, chances are OSU would have been pinned deep.
I agree on the safety part ... but the free kick part has me thinking, I know most teams use the punter on these - is there a rule that says you can't use your normal kickoff player, cuz our guy, his name eludes me right now, kicks it out of the end zone consistently on regular kickoffs, could they use him for that free kick??
@bobs-dimpled-chin
I'm not sure, but I always thought you could. I assumed the term free kick meant you could kick it any way you wanted, either punt or place kick.
Most college teams do kickoffs but most NFL teams punt probably because in the NFL they have speed to get down field because of the hang time from the punter when kickoffs they ball don’t go as high and the fielding team can run the ball back further. It’s your choice on what you want to do. Then again I might be wrong lol
Thanks Southern. If I'm wrong, at least I'm not the only one, LOL
How did his call turn out? The same as it did against Minnisota when he read the chart and analytical board that told him to go for two instead a FG? How did that decision work out?
Franklin is a good guy, I am not suggesting he needs to be replaced. He needs to start paying attention to the game and make some coaching changes....like starting with OC and OL. These guys are not up to the job that is in front of them! The loss yesterday was probably going to happen no matter what. The loss against Minnisota was uncalled for.
The loss to Minnesota was to a team currently ranked #9, but you're acting like Minnesota is some also ran 6 loss team. I'm sure Clemson is very happy they didn't overreact and fire their coordinators because they lost to a terrible Pitt team in 2016.
Bad losses happen, and it's our first conference loss outside Michigan State, Michigan, and Ohio State since 2015. Ohio State got boat raced by Iowa and Purdue in successive years, their offense didn't show up in either game... Guess what? Their offensive coordinator from those teams is now their head coach, they didn't overreact to bad losses and are 11-0 under him.
I am not saying they cannot get better, but calling for the OCs firing just because we failed to score 40 against Minnesota or Ohio State is a bit much... especially with an offense that has freshmen and sophomores
Roam, the Oline has gotten pushed around this year and the Offense has regressed. Play calling is one thing, but progession of the players is very important not to mention preparation week after week for the next game. I am tired of hearing that we are rebuilding, next year is our year, JF took over a crippled program....etc. I give them 2014 and 2015 as rebuilding years. But in 2016 and 2017 Moorhead had the Offense cranking. After the loss to Michigan in 2016, Moorhead had them in every game after that and postioned them to win every game. Their next three losses had nothing to do with the offense, it had all to do with the Defense not being able to stop USC ( scored 49 points and lost), Ohio State ( scored 38 points and lost) and Michigan State ( scored 24 points and lost). I would jump all over Pry and say maybe he too is a little out of his league, but Pry has progressed as a DC and this past Saturday he called a great Defensive game....gave up 14 points to an explosive Ohio State Offense in the first half while Penn State had several chances to put points on the board and failed!
My goodness, I am about as clueless as it comes to coaching football, but last year I said if they don't pass the ball on that 4th down against Ohio State they will not pick up a first down running....they ran! I also said if they punt this ball away against Kentucky, they will not get it back....they punted and never got it back. If some Bozzo like me can figure that out, what does this say about the OC? And BTW, 110,ooo fans at the Buckeye game and 50,000 fans at the Kentucky game ALL said the same thing.
The defense has improved and keeps improving. The Offense has not. They need a change here or we will be looking at another 2 loss minimum season again next year.
Roam, the Oline has gotten pushed around this year and the Offense has regressed. Play calling is one thing, but progession of the players is very important not to mention preparation week after week for the next game. I am tired of hearing that we are rebuilding, next year is our year, JF took over a crippled program....etc. I give them 2014 and 2015 as rebuilding years. But in 2016 and 2017 Moorhead had the Offense cranking. After the loss to Michigan in 2016, Moorhead had them in every game after that and postioned them to win every game. Their next three losses had nothing to do with the offense, it had all to do with the Defense not being able to stop USC ( scored 49 points and lost), Ohio State ( scored 38 points and lost) and Michigan State ( scored 24 points and lost). I would jump all over Pry and say maybe he too is a little out of his league, but Pry has progressed as a DC and this past Saturday he called a great Defensive game....gave up 14 points to an explosive Ohio State Offense in the first half while Penn State had several chances to put points on the board and failed!
