Penn State holds on to beat Army, 20-14

STATE COLLEGE, Pa. - As fans headed to their cars to warm up and dry out Saturday after Penn State's 20-14 victory over Army at Beaver Stadium, winning head coach James Franklin responded sparingly to questions about the inefficiency of his team's offense.

Granted, the fact that a cold rain fell for the better part of three quarters factored into a scaling back of the game plan. But the Nittany Lions gained only 264 total yards against a defense that had been giving up 418 per game. Penn State gained just 3.2 yards per rush without injured running backs Saquon Barkley and Akeel Lynch.

Finally, the last question at his postgame news conference, which concerned the narrower-than-expected win, prompted Franklin to fervently defend his offense to reporters.

"I'm going to come in here every single week and be positive, even if it kills you guys and you want me to be negative," he said. "I love our players, I love our school, I love our colors, I love Penn State, love Happy Valley, love the community.

"Do we need to get better? Yes. You guys can ask me every question in the book and try to get me to be negative, I'm not going to do it. I love our guys, I love our staff, I love the opportunity that we have here. Gotta get better. I know it, you know it, the fans know it.

"I'm worried about making sure our guys go to school, get an education, make great choices in the community and find a way to win games. That's what we're going to do. We won today. We're 1-0, and we're going to do everything in our power to be 1-0 next week. I'm going to come in here and I'm going to be positive. I'm not going to go down that [negative] road with anybody."

The offense barely did enough. It scored 10 points off three Army turnovers. The eventual winning touchdown came on a drive of 91 yards, all on three completions by Christian Hackenberg - a 9-yarder to Kyle Carter, 49 yards to Chris Godwin, and 33 yards to Mike Gesicki, who scored on the final play of the third quarter to make it 20-7.

Hackenberg finished 10 of 19 for 156 yards. Army's pass defense had ranked 96th entering the game with a 262-yard average.

"I thought we were a little inconsistent at times," Hackenberg said. "We hurt ourselves with penalties that put us in some situations that weren't favorable. But I think for the most part, we cleaned some things up. We'll be all right. I think we executed pretty well when we needed to, made plays when we needed to."

Black Knights quarterback A.J. Schurr, who played in place of injured starter Ahmad Bradshaw, lost two fumbles in the opening half. The first led to an 11-yard touchdown run by Nick Scott on the Lions' second possession, the next set up Joey Julius' 37-yard field goal with 25 seconds left in the half.

But Schurr redeemed himself in the second half with a pair of touchdowns, including a tackle-breaking, 56-yard run for a score less than four minutes into the fourth quarter that made it a six-point game.

With the offense going nowhere, Penn State's defense had to save the day, and it did. With the Black Knights facing fourth and 5 from the Lions 43, middle linebacker Jason Cabinda sacked Schurr for a 10-yard loss with 1 minute, 21 seconds to play.

"The DBs did a really good job of covering their guys downfield because you could tell when he pump-faked, he didn't have anything," Cabinda said. "I was able to accelerate and then wrap him up to kind of seal the deal there. So that was awesome."

The Nittany Lions reenter Big Ten play for the remainder of the season on a four-game winning streak. They're not playing well enough offensively for anyone to think they'll be a factor in the Big Ten East, but Franklin won't hear anything negative.

"Love our players, love our coaches, love our media, love everybody, love 'em," the coach said.

jjuliano@phillynews.com

@joejulesinq