My goodness, I am about as clueless as it comes to coaching football, but last year I said if they don't pass the ball on that 4th down against Ohio State they will not pick up a first down running....they ran! I also said if they punt this ball away against Kentucky, they will not get it back....they punted and never got it back. If some Bozzo like me can figure that out, what does this say about the OC? And BTW, 110,ooo fans at the Buckeye game and 50,000 fans at the Kentucky game ALL said the same thing.
The defense has improved and keeps improving. The Offense has not. They need a change here or we will be looking at another 2 loss minimum season again next year.
"2016 and 2017 Moorhead had the Offense cranking"
Yet in 2017 our offense failed us in big spots, but you only seem to knock Rahne for it. Both at OSU and PSU Moorhead and the offense disappeared in the 2nd half.
2016 and 2019 offensive stats are actually very close. Most likely we will finish the year having the same total yards average and same points per game as that year. Without a man named Barkely. I am not saying he's an awesome coordinator, but just that he isn't as bad as people make him out to be.
LOL... You make assumptions that if Franklin would have called it the other way a positive outcome was 100% guaranteed... Franklin pays attention, to be frank about it way more than a fan does.
Coaching staff is fine... And the loss at Minnesota had 1000x more to do with throwing interceptions and blowing your coverage on defense than it does with the OC...
Roam, the Oline has gotten pushed around this year and the Offense has regressed. Play calling is one thing, but progession of the players is very important not to mention preparation week after week for the next game. I am tired of hearing that we are rebuilding, next year is our year, JF took over a crippled program....etc. I give them 2014 and 2015 as rebuilding years. But in 2016 and 2017 Moorhead had the Offense cranking. After the loss to Michigan in 2016, Moorhead had them in every game after that and postioned them to win every game. Their next three losses had nothing to do with the offense, it had all to do with the Defense not being able to stop USC ( scored 49 points and lost), Ohio State ( scored 38 points and lost) and Michigan State ( scored 24 points and lost). I would jump all over Pry and say maybe he too is a little out of his league, but Pry has progressed as a DC and this past Saturday he called a great Defensive game....gave up 14 points to an explosive Ohio State Offense in the first half while Penn State had several chances to put points on the board and failed!
My goodness, I am about as clueless as it comes to coaching football, but last year I said if they don't pass the ball on that 4th down against Ohio State they will not pick up a first down running....they ran! I also said if they punt this ball away against Kentucky, they will not get it back....they punted and never got it back. If some Bozzo like me can figure that out, what does this say about the OC? And BTW, 110,ooo fans at the Buckeye game and 50,000 fans at the Kentucky game ALL said the same thing.
The defense has improved and keeps improving. The Offense has not. They need a change here or we will be looking at another 2 loss minimum season again next year.
"2016 and 2017 Moorhead had the Offense cranking"
Yet in 2017 our offense failed us in big spots, but you only seem to knock Rahne for it. Both at OSU and PSU Moorhead and the offense disappeared in the 2nd half.
2016 and 2019 offensive stats are actually very close. Most likely we will finish the year having the same total yards average and same points per game as that year. Without a man named Barkely. I am not saying he's an awesome coordinator, but just that he isn't as bad as people make him out to be.
You make some good points Roam. No, Rahne is not an awesome coordinator. I don't think he's a bad one either. I just think he needs to learn from his mistakes and improve, just like any coach should. At this stage, I believe his greatest asset is we don't have to worry about losing him to a head coaching job like we did with JoMo.
You make some good points Roam. No, Rahne is not an awesome coordinator. I don't think he's a bad one either. I just think he needs to learn from his mistakes and improve, just like any coach should. At this stage, I believe his greatest asset is we don't have to worry about losing him to a head coaching job like we did with JoMo.
I agree with this, he can definitely get better. I think he did improve from 2018 to 2019, and this year was working with a much younger and inexperienced group to boot. Hopefully we will see more improvement from 2019 to 2020, because if we do this offense is going to be incredible.
It's all there for the Lions in 2020. Even if Friermuth leaves (I really hope he doesn't) the TE position is stacked with talent. I expect this unit to show major improvement next year.
I have absolutely no complaint with Rahne or Pry, as long as they continue to improve. Like you said, the tools should be there for a great year in 2020. I hope the coaches and players come through. I'm afraid I don't have many "next years" left, LOL!
You are entitled to your opinion and I repsect it. In fact, I hope you are right and next year you can tell me to go pound sand. As for right now, I think we need a new OC and OLC....I don't care for them.
